almond-chocolate-speculaas

All things

Speculaas...

It is thought that the Dutch name Speculaas comes from the latin 'speculum' that means mirror.

Traditionally speculaas biscuits are the mirror image of the carved wooden moulds they are baked in.

Windmill shaped speculaas biscuits are known throughout the whole world, as are male or female speculaas figurines.

These days speculaas biscuits can take any shape or form. But you can do so much more with speculaas spice than just making biscuits.

Find out more about the delicious recipes you can make using vandotsch speculaas spice mix.

Blank Page

Double click to insert body text here...

Alida's vandotsch speculaas spiced almond chocolate biscuits

I congratulate Northern Italian Alida for winning the 2014 Uniform Foodies and ‘Blogger Competition’ as judged by 2 Michelin starred chef Michael Caines of Gidleigh Park in Devon.

I am therefore especially pleased that Alida has taken the opportunity to use vandotsch speculaas spice in her almond-based chocolate biscuits recipe. I am also happy that it was a bit of a 'group activity'.

"I took the perfect opportunity of putting my bored children at work" according to Alida. "They loved preparing the biscuits and of course eating most of them afterwards!"

"I have used ground almonds and orange essence for a nutty and perfumed consistency and I topped them with dark chocolate and some toasted hazelnuts to make them truly addictive."

What follows is an overview of the ingredients that Alida used to make the vandotsch speculaas spice infused almond chocolate biscuits, including:

Makes approximately 30 'mini' biscuits

Ingredients

- 150g ground almonds

- 80g brown sugar

- 60g butter

- 1 egg

- 50g flour

- 1 teaspoon orange essence

- 5g (1 teaspoons) vandotsch speculaas spice mix

- 100g dark chocolate

toasted chopped hazelnuts plain flour