Apparently there is a bit of a difference between Speculaas and Speculoos. According to one Flemish company that makes them with "the old method," "the Dutch speculaas is a thicker, spiced gingerbread. The Belgian speculoos, or caramelised biscuit, is thinner and has a more refined taste" (Vermeiren Speculoos). The "Baked Explorations" recipe is called "Speculaas" so I was expecting them to be different from my beloved Biscoff. I baked according to the recipe making no changes besides using light brown instead of dark brown sugar and omitting the orange zest (because I didn't have either of those things). I also let the dough sit in the fridge overnight because I had read on one website somewhere that this allows the flavors in speculaas dough to give the spices time to develop and add extra flavor.
I may have taken them out of the oven too soon because mine were not dry and crispy, they were soft and chewy. But that was a good thing for us since Daniel is 100% a chewy cookie person. Normally he does not like spiced cookies but these mysteriously disappeared from our cookie jar very quickly. "Spiced gingerbread" is a good description for this cookie recipe, they were quite different from those Biscoff cookies.
My one complaint about this recipe is that it was too sticky and nearly impossible to use cookie cutters. Instead, I wound up using a pizza wheel and cutting it into squares. Admittedly, the stickiness was probably my own fault though due to my laziness since I really didn't flour my surface very well. When I got really lazy, at the end I just started rolling balls of dough with my hand and rolling them in turbinado sugar. Those ones came out nice and thick, and with a caramelized sugar bottom - quite perfect for our tastes.
You can find the recipe here at Baked Sunday Mornings. And make sure to read through the Bakers Links to Speculaas to see how this recipe worked out for other (less lazy) bakers.
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