Anyone who doesn’t speak Dutch is probably scratching their heads right now. Speculaaskruiden, what’s that? Simply put, it’s a spice mix that gives speculaas cookies their distinctive taste.
Speculaaskruiden can also be used to flavor all kinds of other baking.
Speculaas, abroad also known as windmill cookies, are a type of spiced shortcrust biscuit. Traditionally they were eaten on or just before St Nicholas’ day. But in modern times they’re pretty much associated with the entire month of December or basically just the entire cold season. They’re just that tasty!
Speculaas spice mix isn’t the same as British mixed spice and American pumpkin pie spice but they are similar, as they share many of the same ingredients. What mainly sets the speculaas spice mix apart is the addition of cardamom.
Their are loads of different recipes for this spice mix. This particular one is from the dutch baking book “Bakbijbel” by Rutger van den Broek.
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- 8 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp grated nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground coriander seeds
- 1 tsp ground aniseed
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 3/4 tsp ground cardamom
Ingredients
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- Put all the ingredients together and stir well. Store your spice blend in an airtight container for up to six months.
- There may be some spices you can only find whole. To turn them into a powder, dry roast them in a hot pan until they start to release their aroma. Then transfer them to a mortar and pestle and grind the spices to a fine powder.
Che says
28 March 2018 at 06:54Hi, will roasting the spices make them lose their aroma faster?
miriam says
28 March 2018 at 15:54No, that shouldn’t make any difference. Powdered spices will unfortunately loose their aroma over time anyway. If the spices have been roasted or not will not change that.