Butter Speculaas Biscuits/Cookies

Speculaas are a Dutch spiced biscuit, or cookie, that are usually made just before Christmas.  They are a crunchy biscuit that formed in moulds and turned out onto a baking sheet to be baked.  I have made them before, but I didn’t have the moulds.  So I recently acquired some of the moulds, from Holland, and decided that I would have a trial run at making the cookies, but without the spices since it is not Christmas just yet.  So I used a recipe from Weekend Bakery, but I omitted the spices on this occasion to have a lovely buttery biscuit.

They are very crunchy, though you can make them slightly more brittle by using a little baking soda in the dough, if you prefer.

The molds I used were very good indeed, though it is a little fiddly and takes a bit of practice to master turning them out.  That involves dusting the moulds with some rice flour each time.  However these biscuits are so good that I recommend making them whether you have molds or not.  Simply roll the dough out to a thickness of 1/8th inch and use a cookie cutter or your choice.  

My biscuits turned out very well indeed, and baked perfectly.  They had a wonderful crunch to them and the buttery flavour came through very well indeed.  

In the lead up to Christmas I shall be making them again, but then I will use the spices too.

Ingredients:

• 225g(1 3/4 cups) cake and pastry flour, or plain flour
• 115g(1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 130g(1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) soft light brown sugar
• 30ml(2 tbps) milk or buttermilk
• 7g(2 tsp) baking powder
• 3g(1 tsp) baking soda(optional if you want a more brittle biscuit)
• a pinch of salt

Method:

1. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
2. Add the milk and mix to combine.
3. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda if using.
4. Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix until it starts to clump together.
5. Use your hands to pull the mixture into a dough and then form into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
6. Prepare a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.
7. Preheat the oven to 165C/150C fan/330F.
8. If using molds dust the molds with rice flour, for each cookie you press, and press dough into the mould until it is full.
9. Use a sharp knife to cut the excess dough from the top, holding the knife flat against the mould if possible.
10. Tip the moulded dough onto a baking tray and repeat the process, dusting with rice flour each time, until all the dough is used.
11. If using cookie cutters roll the dough out to a thickness of 1/8th inch , on a lightly floured surface and cut out the shapes you want and transfer to a baking tray.
12. Bake in the oven for 16-18 minutes until the biscuits are cooked and slightly coloured.
13. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly on the trays, for a couple of minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.