What is speculos?

Speculos is a kind of crispy cookie or flat biscuits popular in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Its shape is usually rectangular with a decorative image printed on the face of a cookie, although modern cookies can be in different shapes. These biscuits can be consumed warm or cold and are a good accompaniment to drinks such as tea, coffee or hot chocolate.

Depending on the Earth, there are many variations of the name of the cookie. Speculos is commonly called in France, but in the Netherlands is known as "Speculaas" in Germany. The origin of the word is not sure, but some say that "speculoos" comes from the word "special", which means "spices" in Dutch. Others attribute the Latin word "speculum" concerning the wooden form used for cookies. Decorative images for cookies were usually characters or scenery taken from the accounts told about St. Nicholas. The most common image would be St. Nicholas, sometimes decorated with edible red dye for its red -gas coat. According to BelgianCH and Dutch Christmas customs would fill the hay shoes for St. Nicholas and built shoes near the chimney. The next morning the shoes would be filled with speculation and other gifts.

Speculos biscuits use common ingredients such as butter, flour and eggs, but what gives a cookie its unique taste is a Belgian brown sugar called "Vergeoise Brune" made of beet. This sugar also gives a cookie its rich brown color. Modern recipes usually replace the war on dark brown sugar, which is more accessible. Another factor that makes these biscuits so unique is the use of various spices such as cinnamon, cloves, ginger and even pepper. Chopped -ups such as almonds and walnuts can also be added for texture and taste.

The dough is usually prepared by mixing dry ingredients separately from wet ingredients. Dry ingredients are then slowly added to mixed wet ingreesDiolation until the ingredients do not mix well. However, it is important not to mix the dough too much or too fast, as this could result in very hard biscuits. The dough then rolls, cut into pieces, formed and baked. Many recipes would recommend cooling the dough first before its stamp mold, because the imprint would be obvious.