Nigella's Speculaas biscuits
These festively spiced and beautiful biscuits are the perfect Christmas cookie. Traditionally, they’re made by pressing the dough onto carved wooden moulds, which give the biscuits the look of edible Christmas cameos, but you don’t have to ‘print’ them (as it’s called) but can cheerily roll out the dough and turn them into biscuits with a cookie cutter.
Some time ago, I got my hands on some cookie cutters in the shape of those narrow 17th century houses that line the canals of Amsterdam, and this was too good an opportunity to miss. I also have a special tulip cutter in my collection, so I use this, too. But any Christmassy shape will look charming, and hearts always look lovely.
Ingredients
For the speculaas spice
- 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground coriander
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
For the speculaas biscuits
- 300²µ/10½´Ç³ú plain flour, plus more for rolling
- 1 tbsp speculaas spice (see above)
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- 100²µ/3½´Ç³ú butter, softened
- 100²µ/3½´Ç³ú soft light brown sugar
- 100²µ/3½´Ç³ú black treacle (plus a little oil for greasing a jug for weighing the treacle in)
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
For the icing (optional)
- 225g/8oz instant royal icing powder
Method
For the speculaas spice, mix all the spices together and store in an air-tight jar.
For the speculaas biscuits, combine the flour with the speculaas spice, bicarbanate of soda and salt in a bowl and fork to mix, so it’s all ready when you need it.
Put the soft butter and light brown sugar into the bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with the flat paddle, and beat until completely combined, light and fluffy, before gradually adding and beating in the black treacle; if you lightly oil the jug (or bowl) you’re weighing out the treacle in, it will prevent it sticking, by the way. If you plan to spoon it in, then grease the spoon, too. While the black treacle doesn’t feature in traditional Dutch Speculaas, it’s an anglo-addition that I’m happy to make.
Once the treacle has been fully incorporated, add a tablespoonful of spiced flour, then the egg and mix again until smooth, then, still beating, gradually add the rest of spiced flour, spoonful by spoonful, until a dough starts to form. You may need to tip it out onto the work surface and squeeze it together with your hands to make the dough come together completely. It’s a strange-textured dough: it feels soft and sticky, and yet it won’t actually stick to your hands as you mould it.
Shape the dough into two fat patties then cover both tightly with food wrap and leave to rest overnight in the fridge so that the spice can develop.
The next day, when you are ready to cook the Speculaas, take one of the dough discs out of the fridge, and let it sit out for 20–40 minutes (depending on how cold your fridge is and how warm your kitchen is) and when the dough feels pliable enough to roll out, heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4, and get out a completely flat baking sheet and line it with baking parchment.
Lightly flour a surface for rolling out your dough, and then duly roll it out fairly thin, about 3mm/1¼in, though you don’t need to measure it exactly. Dip the cookie cutter of your choice into some flour, give it a bit of a wiggle over the jar or packet to get rid of excess, and then cut out the shapes you want. If you want to hang these biscuits from the tree, use the thin end of a small piping nozzle to make a hole, so that you can thread string or ribbon through it later.
With a flat spatula, gently transfer your biscuits to the lined baking sheet, about 2–2.5cm/¾–1in apart; they don’t really spread as they bake so you don’t have to worry about arranging them miles apart from one another. Squodge any offcuts of the dough together to roll out and bake once all your cut-out ones are done, and cover and pop in the fridge for now, and take out your second disc of dough.
Transfer the baking sheet to the oven to bake for 10–12 minutes. They’ll still feel rather soft on top when they’re cooked, but you’ll see that they’ve puffed up a little, and the edges will have darkened slightly. You will get the odd fine crack, but don’t worry about it. When the biscuits are completely cooled, any softness will have disappeared, and you’ll have biscuits with a crisp bite. As soon as the baking sheet has cooled, you can repeat with your second patty, adding the off-cuts of this to the others.
Transfer the cookies with a flat spatula to a wire rack to cool completely. Then repeat with the remaining dough.
Should you wish to ice the biscuits, whisk the instant royal icing powder with 2½–3 teaspoons of cold water, until you have a thick icing that will hold its shape, and yet still be fluid enough to be piped; I use a No 2 icing nozzle for this.
Recipe Tips
Any speculaas spice you have leftover won’t go to waste: I happily add a little whenever I want to give some extra festive oomph to my Christmas cooking, whether it be to cakes, cookies, red cabbage, stews or gravy – and much else besides.
Strictly speaking, these speculaas shouldn’t be iced, but if I don’t try and do some sort of basic window shapes on the biscuits made with my Amsterdam-house cutters, they do rather look like gingerbread tombstones. So I ice – if sketchily – the biscuits shaped like houses and leave the tulip ones bare and beautiful, not least because these speculaas just so happen to make cheese biscuits of utter, unparalleled gorgeousness.
Finally, it’s best to make the dough a day in advance, to let the warm flavour of the spices develop and deepen.
