Speculaas Cookies from Belgium

Title: Speculaas Cookies from Belgium

Description:
In the Low Countries of northern Europe, St. Nicholas traditionally rewards good children with flat cinnamon-spiced cookies called speculaas. These crisp, sculpted-looking cookies were once commonly made in elaborately carved wooden molds, often handed down from one generation to the next. Today, speculaas are commerically sold year-round in Belgian, Dutch and German bakeries, usually as thin rolled cookies cut in simple shapes. Here is a quickly assembled speculaas dough from Sunset Magazine December 1980.

*Note: They were great! They disappeared very quickly--and some people we shared them with were delighted with the flavor--saying they preferred them over the gingerbread they were accustomed to eating at christmas. The cookies tasted alot like the kind we're used to, although I thought maybe they needed a little more cinnamon, and maybe a dash of nutmeg. Texture-wise they were more dense, and more crispy--yet-chewy than the commercial Lotus brand to which we've become accustomed. (Kind of like commercial chocolate chip cookies vs. homemade) After this year, I don't think I could go back to the commercial kind. This kind held up much better in the way we have come to love them: crumbled up in a bowl with cold milk poured over them and eaten with a spoon!


Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1/4 lb.) butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (*note: a dash more, and a dash of nutmeg if desired)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar until creamy. Beat in egg until fluffy. In another bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, and baking powder. Gradually add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, mixing at low speed until well blended. (note: The mixture will seem quite dry and crumbly, hard to keep together--almost like pie dough mix without any liquid added. If you let it set at all uncovered, or if it seems just too dry, add a teaspoon of water or so, if you must.) Cover and chill at least 2 hours.

To cut out with cookie cutters, roll well-chilled dough on a generously floured board to 1/16-inch thickness. Dip standard cutter in flour (or dust interior of molded cutter), then press into dough. With a wide spatula, transfer cookies to a well-greased cookie sheet, placing them about 1/2 inch apart.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until edges begin to turn dark, about 6 to 8 minutes for thin, rolled cookies. Cool cookies on baking sheet 1 minute before removing them with a spatula to a wire rack. Cool completely: store airtight at room temperature up to 2 weeks or freeze.

Number Of Servings:Makes about 4 dozen thin, 3-inch-square cookies.