Like marzipan, speculaas (or speculaasjes as the individual cookies are called) is a cookie highly connected with the feast of Sinterklaas in Holland. The name speculaas has to do with the wooden molds the cookies are made in (we call it a speculaasplank, speculaas comes from the word speculum (mirror). One of the more famous shapes is a windmill of course! Last year we were on a quest for the best spice and dough mix that would amount to the ultimate speculaas taste and texture. But with spring already in site, we still weren’t satisfied with the result. Recently we blew new life in to our speculaas project. This time with a result that has our sincere approval(and that of our friends). So, without further ado, I present to you our ultimate speculaas recipe!

Note: You can buy sachets of ready made speculaas spices. But for the ultimate pleasure in smell and taste, you really must make your own!

Making the speculaas
First make the spice mixture. Preheat the oven at 175° C. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and make a supple but not sticky dough. Sprinkle some rice flour in the speculaas molds. Press an amount of dough in the speculaas shapes and cut away the excess dough with a sharp knife. Tap the shapes out of the molds (this is NOT easy, esp. with new molds, they need a bit of help and maybe some light swearing) and lay them on a baking tray. Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

Tip: Most people will not have speculaas molds lying around. A very good and equally delicious idea is to make little balls of the speculaas dough (called ‘kruidnootjes’) spread them on a baking sheet and press them down a bit. Or roll out the dough and make nice shapes with cookie cutters and decorate with almonds. Bake like the speculaasjes.

Tip: You can also make a speculaas pie, filled with (home made) almond paste ( (‘gevulde speculaas’). You can make almond paste yourself by combining equal amounts of very finely ground almonds and sugar with a little bit of water. Add some lemon zest for extra flavour. Keep it in the fridge for at least a few days and add egg yolk to the paste before using, so it will be nice and supple to work with.

you can also make little individual speculaas pies

It’s these kind of recipes that send out the right kind of whiffs to get me in a cheery autumn mood. All I need then to make me completely happy is a look out of the window onto the trees with burning leaves against a clear autumn sky.

Making the muffins
Preheat the oven to 180°C. This is a basic muffin recipe that you can use to make all kinds of combinations with fruits and nuts and spices. Its simple, first you mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl you mix all the wet ingredients. Then put the wet and dry ingredients together, but do not over mix. Fill a muffin tray with the mixture and sprinkle each heap with the cinnamon/sugar mix. I use organic cinnamon that has a more intense flavour. Bake the muffins for approx. 20 minutes and leave to cool on a tray. Or better: eat warm from the oven, but do not burn yourself on the pieces of apple or cranberries, they tend to be hot longer because they contain more water.

Tip: Make sure your ingredients, including your spices, are fresh. Like ground coffee, ground spices also lose their intensity very quickly. You can grate cinnamon yourself with a Microplane.

I also tried these muffins with speculaas spices and quetsch jam (a sort of prune) I brought home from France. Also very nice and seasonal for our ‘Sinterklaas’ feast.

See below for version in Dutch
Visiting artisan bread shops in the centre of Amsterdam and comparing bread
Last Friday we finally got around to doing our little ‘Amsterdam bakery tour’. We decided to only test bread, or else we would let ourselves be sidetracked by all the other baked goods on offer (but we couldn’t resist tasting some pies and tarts and croissants etc. along the way, can’t wait for our ‘pastry round’). We bought (roughly the same type of) one of their staple breads at the different bakers shops, a good start for an honest comparison. At home we tasted and compared the bread. We looked at freshness, crust, crumb, attractiveness of appearance and weight in comparison to price.

Below our findings:

1) Our Winner! Le Fournil de Sebastien

• White boulle ‘Tourte’
• 542 grams
• 2,60 euro = 4,79 euro per/kilo
• Pleasing to the eye, nice colour of the crust, raised bottom, good oven spring and tearing of the crust
• Well rounded smell of wheat flour
• good creamy quality of crumb
• Fresh taste
• No acidity when we first tasted the bread, after a few hours the bread had taken on a faint but pleasant sourness
• Careful chewing also brings out a bit of pleasant acidity

Fournil le Sebastian

2) Our runner up: Gebroeders Niemeijer

• White Boulle(yeast dough)
• 410 gram
• 2,25 euro = 5,48 euro per/kilo
• Good looking bread though shaping and tearing a bit random
• Beautiful creamy and yellowish crumb indicating the good quality of (the milling of) the wheat flour and absence of oxidation during kneading.
• Full of taste, complex, sweet after taste
• No acidity in taste or smell of the bread

Gebroeders Niemeijer

3) Our number three: Bakken met Passie

• sour dough white bread with a bit of rye
• +/- 530 gram
• +/- 2,25 euro = 4,25 euro per/kilo
• Pleasing to the eye, nicely slashed and good crust ear
• Light and airy, almost too dry crumb
• The crumb does have elasticity though
• Crust still had some crispiness left when we got home
• Nice grey colour (true high extraction rate wheat flour?) and a bit of Rye
• Acidity more leaning to the vinegar than yoghurt side (our personal taste is not too much of the vinegar please)
• Not really an interesting or complex taste of the wheat, not a lot to discover by chewing

Bakken met Passie

4) Sadly last: Vlaamsch Brood Huys 1

• White sourdough pistolet
• 1,10 euro
• Nice looking little pistolet with good slash
• Whitish crumb, not creamy or open
• Flat and uninteresting wheat taste
• Very faint acidic smell but sour taste clearly present
• Unfortunately the acidity is overpowering the possible presence of other tastes in the bread

Vlaamsch Brood Huys

5) Really at the bottom!: Vlaamsch Brood Huys 2

• White standard yeast bread (according to girl in shop)
• 556 gram
• +/- 2 euro = 3,59 euro per/kilo
• Ugly lumb of bread, sagging bottom, no nice round bottom edge. Bottom also has an unattractive crease
• Whitish crumb colour
• Looks more like a ciabatta gone wrong then the ‘white loaf’ that it’s supposed to be
• Bit stale
• No crunchy crust
• Flat wheat taste and smell
• Light acidic smell but non whatsoever in the taste

Vlaamsch Brood Huys

Dutch version
Een vergelijkend rondje door het centrum van Amsterdam langs ambachtelijke broodbakkers

Afgelopen vrijdag hadden we dan eindelijk de tijd om onze lang geplande tour langs Amsterdams populairste ‘artisan’ bakkerijen uit te voeren. Deze eerste keer richtten we ons alleen op het brood (hoewel we ook al wat taartjes, croissants en ander lekkers geproefd hebben, wanneer gaan we weer voor een rondje patisserie!?). We hebben bij alle bakkers een soort van basis brood gekocht, een goed begin voor een eerlijke vergelijking. Eenmaal thuis hebben we de broden getest op versheid, korst, kruim, smaak, structuur, esthetische verschijning en prijs in verhouding tot gewicht.

Onze ervaringen op een rijtje:

1) De winnaar!: Le Fournil de Sebastien

• Witte bol ‘Tourte’
• 542 gram = 4,79 euro per/kilo
• 2,60 euro
• Mooi brood, goede korstkleur, opstaande bodemrand en goede ovenrijs en scheuring
• Volle geur van tarwebloem
• Malse kruim van goede vochtigheid
• Verse smaak
• Geen zuur geur in het begin, echter na een paar uur kwam het zuurtje meer naar voren
• Bij kauwen een komt een zuur ondertoon naar voren

2) De ‘runner up’: Gebroeders Niemeijer

• Witte bol (gist deeg)
• 410 gram = 5,48 euro per/kilo
• 2,25 euro
• Mooi brood maar rommelige vorm en dito scheuring
• Mooi mals geel kruim (wijst op ruim uitgemalen tarwebloem van goede kwaliteit zonder oxidatie tijdens kneden)
• Smaakvol, complex, zoetige nasmaak
• Geen zuur, zowel in geur als smaak

3) Onze derde plek: Bakken met Passie

• Zuurdesem wit brood
• +/- 530 gram = 4,25 euro per/kilo (we hadden er bij de tram al een stuk van getrokken)
• +/- 2,25 euro
• Mooi uitziend brood, mooie open scheuring en opstaande rand
• Luchtig brood en helemaal uitgebakken, bijna te droog
• Wel veerkrachtig kruim
• Nog steeds knapperige korst aan de bovenkant
• Grijze kleur (weinig uitgemalen tarwebloem gebruikt?) + stukje rogge
• Zurige smaak en geur, meer een azijn zuur dan een yoghurt zuur (niet te veel azijnzuur voor ons persoonlijk a.u.b.!)
• Verder geen interessante tarwemeel smaak, niet veel te ontdekken door te kauwen

4) Helaas onderaan: Vlaamsch Brood Huys 1

• Wit desem pistoletje
• 1,10 euro
• Leuk klein pistoletje met mooie scheuring
• Wittige compact kruim, niet mals en open
• Platte niet interresante tarwe smaak
• Hele lichte zuur geur maar wel duidelijk zuur in de smaak
• Het zuur wint het van de smaak van het brood

5) En dit is de echte verliezer!: Vlaamsch Brood Huys 2

• Wit standaard gist brood (volgens winkel bediende)
• 556 gram = 3,59 euro per/kilo
• +/- 2 euro
• Lelijk brood, een klont, zonder opstaande rand op de bodem en lelijke vouw in de onderkant
• Wittige kruim kleur
• Meer een mislukte ciabatta dan een brood
• Tikkie oudbakken
• Geen crunch in korst -> totaal veerkrachtig
• Platte tarwe smaak en geur
• Lichte zuurgeur maar geen zuur in smaak

While perfecting one type of bread, we are also boldly trying out new recipes. Very recently we started to experiment with some new types of flour like French Type 55 and American flour with a high protein content. We have some more baking to do before we can say anything knowledgeable about the subject. Another thing we tried and had lots of fun with was making sourdough rye bread. Handling rye dough brings back memories of Kindergarten and play-doh. But the first results are very promising and we will continue on this healthy path. Here are some macro shots of our latest baking results (shot with a Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro for the people who want to know).

Getting close to the crust. It has air holes too!

All these little holes make the crust really crispy. And with the right water content, the crumb will still be creamy

Our first sourdough rye bread has left the people who tasted it wanting more. Happy to oblige we will give it another try soon.

After 24 hours in a paper bag, the texture and taste got even better!

More Useful Bread Baking Tips

• Never trust the amount of water given in a bread recipe, your flour could be (acting) different from theirs
• Using steam (spray water on the sides of your oven, be careful not to damage your oven by spraying on electrical things) during the first 8 minutes in the oven gives the bread room for expansion and forces the enzymes in the crust to give your bread a nice colour!
• Buy a plastic dough scraper, they are great for dividing dough and for dough folding plus they are cheap!
• Read a good book about bread baking techniques; we like ‘Bread’ by Jeffrey Hamelman
• There are lots of articles about sourdough. Some are very technical and elaborate talking about sourdough starters as if the are designed by Nasa and need the upkeep done at moonlight, dancing around Stonehenge. All you need is unbleached organic flour, water, a jar and a spoon. Put 50 gram flour and 50 gram water in a jar and stir. Put a lid on the jar but do NOT close it completely so no air pressure (gas released by the sourdough culture) can build up and shatter your jar. Feed you culture every day at about the same time by throwing away half of the dough and adding again 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. Keep the sourdough culture out of the sun and stored at room temperature. After 2 to 3 days it should start to bubble. After 5 days it should be able to triple in size in 24 hours. It is now ready to be used. If it does not bubble after 3 days, throw everything away, clean your jar and try again! Perhaps buy another kind of flour, as the yeast and bacteria are present in the flour!
• Do NOT store bread in your fridge because the temperature of the fridge (about 5 degrees Celsius) is about the worst climate for keeping bread so it’s the fastest way to old and stale loafs and rolls. Store it in your freezer or in a plastic bag at room temperature. The best thing of course is to eat it after it has (almost) cooled down, although some breads, like rye bread get a bit better with age
• If your bread is a bit stale, give it a quick ‘pick me up’ in the oven for 5 minutes at about 175 degrees Celsius, you will lose some moisture but you will get your crust back. Be aware, this will work only ones!

The harvest after one weekend of baking fun. We made muesli rolls based on a recipe of our own invention and also raison buns, fluffy white rolls and wholesome whole wheat sourdough loafs. Over the past baking period we discovered in practice some bread baking fundamentals that could be helpful to other baking enthusiasts too.

Our Useful Bread Baking Tips

• For large irregular holes, use wet dough (65-67% water ratio to flour) and do not fumble too much with your dough
• The longer you knead the dough, the finer the bread crumb becomes, so don’t over knead
• Use a preferment or sourdough starter if you want bread with maximum taste. For instance use 20% poolish with your regular white loaf or rolls for a more interesting, deeper bread taste.
• When scoring the dough, hold the lamé/scoring knife at an angle of about 30 degrees to get that nice ear /curl in your crust. We use a double edged razor blade in a holder of our own invention.
• Try reducing the salt content in your bread by a gram or so at the time and see how you like it. Good salt balance benefits the bread and your health. We find that a lot of bread recipes can do with a little less salt.
• Use a kind of pizza stone in your oven to bake your bread and make sure you preheat your oven very thoroughly.
• Do not trust the thermostat of your oven at face value. Check your true temperature using an oven test thermometer

Muesli rolls straight out of the Rofco. The nuts were lightly roasted first

White and fluffy bread rolls, made with poolish for a much more interesting taste

We Dutch call these ‘krentenbollen’ (current buns) but these are filled with raisins

A slice of this whole wheat sourdough loaf tastes so good with 2 year old Dutch Reypenaer cheese