brown butter speculoos

As strange as it might seem, the concept of 'holiday baking' is one that is quite new to me. 

My family's Christmas food traditions tend to revolve around the savoury rather than the sweet. Whilst my mother would normally make a traditional Christmas pudding at some point in November, it wasn't something that we particularly enjoyed or, indeed, something that my brother and I would help with. On the other hand, I have such vivid and happy memories of the four of us in the kitchen on Christmas Eve, listening to Christmas carols on the radio as we prepared the vegetables and stuffing for the next day's lunch. 

Our sweet fix came from a steady supply of chocolate coins and foil-covered Father Christmases rather than the mince pies and piles of cookies that other people seem to have indulged in.

Now, I feel like I have to make up for lost time and I can't really think of a better place to start than with these speculoos cookies. With a powdery dusting of icing sugar, they taste like Christmas markets and twinkling lights. 

A little brown butter provides a warm, toffee-like background to the heady combination of spices that characterises speculoos cookies. For those all important spices, I used some of the koekkruiden mix which was included in our goodie bags from Food Blogger Connect. If you don't have anything similar, a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, clove, cardamom and anise will get the same flavour or you can just use your favourite wintertime spices. 

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Brown butter speculoos
Yield: Approx 20 cookies depending on size

Ingredients

• 55g (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 60g (1/3 cup) dark brown soft sugar
• 115g (1 cup) whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons speculoos spice mix (see note above)
• 1 - 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Cooking Directions

1. Heat the butter in a small pan over a medium eat until it bubbles and turns golden brown. Take it off the heat and set aside to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F (fan) and line a couple of baking trays with non-stick paper/silicone mats.
3. Beat together the butter and sugar until combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Add enough buttermilk to bring the dough together into a ball.
5. Chill for 10 - 15 minutes before rolling out. Cut out shapes as desired, place on a baking tray and chill for half an hour.
6. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes until the edges are brown and the cookies are firm to the touch. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool.