Speculaas

I have made them countless times. They are amazing! The texture is just right. I did not use blanched almonds just regular sliced almonds. I make my own spice blend. Yes for adding more spice. Also letting the dough rest over night is a must. I can’t say enough good things about these cookies. I would guess being Dutch and growing up with speculaas as a regular cookie gives me some authority. :)

YES! Very crumbly dough but it works. I agree with a previous comment about the spices. Next try I’ll double the amounts. These are a tasty not-too-sweet cookie. Great with afternoon tea.

Used 45g of almond flour in place of almonds and doubled all spices. Cut chilled dough using cookie cutters and then froze on tray for ~10 min prior to baking. Baked for 10 min (turning once in the middle), and came out crispy but a little chewy. Shapes puffed up a little and lost some definition, so would consider freezing longer. Flavors were good fresh out of the oven, but got even better over the next couple days!

Being Dutch and living in America, I crave these cookies around the holidays. The ones you can buy in the store here all have palmoil, which is too much of a stretch to me. These cookies are the real deal. The roasted almonds give it the crunch I remember so well from my youth. These are just the best. I make my own Speculaas spices. There are loads recipes online.

Bought my speculaas molds before realizing how challenging these cookies are, but loved them served with coffee while in Europe, so i was determined to try! Lots of recipes out there, but I've had good results with NYT recipes in past, so... Read other bakers who wanted more spice, and doubled ALL of them. If using a mold, do refrigerate these overnight before cutting, and then chill again before baking. Suggest in freezer for 30-45min. Use rice flour in the wooden mold-pops right out! yum

Delicious! This is a perfect-tasting speculaas recipe — IF you double the spices.

Double spices

These spread to twice their original size and did not keep their shape, even with chilling the dough overnight and freezing the cookies on their trays before baking. Disappointing.

Well, they were pretty and somewhat tasty, but my Dutch husband and I agree they were not the speculaas one gets in Holland. I would increase the spices, as has been suggested by others, by quite a lot.

The flavour and texture of these cookies are good. I used a traditional Dutch windmill cookie mold with the first tray, but they puffed up while baking and the details of the design were lost. So for the second tray, I just used a regular cookie cutter.

The dough was too crumbly for my desert climate, so I doubled the recipe and added an extra egg. It works much better. I also like to double the spices.

I’ve been making speculaas for years. Tried this recipe this year and I love it! The cardamom makes it!

Reliable recipe you can tweak to your own liking. I read that bakers use 2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons of speculaas spice per 250 grams of flour, so I upped the spices accordingly and it was spot on. I usually roll out the dough to the desired thickness, leave overnight and then stamp the cookies -- it's much neater than cutting. For crispier cookies increase baking time to 14 or 16 min.

1/2 cup of almonds weights about 80g so it follows that you could substitute 80g of almond meal.

My Dutch wife approves! I found if they are rolled thin, say 1/8", they come out crisp, which I believe is traditional. If rolled a little thicker, say 1/4", the inside stays a little chewy whilst the outside is still crispy. I really liked that effect.