December 10, 2010

Speculoos

This has been quite a year of traveling for me, visiting a few cities in Texas, Utah, Colorado, Washington, DC, Seattle, Canada, Alaska, and around Boston and New England. And while I've never been to Memphis, I've flown through the Memphis airport six times this year, courtesy of Delta Airlines.

Have you flown Delta Airlines and tried those Biscoff Cookies they serve as an in-flight snack? They're crispy ginger cookies and they're delicious. I just learned that you can purchase a Biscoff spread, "Europe's alternative to peanut butter," which is made using crushed Biscoff cookies. I read that the spread was good here and here, and of course you can't buy it in Lubbock, so I ordered four jars to start with, intending to give some away at Christmas. I shared some with the family last time they came over for dinner. They liked it so much, that this week I ordered four more jars because I needed more stocking stuffers. I'm hooked on it, too.

Biscoff cookies are from Belgium, where they're known as Speculaas, and they are typically imprinted with a design, as shown here by Martha Stewart. In France, they're called Speculoos, and I tried Dorie's Around My French Table Speculoos recipe tonight. After binging on Biscoff spread for a few days, I was looking forward to tasting Dorie's version of the cookie.

Making the dough was easy. I followed the recipe closely except for using a little more ginger than called for. The dough was rather hard to work with after I rolled it out. I tried different rolling it out to different thicknesses but found I liked the very thin cookies best. Of course, the thin dough was the hardest to cut and transfer to a baking sheet without cracks or prints finding their way into the dough. I tried to get extra fancy and use a speculaas mold rolling pin to imprint shapes on some of the dough, which didn't work so well.

Speculoos

The designs were barely visible after the cookies baked, but they were still pretty good-looking. I guess my rolling pin technique needs some work. As far as taste, I expected them to have a stronger ginger flavor. Next time I will double the ginger, and maybe add some pepper or cayenne, to go for a spicier rather than sweeter cookie.

Speculoos

And speaking of sweets, these cookies are delicious when sandwiched around a layer of another European spread, Nutella.

9 comments:

Katie said...

These were so yummy. Thanks for sharing with us.

Steph said...

They look great. I'm making mine today and will be using some nutella too!

Gloria - The Ginger Snap Girl said...

Yes! I love the biscoff cookies. I had also read about the biscoff spread, but haven't tried it yet. Sounds like a winner.

Your speculoos look great! Sorry you thought it was lacking in spiciness...it was a nice blend for my taste. Your stars are adorable and no doubt slathered in Nutella!

Susan said...

They look great! I filled mine with Nutella, too!

Frolicking Night Owl said...

beautiful job! any tips on making the dough easier to work with? some have said to freeze it and others have said not to.

Anonymous said...

Would it be overload to stuff the speculoos with the biscoff spread? I think not!

Jacqueline said...

I like both spreads but am a Nutella fanatic. I realized that when one day I just ate a spoonful out of the jar.

Anonymous said...

biscoff spread is at market street

Kimberly said...

@Anonymous - Oh yes! I think they started stocking it in early 2011. At Christmas, I had a $2 off coupon that I used to United's great disadvantage.