RECIPE: SPECULAAS (SPICED SHORTBREAD)

My eldest daughter made these shortbread (yes, she can cook and bake when she chooses to, which is not very often!!!) and they are really yummy and quite easy to make.

Mummy has been quite sick for the last few days (I am just very run down and have been prone to every bug that has been ‘travelling’ in the office and what the kids have brought home from school) and so, the kids have had to fend for themselves this past week or so. Anyway, didn’t Miss KG do a good job???

FYI: SPECULAAS is a type of shortcrust biscuit (cookie), traditionally baked for consumption on St Nicholas' Day Eve in Belgium (December 6) and the Netherlands (December 5). In the US and Australia, SPECULAAS are often sold as Dutch Windmill cookies.

Ingredients

2/3 cup flour
¼ tsp bi-carbonate of soda
2 tsp SPECULAAS spice (see SPECULAAS spice mix recipe below)
1/3 cup brown sugar
80 gm butter
3 tsp milk
Blanched almond slices

SPECULAAS Spice mix: Mix together the following ground/powdered spices

1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp cloves
¼ tsp aniseed


Method

Sift flour, bi-carbonate of soda and spices into a bowl. Mix in the brown sugar.

Rub in butter and gradually add in the milk and knead the dough lightly.

Either press into a lightly greased baking tray or roll out into biscuits. It should be about ¼ to ½ cm thick only.

Decorate with the almond slices and bake in moderate oven (180° C) for approximately 12 to 15 mins. If you have pressed the dough into a baking tin, immediately cut into squares and allow to cool. If you have rolled them out into biscuits, lift onto wire rack. Serve with coffee or tea.