Speculaas Cookies – Dutch Windmill Cookies

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Speculaas Cookies, also known as Speculoos or Dutch Windmill Cookies are a traditional Dutch cookie. A favorite of many, including myself. I’ve made speculaas cookies numerous times but never mastered the art of baking these cookies in a cookie mold. I set out the to put an old speculaas mold to good use and make my own Dutch windmill cookies.

Mastering The Speculaas Cookie – Dough And Mold

I have to say, it was harder than I thought. For some reason I just couldn’t get the dough to come out of the mold and when I did manage to get them out of the mold the cookies would spread too much and lose too much of their details for me to consider them proper speculaas cookies. I tried everything, used different types and mixes of sugar, used honey, but nothing worked. Or, in all honesty, using part honey did work but I really didn’t like the taste of it, it didn’t taste like a proper speculaas cookie.

After many, and I mean MANY attempts I finally figured out the secret to getting the cookies out of the mold easily. It’s rice flour! Sprinkle some rice flour on your mold before putting the dough in and they should come out relatively easily. I also came up with a recipe for the dough that worked for me to keep as much detail as possible to the cookies without losing the flavor of the cookie. I’m excited to share the recipe with you, I hope it works just as good for you as it does for me.

How To Make Speculaas Cookies

To make the speculaas cookies you’ll need speculaas spice mix. You can make it yourself by following the recipe for speculaas spice on the website. Alternatively, you can substitute with pumpkin pie spice, which is a similar blend of spices.

For the speculaas cookies you’ll need flour, butter, milk, dark brown sugar, salt, baking powder and speculaas spice. (The full list of ingredients including measurements can be found in the recipe card below.)

Put the flour and baking powder on your work surface or in a bowl and make a little well in the middle.

In the middle of the well, add the remaining ingredients, salt, dark brown sugar, speculaas spice mix, butter and milk.

Using your hands combine all ingredients.

And knead it into a dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

When the dough is ready you can roll out the dough on a floured work surface and use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Or, if you have a speculaas cookie mold, you can take your mold and dust it with rice flour.

Press the speculaas dough into the mold. Make sure you firmly press it to ensure all the details will be copied to the cookie.

Trim off the edges.

Take a piece of sewing thread or other thin piece of string, I used a piece of fishing wire, and use it to scrape off the excess dough. Make sure you have the string running tightly against the wood, underneath the excess dough on top.

Roll off the excess dough. You’ll be left with a cookie mold that’s filled with cookie dough.

Turn the mold over and give it one, or more firm taps to let the cookies fall out of the mold. It took me a few times to get this to work, but practice makes perfect, and using the rice flour helps a lot.

You’ll end up with cookies like this. If needed you can use a soft brush to brush off some of the rice flour. Put the cookie on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake for about 15 minutes.

If all goes well they will look a little like this. Don’t they look cute??

The windmill is my favorite one 🙂

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Speculaas Cookies

Speculaas Cookies, also known as Speculoos or Dutch Windmill Cookies are a traditional Dutch cookie. Make the cookies with a speculaas mold or cookie cutter

Votes: 35
Rating: 4.23
You:

Rate this recipe!

Type

Cookies

Cuisine

Dutch

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

15 minutes

Passive Time

30 minutes

Servings

cookies

Ingredients

Speculaas Dough

• 2 cups all-purpose flour 250 g
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp Speculaas Spice Mix
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar 150 g
• 2/3 cup butter 150 g
• 3 tbsp milk lukewarm

Tools for using a speculaas mold

• speculaas mold
• rice flour
• piece of sewing thread

Type Cookies Cuisine Dutch Prep Time 15 minutes Cook Time 15 minutes Passive Time 30 minutes Servings cookies Ingredients Speculaas Dough 2 cups all-purpose flour 250 g 2 tsp baking powder 2 tbsp Speculaas Spice Mix pinch of salt 3/4 cup dark brown sugar 150 g 2/3 cup butter 150 g 3 tbsp milk lukewarm Tools for using a speculaas mold speculaas mold rice flour piece of sewing thread

Votes: 35 Rating: 4.23 You: Rate this recipe!

Instructions

1. Put the flour and baking powder on your work surface or in a bowl and make a little well in the middle. In the middle of the well, add the remaining ingredients, salt, dark brown sugar, speculaas spice mix, butter and milk.
2. Using your hands combine all ingredients and knead it into a dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.
4. When the dough is ready you can roll out the dough on a floured work surface and use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Or, if you have a speculaas cookie mold, you can take your mold and dust it with rice flour. Press the speculaas dough into the mold. Make sure you firmly press it to ensure all the details will be copied to the cookie. Trim off the edges.
5. Take a piece of sewing thread or other thin piece of string and use it to scrape off the excess dough. Make sure you have the string running tightly against the wood, underneath the excess dough on top. Roll off the excess dough. You'll be left with a cookie mold that's filled with cookie dough.
6. Turn the mold over and give it one, or more firm taps to let the cookies fall out of the mold. If needed you can use a soft brush to brush off some of the rice flour.
7. Place the speculaas cookies on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Recipe Notes

Please note that the cup measurements in this recipe are approximate. I have added cups for those that prefer using cups. The recipe is most accurate using weights measurements.

• You can substitute speculaas spice with pumpkin pie spice
• You can make your own Speculaas spice mix following the recipe on this site.