Finally. I have spent almost a whole Sunday baking cookies. It had to
happen once and last Sunday I plucked up my courage and prepared my icing
pistol, cookie cutters, and cookie dough and took a leap of faith. In a week we
will be celebrating Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, an annual party with lots
of presents and ginger cookies and that’s why I chose to bake some ginger
cookies with lemon icing. And guess what!? I loved it! It went marvellous! I
hadn’t expected it to be so cosy and homey and so easy at the same time! I
caught myself singing while cutting out the cookies and crying ‘I love this!’
Totally unexpected. I immediately bought extra cookie cutters for Christmas and
Easter, so who knows what I’m up for next. First I’m going to eat all these autumn
leaves ginger cookies with lemon icing. Yum!
Ginger cookies are a traditional bake with Sinterklaas and Advent. And
we don’t call it ginger cookies but we call it speculaas (pronunciation:
spe:ky’la:s). Speculaasjes (little speculaas cookies) are a type of spiced
shortcrust biscuits and are characteristic Dutch and Belgian cookies but are
also common in the North of France, Luxembourg, and in the German regions of
Westphalia and Rhineland. Traditionally speculaas is made of rye flour, butter,
brown sugar and special speculaas spices. These speculaas spices consist of 8
parts cinnamon, 2 parts nutmeg, 2 parts cloves, 1 part ginger powder, 1 part
cardamon, and 1 part white pepper. If you wish you can also add star anise,
cilantro or mace.
At the beginning of the 20th century the speculaas spices
where so expensive the Belgians began baking ‘speculoos’ (sort of gingerless
cookies), without the spices. Speculoos are cookies with caramel. They are also
baked in Germany and there they’re called Karamellgebäck. The origins of the
word speculaas vary a lot. One explanation is that it’s derived from ‘spice’
because of all the used spices. Another explanation says it’s derived from the
Latin word ‘speculator’ (he who sees) because of the all-seeing Sinterklaas.
The most probable explanation however is the one which links speculaas to the
Latin word for mirror, ‘speculum’, because the speculaas doll takes the
reflection of its mold after it’s baked.
I used cookie cutters with the shape of autumn leaves but obviously you
can use any shape you like. Therefore you can easily make these Sinterklaas
cookies into Christmas cookies by using a star or snowflake shaped cutter. And
after baking you can decorate them with any colour icing you like. You can use
edible colouring agent or use other ingredients to colour your icing. A pinch
of turmeric will turn your icing yellow, a drop of beet juice will make it turn
pink, and a dash of orangejuice will turn your icing orange. I found
experimenting with colouring icing like a little pandora’s box. You never know
how it will turn out!
Autumn Leaves shaped Ginger Cookies
Makes about 50 cookies (5 x 5cm)
Ingredients
300 gr flour
150 gr brown sugar
150 gr cold butter, diced
Pinch of salt
4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground clove
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground white pepper
½ tsp cardamom
1 portion Lemon Icing – see the recipe below
1. In a large bowl squeeze the cold butter through the flour making a
shortcrust pastry. Add all the other ingredients, mix together and shape the
dough into a ball. Cover with cling wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at
least one hour, preferably all night for then the dough will absorb all the
lovely flavours of the spices.
2. Preheat your oven on 175 degrees Celsius. Cover your working space
with a little flour and roll out your dough until you have a large rectangle.
Make sure your dough patch isn’t any thicker than 5 millimeters. Cut out your
cookies using a or several cookie cutters. Cover a baking tray with baking paper
and place your cookies on it.
3. Shape any leftover dough into a ball again and repeat. If your dough
gets too warm cover it with cling wrap and let it cool down in the fridge for
10 minutes. Your dough needs to be cold because otherwise your cookies will
ooze after cutting.
4. Bake your cookies 15 minutes or until they are golden. When out of
the oven immediately place them on a rack so they can cool completely. Do not
leave them on the hot baking tray for they will overbake. Decorate with Lemon
Icing (see recipe below) and serve with a cup of hot cocoa.
Lemon Icing
Enough for about 50 cookies or more
Ingredients
175 gr icing sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice
Optional: edible colouring agents like beet juice, turmeric, orange
juice or any colour lemonade. Bear in mind that the icing will take on a little
of the colouring agents flavour!
1. Sieve icing sugar into a large bowl. Add lemon juice, one tablespoon
at a time and whisk until it’s fluid enough to decorate your cookies. Put the
icing into a glaze pistol or a pastry bag with a small tip and decorate your
cookies.
Let the icing set completely before putting your cookies into an
airtight container. They will keep for one week.
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