What for us is the Christmas gingerbread, further north is the speculaas or speculoos. In terms of spices—mainly because of the starring cinnamon—they are similar, but this embossed cookie, most popular in the Netherlands and Belgium, is still a completely different kind of treat. It’s flakier and more crumbly, crunchier when bitten, and even its aroma is distinct from our gingerbreads.
The key element of the cookie, the speculaas spice mix, can vary, and in Dutch households the carefully balanced proportions of ingredients were often closely guarded. Not without reason, as this treat is truly excellent and has rightly become popular here as well. We even created the MIMOOSA version, in the form of a flour mix, along with a matching vegan recipe. No one would guess that this is a dairy-, egg-, and gluten-free sweet!
Ingredients
- 250 g MIMOOSA Spiced Biscuit Flour – yes, the spices are included!
- 110 g sugar
- 2 g baking powder
- 120 g plant-based fat at room temperature (e.g., coconut oil, margarine, etc.)
- 30 ml water
Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly in a bowl, then carefully crumble in the plant-based fat. Gradually add the water, spoon by spoon, until you get a dough of the right consistency—you may not need all of the water.
Knead the dough until smooth, then cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. If the dough is too hard after taking it out of the fridge, knead it again to warm it with your hands. If it’s too sticky, it needs more chilling.
Roll it out on a silicone mat, with a silicone rolling pin, or between two sheets of parchment paper, then cut into shapes as you like. To follow the original tradition, use an embossed mold or rolling pin made for this purpose.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (356°F) for 13–15 minutes until a nice golden brown. Let cool on the baking tray, as this is when it reaches its final texture—the cookies may seem soft when first out of the oven, but they’ll be perfect once cooled.
It’s not worth making just one batch, because by the time you finish in the kitchen, you’ll probably want to start all over again…