Dutch Spice Cookies will make you think you’ve just boarded a ship belonging to the Dutch East India Company back in the 1700’s. These cookies, also known as speculaas, are crisp and rich and sweet with the spiciest of spices: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and coriander, just to name a few.
Is spicetastic a word? I don't think so but I have a degree in English and I've been writing professionally for 25 years so if I want to make up a word, I will.
If you like Grandma’s Gingersnaps, you’ll probably love these windmill cookies too.
You’ll want to plan ahead when making speculaas cookies--this particular recipes uses eight spices--the traditional spice cookie spices of cinnamon, cloves and ginger, which you probably have in your spice drawer but also five more spices you may not regularly use.
I'll probably make these again because the husband and the teenage boy really liked them.
However, I'll either reduce the amount of cardamom or leave it out all together. I'm not a huge fan of cardamom and I thought it really overpowered all the other spices.
Recipe Tips
Make sure you have fresh spices for this recipe. Smell each one. If any smell dusty, toss it and replace. Don’t buy spices at the grocery store.
Get them at the natural foods store or at your local food co-op. Spices will be cheaper, fresher and you can buy just what you need or just an ounce at a time instead of a three or four ounce jar that will take you a year to get through, if you ever use it all up.
Have you ever made your own Pumpkin Spice?
Cookie Baking Advice
You may find these baking posts helpful, from Room Temperature Butter for Baking to Salted or Unsalted Butter for Cookies? to Do I Need A Cookie Scoop?, Cookie Size Chart to What Should a Beginner Bake? to Where Can I Buy Sprinkles?, Why is my sugar cookie dough too sticky? and Cookie Holidays.
The dough will need to chill at least two hours, preferably overnight so the spices have time to marry.
No eggs are used in this recipe.
Equipment You’ll Need:
Equipment Tips
- A mold like this one OR a cookie cutter if you don’t have a mold or don’t want to invest in one.
- If you’re using a cookie cutter, you’ll need a rolling pin to roll out the dough. I have this one and really like it.
- Measuring spoons for measuring all.the.spices.
- A nutmeg grater if you’re going to grate a fresh nutmeg as the original recipe calls for.
- However, I give you permission to use already ground nutmeg as long as you buy it fresh.
- Before you go to a grocery store and spend too much on spices that are are who knows hold old, see my tips about saving money on spices and getting them really fresh.
You can prepare these cookies for baking five ways:
If you use a mold to bake these cookies, you’ll grab a wad of dough about the size of your mold and push the dough into the mold then scrape off the excess using a knife. This method gave me the best results. However, pushing the dough into the mold took a lot longer than my favorite method.
Alternatively, roll dough to a ¼ inch then use the mold to “engrave” the mold on the dough by pushing the mold onto the dough like using a cookie cutter.
Lift the engraved dough using a thin metal spatula onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Or, you can roll out the dough and use an engraved rolling pin to create a design.
Engraved rolling pins have intricate designs that are rolled into the dough.
If you don’t have mold or an engraved rolling pin, great, just use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Roll the dough to a quarter-inch between two sheets of parchment paper and cut with a cookie cutter.
If a mold or a rolling pin or a cookie cut seems like Too Much. No worries. Roll the dough into one-inch balls, roll in sanding sugar or demerara sugar or brown sugar for that matter, and bake like that.
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Recipe
Dutch Spice Cookies
Dutch Spice Cookies will make you think you’ve just boarded a ship belonging to the Dutch East India Company back in the 1700’s. These cookies, also known as speculaas, are crisp and rich and sweet with the spiciest of spices: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and coriander, just to name a few
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 & ½ teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground mace
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1 & ½ sticks (¾ cup) butter (preferably unsalted) room temperature
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar (light okay)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup whole milk
Instructions
In a medium bowl, measure dry ingredients, flour through white pepper.
If you’re using a nutmeg grater to grate a nutmeg, do it over a piece of wax paper so that it’s easier for you to measure what you’ve ground.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy, at least three minutes, possibly five minutes depending on the strength of your mixer.
Add ½ the dry ingredients to butter/sugar mixture.
Mix on low.
Add milk to the bowl and the remaining flour mixture.
Mix until just combined.
Scoop up dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and cover tightly or put in a gallon resealable bag.
Chill for at least two hours.
If you’re going to use the mold, you’ll want to grab maybe a teaspoon of dough and rub it all over the part of the mold you’ll be pressing down into the dough. This “seasons” the mold, which helps the dough from sticking to the mold. Then sprinkle a bit of flour over the mold.
You can prepare these cookies for baking four ways:
If you use a mold to bake these cookies, you’ll grab a wad of dough about the size of your mold and push the dough into the mold then scrape off the excess using a knife.
This method gave me the best results.
However, pushing the dough into the mold took a lot longer than my favorite method.
Roll dough to a ¼ inch then use the mold to “engrave” the mold on the dough.
Lift the engraved dough using a thin metal spatula onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Or you can use an engraved rolling pin to stamp a design on the dough.
If you don’t have mold, great, you’ve just saved yourself a lot of time.
Roll the dough to a quarter-inch between two sheets of parchment paper and cut with a cookie cutter.
No matter which method you use, freeze the cookies for 30 minutes before baking to help them keep their shape.
Bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes depending on your oven.
Cookies will keep at room temperature for up to three days.
Notes
Remember to chill the dough for at least two hours after mixing it.
You'll chill or freeze the dough for at least 30 minutes after cutting out.
You can use a mold or an engraved rolling pin or a cookie cutter to fashion these cookies.
Speculaas is Dutch for mirror. The Dutch spice cookie reflects the image of the mold used to stamp the cookie dough.
Do you know where to buy cookie cutters?
Let me know how you like these cookies if you make them.
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