Speculaas, or as we call it in German, Spekulatius was one of my absolute favorite cookies as a child.
And since the holiday season is all about nostalgia, I tried making my own vegan version!
At first, I tried buying a ready-made spice mix, but here in Austria, I could only find gingerbread spice. But if you have a well-stocked spice pantry, or are a total spice hoarder like I am, you’ll likely have most of the needed ingredients to make your own Speculaas spice mix!
If you’re missing one or two, don’t stress about it. It will most likely still taste incredibly wintery, Christmasy, and wonderful!
The Spice Mix
The spices you’ll need for the spice mix are:
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Clove
- All Spice
- Ground Ginger
- Cardamom
- White Pepper
- Fennel Seed
- Coriander
I only had whole fennel seeds and all spice, so I just ground it in a mortar. You can obviously use a spice grinder if you have one!
General Tips
- Use a fairly “hard” margarine. The one I used was a little too soft, which resulted in the stamp not showing up as beautifully as I’d hoped
- In order to roll your dough out evenly, you can use to chopsticks to help guide your rolling pin
- If you don’t have a stamp, get creative! I’ve seen doilies or the bases of crystal glasses used to make a beautiful imprint on the rolled out dough
- Pop them in the freezer for 5-10 minutes right before baking, that helps them retain their shape
- Dust your stamp with flour just enough so it doesn’t stick to the dough
- Brush any excess flour off your cookies before baking them
I found my Speculaas stamp at an antique store, but you can find a ton of stamps / molds on Etsy!
Click here for more vegan Christmas cookie recipes!
Vegan Speculaas or Spekulatius Recipe
Vegan Spekulatius Speculaas
Ingredients
Spekulatius Spice Mix
- 8 tsp Cinnamon
- 2 tsp Nutmeg
- 2 tsp Clove
- 2 tsp All Spice
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 tsp Cardamom
- 1 tsp White Pepper
- 1 tsp Ground Fennel Seed
- 1 tsp Ground Coriander
Dough
- 400 g Spelt Flour
- 200 g Softened Vegan Butter Alsan for example
- 150 g Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 2-4 tbsp Plant Milk I used soy
- Spice Mix
Instructions
Spice Mix
- Combine all spices
Dough
- Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix
- Add softened vegan butter and 1 tbsp of plant milk and quickly combine with hands until a rough dough forms
- Transfer to counter and knead with your hand until just combined. If the dough feels too dry, add another tbsp of plant milk
- Let rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes
- Roll out the dough to about 3-5mm. You can use 2 chopsticks as guides
- Pre-heat your oven to 175°C
- Use a bench scraper, rotary cutter or knife to cut into even rectangles
- At this point, you can decorate your cookies by pressing on a cookie stamp, doilies, or whatever you have lying around, that would make a pretty imprint!
- If you want to make sure your imprint shows on the finished cookie, pop them in the freezer for about 5 minutes before baking. This helps them keep their shape!
- Transfer to your baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes.
- Let cool on a wire rack.
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