Speculaas filled with almond paste

Dutch speculaas is a fine cookie filled with almond paste. It is a delicious winter treat. Bake this pastry and your house will smell fantastic. When wintertime is coming and days are getting cold speculaas is the cookie that’s being served by coffee, tea or hot chocolate. You can make this treat easily by yourself. It’s a stuffed spiced roll filled with almond paste en decorated with some blanched almond pieces. Speculaas can be translated as “spiced bisquit “.

Ingredients for Dutch speculaas filled with almond paste

200 grams flour
10 grams of baking powder
20 grams of speculaas herbs (see the recipe below)
A little bit of salt
125 grams brown sugar
150 grams butter
2 spoons of milk
2 eggs
150 grams almond paste
Some blanched almonds for decoration

Spices for Dutch speculaas filled with almond paste.

Speculaaskruiden / speculaas herbs / speculaas spices. The right mix consists of 9 grounded spices.  The last three – ginger, cardamon, and mace – are optional. The proportions are as follows:

• 30 grams cinnamon
• 10 grams nutmeg
• 10 grams cloves
• 5 grams of white pepper
• 5 grams aniseed
• 5 grams coriander seed
• 5 grams of mace
• 3 grams ginger
• 2 grams of cardamon

Directions for Dutch speculaas filled with almond paste from my recipes book.

Mix flour, baking powder, spices (speculaaskruiden), and salt in a bowl. Cut butter into small parts, add milk and stir it into the flour mixture. Knead the mixture by hand to a nice dough, wrap the dough in plastic and leave it for 30 minutes.

Mix eggs with a tablespoon of water, and stir until smooth. Keep a small amount of this mixture to finish the top of the speculaas. 

Knead the egg mixture with the almond paste. Take the dough from the fridge. Unwrap the dough. Roll it out in the right shape. Grease the baking pan with some oil en put the dough in it. Put the almond paste on top and cover up with a layer of dough. Make a decoration on top with almonds and spread over the top a thin layer of the egg mixture.

Bake the filled speculaas in a preheated oven for 45 minutes at 150ºC.

I hope you will enjoy this typically Dutch winter treat, it’s absolutely delicious.