Speculaas Spiced Springerle

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Yesterday, Mom took a break from decking the halls and began to bake!  She's trying to decide what special goodies to make for neighbors and friends and tried out a new recipe this year - it's called Speculaas Spiced Springerle.  Basically, it's Speculoos (or Speculaas, whatever) only made using Springerle molds.

To avoid confusion:  Mom and Dad lived in Belgium for three years - in the French-speaking part.  There, they call the cookies Speculoos.  In the Flemish-speaking part, they are called Speculaas.  This recipe uses the Flemish spelling, but Mom uses the French spelling.  It's driving auto-correct (and me) a bit crazy.  I hope that clears things up!

Mom thought the new recipe was worth a try - and gave it a dry run before making any for anyone other than Dad and herself. The recipe is at the link above; here's how her process went!  Gather supplies and make the dough! In order to get the nice, crispy Speculoos Mom fell in love with when she and Dad lived in Belgium, she has to roll the dough really thin - to 1/8". Here's her secret to getting even, thin dough, for evenly baked cookies:

Springerle molds, rolling pin, and dowels!

See those dowels? They are 1/8" in diameter. She puts the dough between them and rolls until the rolling pin is totally on the dowels. Lots of rolling.  The dowels make it easier - and even!  That's Mom's secret weapon!

Anyway, before you get to the rolling part, you have to chill the dough. That's really important, so after Mom made the dough and stuck it in the fridge, we did this to help:

Me and Mags, walking in a winter wonderland

Fortunately, our ice has begun the big melt-down, and the sidewalks and Hudson Trail were clear enough for us to get a decent walk in. We just had to be careful of falling ice chunks!

Anyway, after the walk and lunch, the dough was ready!  Aren't we helpful?  Let's get rolling!

After Mom rolls the dough out, she cuts around each mold with a "pastry cutter":

Is it just me, or does that "pastry cutter" look an awful lot like her "pizza cutter"?  Anyway - it works!

Cut, cut, cut, then get ready to stamp!  The recipe says to "lightly" flour the mold:

Mom remembered quickly that you need to flour the mold before EACH cookie -- or else:

Mom may have uttered an HBO word or two

Oops.  Mom also remembered that it works best for her not to just "lightly" dust the mold, but to tamp flour into it mighty good with her pastry brush:

Mom recommends flouring the living daylights out of the mold

Even though this was the first time Mom made this recipe, she is no stranger to making Speculoos; it all came back to her - eventually!  (Mom's recipe is at this link!)

Anyway, she also recommends putting the square of dough on the parchment-lined baking sheet, THEN stamping it so it doesn't get stuck to your counter.

Ready for the deep freeze!

Don't worry about the flour; what doesn't bake in can be brushed off after you bake it!

Before baking, at a minimum you need to freeze the cookies for half an hour.  Minimum!  Or let them sit in a cool, dry place for 24 hours.  This helps the Speculoos hold their shape during the bake!  We don't have room in our freezer for the cookie sheets, but we do have a screened-in deck right off the kitchen and cold temps, so Mom covered them in a light towel and stuck them on the deck for a while.

FINALLY, it's bake time!  Here's how they came out:

Speculoos with Nativity scene!

Mom decided that yes, this is a very nice recipe and she will do this to give as gifts.  She'll use a round cutter after she stamps, to make them a bit prettier.  For the test batch, this was fine.  She and Dad LOVE them with a hot cup of coffee.

Now, other than us taking Mom for a walk while the dough got cold, you might be wondering what this has to do with me and Mags, right?  Other than the cool tradition and all.  Here's what I did that Mom said was a HUGE help:

"I'm just SITTING by it, I'm not DOING anything."
"Yep, Mom!  No problem.  I'm watching her!"

You could say there's more than one Maggie Monitor in the house!

Does your Mom bake special cookies at Christmas?  Do you help?  We'd love to hear about them!

Cammie!