SPEKULATIUS BISCUITS (gingery cookie)
Spekulatius biscuits have always been my favourite Christmas cookies since I was a child. I always liked the beautiful patterns and decorations they had and the fact that they were so crisp and thin. Plus they always smelled nice and buttery and like Christmas because of all the christmassy spices. This year, like every year around christmas you can buy Spekulatius biscuits on every corner and in every shop, but unfortunately they are rarely vegan. That's why we came up with this recipe. It's super simple, quick and the finished biscuits taste incredibly delicious.
The most important thing about Spekulatius biscuits is of course the spices that are used to give the cookie that destinct christmassy taste and the beautiful brown colour. For the spice mix you need 5 spices:
cinnamon
cloves
allspice
nutmeg
cardamom
You can also use ginger or anise for a more distinct flavour. Mix the spice powders in a bowl to make your Spekulatius spice mix. If you don't want to buy all the spices separatel you can also buy ready-made gingerbread spice in the supermarket, which is just as suitable for this recipe. However, it is definitely worth it making the spice at home as you have full control and can experiment to create your own signature Spekulatius spice mix. Just give it a try.
The next step is to make the actual biscuit pastry. For this you need 5 simple ingredients:
flour
sugar
COLD vegan butter/margarine
plant milk
Mix the flour in a bowl with the spice mix and the sugar. Then tip it onto your work surface and press a well into the centre of the flour. Now put your very cold butter into this well. If you wanr your biscuits to be soft and buttery your butter has to be cold otherwise they will trn out tough and firm to the bite. Here's a little tip: cut the butter into small cubes and then put it in the freezer for another 5 minutes, so it's extra cold and easy to work with once you make your pastry.
Now rub the butter into the flour. It is important that you do NOT knead the pastry, but only rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips. When your pastry has a crumbly consistency, add a dash of vegetable milk and quickly form it into a cohesive ball without kneading too much. Carefully place your pastry in a plastic bag or wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This resting time is important so that the butter can cool down again. Personally, I feel that the biscuits turn out best if you let the pastry rest in the fridge overnight, but you don't have to do this if you don't have the time to do so, 30 minutes do the trick as well.
After at least 30 minutes, take the dough out of the fridge and place it on a lightly floured work surface. With this pastry, it can be helpful to place a cling film or a plastic bag on top before rolling it out with a rolling pin, so that the pastry doesn't stick to the rolling pin. This tip makes rolling out the dough much easier, believe me.
We love our biscuits extra thin, so we roll out our dough very thinly. But strictly speaking, there are no rules and you can leave your biscuits a little thicker keeping in mind that you may have to adjust the baking time accordingly. You can now cut out your Spekulatius biscuits with your Christmas biscuit cutters. To prevent the pastry from sticking to your cookie cutter, dip the cutter in a little flour, that way the pastry comes off the cutter more easily.
Place the biscuits on a lined baking tray and bake in a preheated oven until golden brown. Leave the biscuits to cool on the tray. Stored in a biscuit tin, the biscuits will keep for up to 3 weeks.
Try the recipe and let us know how you liked it in the comments!
SPEKULATIUS BISCUITS (gingery cookie)
Ingredients
- 30g cinnamon
- 8g cloves
- 1 tsp allspice
- 2 tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp aniseed
- 200g flour
- 100g butter (cold and cut into small cubes)
- 75g sugar
- 2 tbsp plant milk
- 1 pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp gingerbread spice
Instructions
- Mix all the spices together in a bowl.
- You can store the finished gingerbread spice in an hermetic jar with your spices.
- Mix the flour, sugar and gingerbread spice together.
- Place the mixture on a clean work surface and make a well in the centre of the flour. Put the butter into the well and rub the butter and flour together with your fingertips to make a crumbly dough.
- Now pour the plant milk over the dough and use both hands to form the mixture into a lump of dough (knead the dough only carefully and not too long).
- Wrap the dough ball in cling film or place in a plastic bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C top/bottom heat.
- Remove the dough from the fridge, carefully roll out thinly and cut out the biscuits with Christmas biscuit cutters.
- Place on a baking tray with baking paper and bake in the oven for 10-13 minutes.
- Leave the finished biscuits to cool completely on the baking tray and enjoy.
Hi, we’re Marie and Michael, two foodies living and studying in Vienna!
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