Wednesday, December 22, 2010

French Fridays with Dorie - speculoos

On Friday it's Christmas Eve day, so what better FFwD recipe to showcase than Dorie's delightful holiday cookies... speculoos.  Speculoos or speculaas as they are known in Belgium, are thin, crisp spice cookies.  As Dorie mentions, it doesn't matter when you eat these cookies, they are going to remind you of the holidays.

I will confess, I didn't make these cookies right off the bat.  I waited until some fellow FFwD participants had made them and read their comments and hints.  They were very helpful.  I am not a rolled cookie person.  Rolled cookies stick and tear and make me tear up (like that little play on words?).  And crying in the kitchen is just so damn sad!  I've never been much of a fan of sugar cookies (either making them or eating them) and I thought the speculoo was probably just a brown sugar cookie.

And, actually, it is...but it's so much more than that too.  The spices really bring the cookie to life.  Dorie says you can make these big or small, thin or thick and spicy or spicier.  I went medium size, thin and just spicy.


 I also took her up on her Bonne Idee and made sandwiches out of the cookies too, using Nutella and Gingerbread Butter (idea stolen from another FFwD blogger, who it is I can't remember...I'm sorry).  I also bought dulce de leche, but when I opened up the jar...the seal had been broken and it was molded...YUCK!  I was going to share a picture and then thought better of it.  Serves me right for not having the guts to make my own by with this recipe.  However, the thought of boiling a can of condensed milk for 3-5 hours is more than I can handle!

With Nutella
The cookies were not that difficult to make, as long as you follow the instructions.  That means, make your dough, roll it out and then refrigerate for at least three hours.  I refrigerated over night, which made cutting the cookies very easy and I think melded the flavors together even more.  I used a great scalloped edge cookie cutter, but these cookies go soft very quickly and don't hold there shape perfectly.  So, I wouldn't use a fine detailed cookie cutter for these. 


With Gingerbread Butter




If you want a last minute holiday cookie that Santa will enjoy, try making these today!  To see what everyone else made this week, click here.  Happy Holidays!  I hope your holidays are filled with love and magic and cookies and lots of great food!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! I made the cookies with Nutella sandwiched in the middle as well and loved them!

Anonymous said...

I still have some of the dough from my batch left in the freezer - I'm going to bake them Christmas Eve and I think I'll indulge in a little filling, too. Yours look so good.

Hope your holiday trip is lovely!

Anne-Marie said...

I made the dough today and it is chillin' in the fridge. I also bought Nutella to make sandwiches. Great photos! Thanks for showing me the way. Happy Holidays!

Mardi Michels said...

Gorgeous! I can't wait to post mine (next week!). Well done and I love the fillings!

Cher Rockwell said...

Very nice! Glad to see another FFwD'er with a rolled-cookie phobia conquer the dough. Yeah for you. I love the look of the scalloped edge and the ginger butter.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to look for gingerbread butter now - I've never heard of it but it sounds perfect for these cookies! - Laura

Anonymous said...

I'm going to look for gingerbread butter now - I've never heard of it but it sounds perfect for these cookies! - Laura

Renee said...

What a great idea to make them into little sandwiches! They cookie are good on their own, but with a little nutella I bet they're great!

♥Sugar♥Plum♥Fairy♥ said...

I loveed these Cutout ,filled and frosted too!
All so wonderful , oh ur cookie look perfect!
Merry Christmas and happy hols with love!

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

Your sandwiches look incredible!!! Nicely done!

Good Bite In said...

Gingerbread butter and Nutella? wow ... nothing more need be said!

Candy (Dulce) said...

Your cookies look wonderful!!! I need to make them again and fill them - your ideas look fantastic!

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

Your cookies look perfect! You should definitely try the boiling the condensed milk. If you do a couple of cans you can make a caramel pie. mmm Glad these came together so well! :)

Trevor Sis Boom said...

you and I think a lot alike. I HATE rolling dough. I went the dulce la leche route though. Beautiful pics!
Trevor Sis. Boom.

Christina said...

These look great!

Makes me want to make them again!

Maris (In Good Taste) said...

Gingerbread butter? That sounds incredible!

Anonymous said...

what perfect cookies for Santa!

Lana said...

I am late to the game, as usual, because I had to work (grrrr), but I loved your cookies. I am a bit apprehensive, because I am not a baker, but I like reading about everybody's successes with speculoos. It's raining (again) in SoCal, and we definitely need something sweet. I do have Nutella (it's a European thing, I know:), and kids want spice cookies. Win-win:)
Enjoy your holiday!

Elaine said...

Gingerbread butter...I have not seen this in the stores. I bet they were delicious with it. Your cookies look wonderful!