Makes roughly 60 spekulatius, depending on the size of your cookie cutter
500g flour
1 tsp baking powder
250g sugar
Seeds of 2 vanilla pods (or 1 tsp vanilla essence)
2 drops almond oil
2 eggs
200g cold butter, cubed
100g ground almonds (you can also use hazelnuts)
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
50g flaked almonds to decorate
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C. Line two trays with baking paper. Mix the flour and baking powder in a bowl.
2. Tip the flour onto a working surface,
make a well in the middle and add all the other ingredients. Use your
hands to mix properly until a ball forms. If the dough is too sticky,
place it back into the bowl and place in the fridge for about 15
minutes. The dough needs to be cold before you start cutting out
shapes.
3. Roll the dough thinly, roughly 5mm
thick, and use your desired cutters. Decorate each cookie with a few flaked almonds. Place cookies on the paper-lined
trays and bake in the top half of the oven for roughly 10 minutes, or
until golden brown.
4. Allow to cool down before peeling off the paper. Store the biscuits in a biscuit tin. The longer you keep them in the tin, the better they taste as all the flavours infuse throughout the biscuits.
