Dutch Kruidnootjes (Spice Nuts)
A recipe for Kruidnootjes (Spice Nuts) is a must have for me as soon as October/November hits. I’m always happy when this time of year comes around, mainly because it means it’s time for some tasty spice nuts! A traditional Dutch cookie only available in shops at the end of the year. Once I start eating them I just can’t stop. Kruidnootjes (Spice Nuts) are also very fun and easy to make, you can involve kids if you want as well. I couldn’t let Sinterklaas pass without a recipe for spice nuts!
Sinterklaas or Saint Nicholas Day is a festival for children usually celebrated on either 5th or 6th of December. It celebrates the legend of Saint Nicholas, bringer of gifts. “Santa Claus” is actually derived from the Dutch Sinterklaas. If you’d like to know more about Sinterklaas I suggest you check out Wikipedia, I’m here for the recipes, not for the history lessons 😉
I’d say, let’s get all the ingredients and start making these homemade spice nuts for Saint Nicholas day or Thanksgiving, or Christmas or just because you feel like it!
Makig Dutch Kruidnootjes (Pumpkin Pie Spice Nuts)
Grab your essentials, brown sugar, self-raising flour, butter, milk and Speculaas Spice Mix, a Dutch Cookie Spice mix. (The full list of ingredients including measurements can be found in the recipe card below). The Dutch Cookies Spice mix, is a typical mix you can find in most of Dutch supermarkets. It is very easy to make your own Speculaas Spice Mix. Pumpkin Pie spice mix can also be used instead of the Dutch cookie spice mix. It’s similar to Speculaas Spice mix but not exactly the same. You have to taste it to understand the difference, but since it has similarities you can use it as a substitute.
Prepare a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
Add flour to a bowl.
Make a hole in the middle of the flour.
Add sugar.
Cookie Spice mix.
Butter.
Pinch of salt.
And milk.
Now, using your fingers, make a crumbly dough. These aren’t my fingers by the way, my mom was my baking helper for the day, so I could take pictures, thanks mom!
You should make the dough crumbly like this. This is the point where I’d like to ‘taste’ the dough, which sometimes results in less spice nuts in the end, I don’t understand why… ;-).
Quickly kneed the crumble into a supple dough and form into a ball, or in our case, a long shape which kind of reminds me of something else… So I suggest you make a ball, it’s better on the eyes…
Now, take a little bit of the dough and form into little balls, the size of a peanut, or, if you’d like a bigger cookie, the size of a hazelnut. Place the balls on your prepared baking tray.
Place the Spice Nuts in the oven and bake till they are done. The Spice Nuts will harden as they cool down.
And there you have it, extremely tasty Spice Nuts! The Spice Nuts in this picture were gone in about 5 minutes… I didn’t even manage to dip them into chocolate which makes them even more delicious!
If you like these Dutch Kruidnootjes (Spice Nuts cookies) you should try my Pumpkin Spice Popcorn recipe, it’s delicious!
SAVE PIN: http://pin.it/LgkIP_A
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings |
spice nuts |
- 1 cup self-raising flour 125 gram - sifted
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar 65 gram
- 1/4 cup butter 50 gram - room temperature
- 1 tablespoon Dutch cookie spice mix / Speculaas Spice Mix can be substituted with Pumpkin Pie Spice
- pinch salt
- 1-2 tablespoon milk
Ingredients
| |
- Preheat the oven to 302°F/150°C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Add flour to a bowl and make a little hole in the middle.
- Add sugar, butter, Dutch cookie spice mix, salt and milk into the hole in the flour.
- Start crumbling the dough with your fingers.
- When the dough is nice and crumbly, quickly kneed it into a supple dough.
- Make little balls out of the dough the size of a peanut, or hazelnut if you'd like your spice nuts to be a bit bigger.
- Place the balls on the baking tray and bake the spice nuts for about 20 minutes till they're brown and done.
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.
- Kruidnoten taste great dipped in chocolate as well.
- Check out my recipe to make your own Speculaas Spice Mix / Dutch cookie spice mix (speculaaskruiden / koekkruiden).
- Pumpkin Pie spice mix can also be used instead of Speculaas Spice Mix / Dutch cookie spice mix (speculaaskruiden / koekkruiden). The taste won't be exactly the same but both spice mixes have similarities.
I’ve made these twice and my 9 y/o adores them. I’ve had to make my own self-rising flour (1 cup flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, .25 tsp salt per using the Google) and my own speculaas spice mix, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. I’m not sure why, but my finished product looks less golden brown and more of a faded washed-out grayish brown. It tastes fantastic, but any ideas why it’s not looking more amber-golden gorgeous? My dough did not look as wet as the picture before rolling either. The 2nd time I added a little more milk but the appearance/texture was exactly the same post-bake. Thank you!
Hi Melinda, the main color comes from the spice mix and the dark brown sugar, that’ll give it it’s base brown color. The only thing I can think of is that the colors of those are perhaps less brown? Without knowing and seeing things first hand it’s hard to figure out. Perhaps add a bit more cinnamon to the spice mix for a more brownish color.
Is there a substitute for butter my daughter cant have dairy
Thank you so much for this recipe i loved these growing up and speculaas too i cant wait to make these
I would try to use a dairy free margarine instead.
Added the rind of one orange, yum!
Yummy!
Made this today with the first real snow coming down in Utah. Used you spice mix and it turned out great except i had to add 25 g flour to stop the dough from being too sticky. Maybe because i had no self raising four but only something called “baking mix”. Love to send a picture if you like.
Thanks for the Dutch recipes and specially your speculaas spice mix.
Happy to hear they turned out good with your baking mix. Feel free to share your photos on my Facebook page 🙂
https://facebook.com/cakieshq
Yum! Still want to make these! I think I can even create a vegan version with coconut oil, non-dairy milk (maybe almond?) and maybe even go nuts with whole-wheat flower haha!
lekkeerrrr!
You can definitely make these vegan, you can even use vegan butter and replace milk with soy or indeed almond milk. Should still taste delish!
These look amazing! Is the butter room temperature or cold?
I use butter at room temperature.