Baking: Dutch Speculaas Chunks

Being quite the typical girlie girl, I love cooking and baking! While on my job 'hiatus' I have loved cooking dinner for my parents every night and with the recent colder weather; I have really gotten into the baking spirit! On a dark, cold and rainy day nothing can beat  home baked goodies right? Yummmm.

In the anticipation of winter and St Nicolas here in The Netherlands the shops are filled with lots of lovely wintery 'Speculaas' goodies! Speculaas is a type of distinctively spiced flavoured shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked for consumption on St Nicholas' Eve in the Netherlands (December 5). However, in recent decades it has become available all year round. Speculaas are thin, very crunchy, slightly browned and, most significantly, have some image or figure stamped on the front side before baking. Overseas speculaas is often sold as Dutch Windmill cookies! Beside the famous Windmill cookies there are various types of Speculaas treats available ranging from cakes, muffins to biscuits in many shapes and sizes. Because I am a HUGE fan of anything Speculaas I wanted to try my hand at baking some myself! 

So today I present to you: Speculaas Chunks! Don't they look amazing? 

Ingredients:

200g self raising flour

100g butter

125g soft brown sugar

a pinch of salt

2 tbsp milk

5 tsp speculaas spice mix (see below)

handful of sliced or halved almonds (optional)

(click image to enlarge)

Next? Time to start baking!! 

1. Cut the butter into pieces, add the self raising flour & cut the butter into smaller pieces using 2 knives.

2. Add the sugar, salt, milk and spice mix.

3. Knead the mixture together with your hands until it forms a nice dough.

4. Make a ball of the dough & wrap this in plastic foil & leave to rest in the fridge for 1-2 hours (this will develop the delicious flavour)

5. Preheat the oven to 170°C (338°F). Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out the on baking paper to create a slab of around 1 cm thickness. 

6. Brush the slab with a little bit more milk (this will give it a nice coating once baked)

7. Optional - Lightly press sliced or halved almonds into the dough

Now place into the oven and bake at 170°C for about 30 minutes.

Leave the Speculaas to cool on a rack. Once cold, break into chunks and ENJOY!

These biscuits are seriously delicious with a cup of hot chocolate/coffee or tea. I introduced some of my friends in NZ to Speculaas & they absolutely loved it! But this posts comes with a small warning: these chunks can be very additive haha! Once I have one bite, I find it hard to restrain myself :p Nom Nom....

Let me know if you try making these, would love to know your thoughts :)

Hope you've all had a great Hump Day! xoxo