Speculoos Cookies are based on crisp European holiday cookies traditionally made with warm baking spices like cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.
Speculoos cookies are a traditional holiday spice cookie in Belgium and the Netherlands. This dough is a little more interesting than plain sugar cookies, and yet not as overwhelmingly spiced and peppery as gingerbread can sometimes be. It smells like the holidays and makes a nice all purpose cookie dough.
Everybody’s got their favorite cookie cutters, and chances are they only see the light of day at this time of year. If I’m going to bother rolling and cutting cookies, then I want it to be fun, and I’m partial to pretty snowflakes.
Traditionally speculoos are made with brown sugar but I use white. It gives the cookies a sort of “white gingerbread” vibe.
The fragrant dough rolls out easily and reforms and re-rolls easily as well, so there’s little waste.
The cookies can be decorated in lots of ways. You can leave them plain for a rustic look, add sprinkles, or frost them with royal icing.
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Speculoos Spice Cookies
Equipment
- baking sheets
- parchment paper
Ingredients
cookies
- 1 1/3 sticks unsalted butter, softened at room temperature (about 11 tablespoons)
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp mace
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup almond flour
- 2 1/4 cups all-purposed flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
royal icing
- 2 egg whites, or you can use dried egg whites mixed with water according to the package
- 3 1/2-4 cups confectioner's sugar
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar, stabilizes the icing
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Cream the butter, sugar, and spices together until fluffy. Scrape down the bowl to get everything incorporated. Beat in the egg and almond flour and take a minute to get everything well combined.
- With your mixer on low blend in the flour and baking soda and blend until the dough comes together and there is no dry flour left. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to incorporate the butter and flour well.
- Turn the dough out onto a board and bring together into one piece, if it’s crumbly, knead it a bit. Cut the dough in 2 and form flat discs, as if for pie dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Roll out the dough to your desired thickness and cut your cookies. If you spray the inside of your cutters with cooking spray, they will release the dough easier. Place the cut out cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes, depending on thickness (the surface will still be pale.) Let cool on the baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.
- When the cookies are completely cooled you can frost with royal icing and add decorative sugars, etc., if desired.
royal icing
- Lightly whisk the egg whites just until frothy. Add the lemon juice (or vinegar) and vanilla.
- Start adding the powdered sugar gradually, beating until smooth and glossy. Beat until you reach your desired consistency:Flooding icing: beat until thick but not stiff. Ribbons of frosting dripped from the beater should melt back in.Piping/detail icing: keep it thick ~ stiff peaks that hold shape.
- Transfer to a baggie with the edge clipped, or a piping bag. Or, you can just spoon the icing down over the cookies for total coverage like I did. Add in food coloring if you like.
Hi, Sue! These cookies sound amazing, except I’m not really a fan of ginger. Can I substitute something else or should I just leave it out? Thanks!
You can absolutely leave it out, and customize the spice blend however you like.
Sue
Is the frosting supposed to be hard? Mine is not as smooth looking as yours and doesn’t seem to want to harden.
Yes, it should harden as it dries, Arlene. It’s possible yours needed more sugar? That should help it harden faster.
My daughter and I chose these cookies for her 4-H cookie exchanged WE love them. We did add a slight lemon flavor to the frosting but very mild. So much fun!! I wish I could post a pic!!
I would love to see a photo, you can always tag me on instagram, or facebook Angela! I’m a lemon-a-holic so I know I’d love your lemon version.
Hi Sue,
I was wondering where you got the little v-shaped cutter that you used to cut out the inside of the snowflake cookie pictured on the speculoos cookie recipe. I would love to purchase one for my snowflake cutter, which is the same shape as yours.
I am going to add your speculoos cookie to my Christmas cookie gifts this year…can’t wait to try them!
Thanks for this awesome blog, It’s become my go to site when I need something special for dessert or dinner.
Cheers,
Nancy ??
That came with the cookie cutter set, Nancy, and I think they sell it at Williams Sonoma…I’ll track it down and come back and link it for you.
Ok, I did on facebook under my henna page!!!
You can buy these little cutters at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. They are used for clay. Just make sure you only use them for food.
I just made these. They did not seem to have enough moisture. Were very crumbly. Any tips?
Hi Sarah ~ there are a few things I can think of…make sure the butter you use is truly soft, so it can blend with the flour. And make sure you measure the flour carefully. I fluff the flour, then scoop it and level it. This dough might need some extra mixing to incorporate the butter and egg into the flour. And finally, you can feel free to add a drop or two of water to a very dry dough. It’s always hard to be exact because different butters can have different moisture levels, and everybody measures a little differently. Even measuring cups can vary quite a bit!
Does anyone know about how many cookies this recipe makes? I know it can depend on the cutter, but some sort of guesstimate.
Anise oil has a slight licorice taste.
About 2 dozen, give or take.
Couple of questions about the recipe! Never says when to add the 1 egg. I added after creaming butter and sugar. Also when I first read it, I thought it was 1 stick and 1/3 cup of butter. Which is what I put in – they came out great and I don’t think I’ll play with that, but when going to make another batch now I read it as 1 and 1/3 sticks of butter. Could you just clarify the measurement of butter in cups/tablespoons? Thanks!
Thanks Irene, I just updated the recipe. As for the butter it would be approximately 11 tablespoons. It’s interesting that your cookies came out so well with the extra butter, I’ll have to try that next time!
I was wondering about the use of raw egg. I guess its not a problem or you wouldn’t be posting the beautiful looking cookies. Just was wondering.
You can use powdered egg whites, Arlene!