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Spice Up Your Life With Speculaas (Windmill) Cookies

Written by Karin Engelbrecht
  • Total:35 mins
  • Prep:15 mins
  • Cook:20 mins
  • Servings:24 servings

This easy recipe for traditional Dutch speculaas cookies will fill your home with the most beautiful baking smells and your cookie jar with the best-tasting spice cookies. 

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups self-rising flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar (donkerbruine basterdsuiker, see tips below, or pure raw cane sugar demerara)
  • 7 tablespoons butter, room temperature
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons milk
  • 3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice or speculaaskruiden
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 orange, zested and finely grated
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (or enough to dust the work surface)
  • 1 large room temperature egg white, beaten
  • Brown sugar (for sprinkling)
  • Flaked almonds (for sprinkling)

Steps to Make It

Gather the ingredients.
  1. Ingredients for traditional Dutch speculaas

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, raw cane sugar, butter, milk, spice, baking soda, and zest with your hands or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. The dough is ready when you can shape it into a ball without it sticking to your hands.

    Mix together flour, cane sugar

  3. Cover the dough ball with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for an hour so the spices can work their magic.Cover the dough ball with plastic wrap

  4. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 347 F / 175 C. Grease one or more cookie sheet pans or line them with parchment paper.

    Baking sheet

  5. Lightly flour your work surface and roll 1/4-inch thick.

    Flour work surface

  6. Using a cookie cutter or speculaasplank, cut the dough and place the shapes on the prepared sheet pan(s).

    Use cookie cutter

  7. Brush the cookies with egg white and sprinkle brown sugar and flaked almonds on top.

    Brush with egg white

  8. Bake 10 to 25 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of the cookies, or until the almonds are caramelising and the cookies are turning a slightly darker shade of brown.

    Bake cookies

  9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool a few minutes on the pan(s) and then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

    Let cool

  10. Serve and enjoy!

    Traditional Dutch Speculaas recipe

Tips

  • Basterdsuiker is a typical Dutch product. It is manufactured by adding invert sugar and other ingredients to fine white refined sugar. This mixture helps to achieve certain textural structures and keeps baked goods moist. There are three varieties—white, brown, and dark brown—called witte basterdsuiker, (licht) bruine basterdsuiker or gele basterdsuiker, and donkerbruine basterdsuiker. It is widely available from Dutch supermarkets and some Dutch groceries on the Internet. You can substitute the donkerbruine basterdsuiker in this recipe with pure cane sugar (demerara).
  • While little sachets of speculaas spices (known as speculaaskruiden) are available online, you can easily make your own speculaaskruiden or substitute pumpkin pie spices.
  • The traditional method calls for using a speculaasplank, a carved wooden board. There is no need to go on a special shopping expedition, although you can find these online. A regular cookie cutter will do just fine.

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