Easy Belgian Speculoos (Speculaas) Recipe

I’m a big fan of speculoos. So, when a friend “challenged” me to make this speculoos recipe, I set out in search of the perfect recipe. I started with an overview of what is commercially available. To study its composition and keep only the best essential ones and make the real thing.
Then I searched around to find the history of the cookie, the origin of its name, etc.
Finally, I went through culinary blogs, a lot of them, until I found a recipe that would stick to my “quality” criteria and whose photo would be tantalizing. These are very similar to my homemade hobnobs cookies, which I made recently.

As for the history of speculoos, here’s what I found:

History of Belgian speculoos aka Biscoff  Cookies

The origin of the name of this biscuit is controversial. According to some, “Speculos” would come from the Latin “species” which means spices, or “speculum” which means mirror. The Speculos would be an image, the “reflection in a mirror” of a character.

Others put forward the word “speculator”, which means Bishop. It would then be Saint Nicholas, who is celebrated on December 6 by eating cakes in the form of different items(donkey, saint, flowers, etc..). Finally, a Dutch cake made in the 17th century with exotic spices from India and Africa, called “speculaas”, could also be the origin of the Speculos. The name “Speculas” is still used in England, Holland and a little Belgium. The ending ” as “gradually turned over time into “os”, in order to bring to the name a more francophone sound and therefore easier to pronounce by the Wallons and the inhabitants of the north of France. Today, the French write the name of this biscuit: “Speculos “, the Belgians: “Speculaus” or ” Speculoos “.”

One thing is for sure: speculoos (for me) consists of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, spices (mostly cinnamon), and a hint of baking powder. Be careful, in most recipes, brown sugar is found. Beware: what the Northerners call brown sugar is actually vergeoise (sugar cane does not grow easily in Belgium, while beet…). I used brown vergeoise sugar.

Belgian speculoos recipe

:
(for a good amount of cookies)

• 250 g flour
• 175 g butter at room temperature
• 175 g of Brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• spices, to taste

In the bowl of the robot equipped with the “kneading” hook (or in a large salad bowl), mix all the ingredients. Mix thoroughly until homogeneous. Form a ball with the resulting dough. Wrap the ball in food film and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Take out the dough. Spread it, on a sheet of baking paper, on a thickness of 4 or 5 mm. cut out shapes (the easiest way is to make rectangles with a knife, the dough is soft enough) and bake at 160°C (thermostat 5) for 15 minutes. Allow cooling completely before tasting.

The top, just as it should:the bottom, perfectly cooked :

Verdict: fabulous. Crunchy (almost brittle) on the outside, shortbread on the inside, friable but not dry. Marvelous. Fragrant, perfect. I want to do it again, right now, right now.

I leave the ending word to you, sitting on the couch and brawling 🙂

And again, I still would love some speculoos!.

If you like oreo cookies you may want to check out my homemade oreo recipe.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.