Christmas is a time of festivities and food and in particular I think this is the time of year that people like to get their baking kit out. I’d never heard of ‘speculaas’ before but they’re a spiced shortcrust biscuit. They’re meant to be thin, quite crunchy, a little caramelised and slightly browned – all of which mine turned out not to be. Star baker I am not – see below.
Traditionally they have an image or figure stamped on the front prior to baking and also tend to be cut into shapes. Mine was meant to be a windmill but I didn’t roll it thin enough so you can’t really tell – oops!
Speculaas Baking Mix
Vandotsch, The Speculaas Spice Company sent me their organic speculaas baking mix as well as an extra little pack of speculaas spice, just in case I wanted to up the heat in the biscuits. The smell of the baking mix was really intense, as was the speculaas spice itself. There are a lot of big, big flavours here though I would say the biggest and most obvious is cinnamon.
The organic baking mix was super simple; the instructions on the back just said I needed to add butter, combine and refrigerate. Easy peasy. I got it out the next day but had to wait for it to soften up a bit before I could start rolling.
One big tip is that you must flour your rolling pin. This mixture can be quite sticky and can also crumble really easily – that I found anyway. It was straightforward enough to use the windmill mould that Vandotsch also supply, although next time I think I will be rolling them thinner, cutting out the shape and then impress the front.
Other than that, they filled the kitchen with the smell of Christmas and would be lovely decorated with a teeny bit of icing! You’ll be wanting to bake these year round. I think next time I’d quite like to try one of their wooden moulds.
Win
If you’d like to win this organic baking mix and a traditional windmill to get the perfect speculaas biscuit, then just enter below!
Here is the next, and previous, giveaway.
Day Twenty Two – Little Learning Box
Day Twenty Four – Dreamtex Bedding
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
- This competition will open on 23rd November 2019 and will close on 7th December 2019 at 11.59pm
- One winner will be selected at random
- One winner will receive one pack of organic baking mix and one windmill mold
- You must be a UK resident aged 18 or over
- No cash alternative will be offered
- The winner will be contacted by email and announced on Raising the Rings Facebook and Twitter
- The winner will have 28 days to respond to their winner’s email
- You must enter using at least one of the entry methods in the Rafflecopter widget above, they are not all mandatory
- Prize will be provided within 28 days from winner’s response
*I received this product in return for a review. All views and opinions are my own.