Spiced Dutch Windmill Cookies normally formed with a special wooden speculaas mold (see note*, below), but can also be cut out with cookie cutters.
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter; softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
1-1/4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground anise seed
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds
Directions
- In a large mixing bowl combine butter and vanilla with both sugars and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add beaten eggs and blend well.
- Sift the flour and all remaining dry ingredients together and beat into the butter mixture.
- Mix in the sliced almonds by hand, so as not to crush them.
- Divide the dough into four equal portions and chill overnight or for a minimum of 4 hours.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll the cooled dough out into 1/4-inch thick portions and shape with a speculaas mold (see note*, below) or other cookie mold or stamp.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until just starting to lightly brown on the edges, and remove to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Notes
- This classic Dutch recipe is also known as St. Nicholas Cookies, Dutch Windmill Cookies, or in northern Germany, Spekulatius. These are not, however, Belgian Speculoos, which are spelled almost identically but Belgian Speculoos are much more lightly spiced and usually with only one spice.
- * You can find traditional, hand-made wooden speculaas molds at CookieMold.com or less expensive plastic ones at Amazon.com. There’s also a huge selection of vintage and handmade speculaas molds over at Etsy and Ebay.
- If you don’t have a speculaas mold, you can just cut these out with cookie cutters.
- Yield depends entirely on how large your cookie molds are.
