Taken from a little community cookbook "Cooking on Clogs" that has some great family recipes compiled by Dutch ladies especially for when they pined for typical Dutch recipes and treats that were not available to them shop-bought when they emmigrated to other countries. I like the fact that these cookies don't just specify the vague ingredient "speculaas kruiden" (spices) but actually tell you how to make the spice mix from scratch. Each region and many local bakers within regions had their own, often highly prized and highly secret mixture of spices,and competition between then to have the most popular was fierce. These differ from my other Speculaas recipe in that they contain aniseed and ginger in the mix, and also that they do not contain ground almonds within the cookie mixture, but feature slivered almonds on the top so they are more like the giant decorative speculaas that you will find in Dutch shops from late November in the run up to Sint Nicolas on December 5th. ZWT REGION: The Netherlands.
