Speculaas Cookies (aka Speculoos)
Speculaas cookies are crisp, buttery Dutch spice cookies, traditionally pressed in a carved wooden mold and baked for St. Nicholas Day. You may know them as Dutch windmill cookies. This recipe has a light, crunchy texture and warm brown sugar and spice flavor, and works with a traditional mold or any cookie cutter. It takes about 1 hour 15 minutes of hands-on time plus 1 hour to chill the dough.
Table of contents
About Authentic Speculaas Cookies
The Dutch call them Speculaas, the Belgians call them Speculoos and the Germans call them Spekulatius. Since my husband is Dutch, in our house they only go by the original, Speculaas. Whatever you call them, they are delicious.
What makes these cookies so addictive is the crisp texture and the mix of warm spice and brown sugar in the dough.
Speculaas have been made in the Netherlands since the 17th century. Large Sinterklaas (Santa) shaped speculaas cookies are traditionally baked and given as gifts for St. Nicholas Day on December 5th.
I have a collection of traditional wooden speculaas molds that I absolutely treasure. The windmill design is probably the one most familiar to Americans.
You don’t have to use the traditional molds to make Speculaas, but they are fun to collect and use. You can find them on-line if you want to give it a try.
You can also use a windmill shaped cookie cutter or even a simple round or rectangle cookie cutter will do.
Ingredients
I struggled for years to make a speculaas cookie at home that was as light and crunchy as those we enjoyed on our trips to Holland. After a lot of research and many rounds of testing I settled on a specific mix of ingredients that produce a cookie with genuine Speculaas texture and flavor.
- Flour – Most Dutch speculaas recipes call for “zeeuwse bloem” which would be the equivalent of pastry flour here in the US. To mimic pastry flour I use a mix of AP flour and cake flour in this recipe.
- Almond Flour – Because almond flour does not have gluten, it has a tenderizing effect on the dough. Also, the gritty texture of the almond flour helps create the perfect light and crunchy speculaas texture.
- Spices – The specific mix of spices I use is a knock-out. It was inspired by another Dutch treat, Spekkoek. You can use the spices as listed in the recipe or use 4 teaspoons of pre-mixed speculaas spice.
How to Make Speculaas Cookies
Here’s what the recipe process looks like at each stage. Refer to the recipe card below for measurements and exact instructions.
Make the Dough
- Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.
- Cream the butter with the brown sugar until light and aerated. Scrape the bowl and beater.
- Add the almond flour and milk.
- Scrape the bowl and beater then add the dry ingredients. Mix just until the flour is incorporated.
- The mixture will look crumbly. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.
- Knead the dough together and form it into a disc. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
How to Shape Speculaas with a Traditional Mold
- Lightly dust the speculaas mold with rice flour and use your hand to press the dough to fill the cavities.
- Trim away excess dough so the cookie is flush with the mold.
- Use the tip of a paring knife to loosen the edges of the dough from the mold.
- Flip the cookies out onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
How to Keep Speculaas Dough from Sticking to the Mold
I use rice flour to dust the molds because the gritty texture effectively prevents the dough from sticking. You can use wheat flour instead. Make sure your dough is not too soft as you work it. A soft dough is more likely to stick in the crevices. Whichever type of flour you use, dust the mold generously then flip the mold and lightly tap to release the excess flour. If you end up with a lot of flour on the cookies, use a dry pastry brush to remove the flour before baking.
- Space the cookies 1/2″ apart.
- Bake until lightly browned around the edges and set in the middle. Baking time is about 8 minutes.
How to Make Speculaas Without A Traditional Mold
- Knead the dough briefly to soften. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough between 1/4-1/8″ thick. Thinner cookies will bake up more crisp and thicker cookies will be slightly chewy at the center. Use a cutter to cut as many cookies as you can. Knead and reroll scraps then continue cutting until all the dough is used.
- Line the cookies on parchment lined sheet pans, leaving 1/2″ between cookies.
- Bake until golden brown around the edges and set in the middle. Baking time about 5 minutes.
Work Ahead Tips
The dough can be prepared and held in the refrigerator up to 3 days or frozen for a month.
The formed/cut cookies can be frozen for a month. Line them on a parchment lined sheet pan until solid then pack into a freezer container with parchment or wax paper between the layers. No need to defrost. The cookies can be baked straight from the freezer. You may need to add 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
More Dutch Treats
If you love spiced Speculaas Cookies, you should try Speculaas Cake, a soft treat scented with speculaas spice and filled with almond paste.
Try authentic Dutch Stroopwafels, Dutch Boterkoek, Dutch Apple Tart, Ontbijtkoek (Dutch Breakfast Cake) or make sweet or savory Dutch Pancakes.
For an American version of this cookie, try these Gingerbread Cookies. They’re crisp and spicy with a molasses note.
If you love this recipe as much as I do, I’d really appreciate a star rating and a quick comment. Ratings and comments help my recipes show in search results. Thanks!
Speculaas Cookies (aka Speculoos)
Ingredients
- 5 oz all purpose flour (1 cup, see note)
- 2 ¼ oz cake flour (½ cup)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground anise
- 4 oz unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 6 oz brown sugar (¾ cup packed)
- 2 oz almond flour (⅓ cup)
- 1 ½ oz whole milk (3 tablespoons)
- rice flour (dusting molds)
Instructions
- In small bowl, whisk together 5 oz all purpose flour, 2 ¼ oz cake flour, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon table salt, 2 teaspoons cinnamon,½ teaspoon ginger, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon cardamom, ¼ teaspoon cloves, ¼ teaspoon white pepper, and ¼ teaspoon ground anise. Set the dry ingredients aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, cream together 4 oz unsalted butter and 6 oz brown sugar for 2-3 minutes on medium high speed. The mixture should be lightened in color and aerated. Scrape the bowl and the beater. Add 2 oz almond flour and 1 ½ oz whole milk, mix until incorporated.
- Scrape the bowl and the beater then add the sifted flour mixture. Mix until the flour is mostly incorporated. It will still look crumbly at this point.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead to form a cohesive ball. Flatten the ball to a disc. Wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. See note.
- Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 375 °F.
- If you're using a cookie cutter, roll the dough to ¼"-½" thick and cut the shapes. Thinner cookies will be crisp and thicker cookies will be slightly soft in the center. Reroll the scraps and continue cutting.
- To make cookies using a wooden speculaas mold, dust the mold with rice flour. Use your hand to press a ball of dough to fill the cavity. Trim off excess dough and flip the cookie onto the parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies for 5 minutes. Turn the trays and bake another 3 minutes until brown around the edges and the dough is set in the middle. If you rolled the cookies to ¼" they will bake faster, about 4-5 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool to room temperature, then store in an airtight container.
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Oh my these are perfect – so addictive. I love speculaas – my childhood favourite. So much better than the store bought ones that I loved to dip in my tea.
Perfect!
I tried this recipe last year as per the directions but the cookies were too soft. This year I made a few modifications to get a crispier cookie. Also made some substitutions to make them plant based. They came out great!!
– I subbed about 70% of the brown sugar with white (white sugar makes a crispier cookie due to lower moisture content). Next time I would try about 50% to get more of that molasses flavour.
– Didn’t have cake flour, so I used more all-purpose. (Higher protein content in AP flour = crispier cookie. Also I’m in Canada so AP flour is a bit different than in the US… I think this worked in my favour).
– Used 3.75 tsp pre-made speculaas spice mix from a Dutch store. Next time I would use way more, up to 5-6 tsp as I like a spicy cookie. (The spice mix has cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom, and orange peel. I added 1/4 tsp each of anise and allspice.)
– I used Becel/margarine instead of butter. It is salted so I reduced salt to 1/8 tsp.
– Cover the bowl with a plate and refrigerate overnight. Then let the dough come to room temp the next day. The dough becomes a bit dry and brittle, but it ends up OK! Lower moisture = crispier cookie.
– I used wooden molds from Holland, sprayed with avocado oil and then generously dusted with rice flour. Grab a clump of dough, squeeze it in your hand to get it to stick together, then press it into the mold. Then get a serrated knife and carefully slice off the excess upper layer while pressing down on the rest of the dough to keep it in place.
– (FYI, I don’t think this method would work well for rolling out with a rolling pin. The dough becomes too brittle. You will need molds, or perhaps press the dough into cookie cutters by hand.)
– Tap out the mold onto a greased cookie sheet. It should come right out.
– Bake at 350F for 10 min, cool on tray 5 min, then finish coking on rack (however, bake time will depend on the thickness of the cookies. Mine were very thin due to the mold.)
I have been experimenting with speculaas for a few years to try to make them taste like I remember! This is the closest I’ve come so far. Hopefully this helps someone.
Speculaas cookies were my cookie challenge for this year and your recipe was fantastic. The different blend of flours yielded a crisp and tasty cookie. Thank you for posting this!
Hello Eileen, I found this recipe while looking for a boterkoek recipe (which I quickly pinned as it most closely replicated my Mother’s as I remember it). But then in the recommended section were the recipes for Appeltaart, gevulde speculaas and speculaasjes! Wow, did I ever luck out! I am particularly excited about trying the speculaasjes as I’ve never seen one in English that takes into consideration the equivalents for Dutch flour and basterd suiker. Or this particular combination of spices for speculaas spice mix. Those equivalents will be so interesting to try…especially with Sinterklaas just around the corner.
BTW if your husband has a longing for Dutch cookery, you might like to check out Toine’s Kitchen on YouTube…in English. Or the FoodTube segments starring Cees Holtkamp ( a lovely famous Dutch baker and his granddaughter). This is in Dutch, so your husband would need to translate for you. In addition to many other Dutch goodies, he also demonstrates how to make Appeltaart. I had to watch it 20+ times as I struggled laboriously to translate…but it was worth it in the end because the taart was fantastic…dare I say it…almost as good as one I had in NL!!! He includes a very thin layer of almond paste over the bottom before adding the apples. He partially cooks/ poaches the apples before adding them. Lekker! Thanks again!
Hi Jen. So glad you’re enjoying the recipes. My husband also lightly poaches the apples when making the appeltaart. Depending on the type of apple you use, if you use a very hard apple, that is a nice step.
You said you tried this with almond flour, with good results. Do you have a recipe for this? I am grain free, but I love these cookies and would love to make some I can eat.
I use some almond flour in the recipe, but I don’t think you could use only almond flour and no wheat flour. The cookies would be way too crumbly.
This is a 5 star recipe! Excellent cookies. This recipe seems to be very forgiving because using a variety of flours (1/2 c white whole wheat, 1/4 c each of spelt & barley flours) along with the cake flour and 2 Tbsp of heavy cream instead of milk did not affect the wonderful results.
I also stirred in finely chopped dried tart cherries & choped almond slices into one batch.
The dough was formed into a log using waxed paper & sliced thin after refrigerating overnight.