...when you don't own cookie molds.
Speculaas, or Belgian Spice Cookies, are traditionally pressed into wooden molds depicting images telling stories of St. Nicolas. However, my kitchen is not so fortunate to possess a single cookie mold. Still, these sounded delicious and I wanted to try them. After scrumaging around my house for a while, I came up with my make-shift molds: Rubber Stamps. The sunflower image came out pretty, and to my surpise, didn't disappear when the cookies rose.
These cookies have a combonation of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, ginger, and white pepper, and orange zest. Their spicey flavour is very homey, and reminds me of the holidays. Despite the rich flavour, these cookies are a simple roll-out dough thats easy to make.
I topped them with a Blood-Orange glaze, made of juice from a blood-orange, and an egg white.
I also used a Tulip stamp, though that one did not work quite so well. I think the difference was in the stamps themselves, as the sunflower stamp (which worked) simply stamped down the outline of the flower, which left the petals to rise up, while the tulip stamp made a solid indent in the shape of the flower. When it rose the single line between flower and background sort of disappeared unless you looked at just the right angle. SO if you are experimenting with stamping cookies, my advice is:
-Press down HARD for a good 8 seconds. Don't be timid (but don't make holes in your cookies either). If you dont get the imprint deep enough, it will disappear when the cookies rise.
-Use a stamp that only has the outline of what you would like.
My recipe made tons of cookies. Stacks of them. Forty-eight to be exact (and thats not counting the ones that evaporated into thin air when I got hungry!). So now I need someone to come help me eat them!
This recipe is a twist on the recipe you can find in The Joy Of Cookies by Sharon Tyler Herbst.
Recipe:
10 T butter, soft
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1 pinch ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
zest of 1 medium orange
2 T blood-orange juice
1 egg
1 egg white
2 T milk (optional)
Pre-heat oven to 350F.
1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, spices, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
2. In seperate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in 1 egg, and the orange zest. Add the flour, while mixing, 1/2 cup at a time, until fully combined.
3. If your dough is not coming together well (it should be like any roll out cookie dough- formable into a ball, yet not sticky) add in the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you dough forms. Roll your dough into 2 balls, and allow to set for 5 miniutes.
4.While you are waiting, grease 2 cookie sheets, and flour a surface for rolling your dough out on. You may also make the glaze at this time: whisk the egg white with the orange juice, until well combined.
5. Roll out one half of your dough until it is even and 1/4 of an inch thick. Cut into rectangles, using a knife, or use cookie cutters. Stamp each cookie with your rubber stamp, firmly. Move to cookie sheet, and brush with glaze. Bake for 6-10 minutes, until golden. Put in wire rack to cool.
Repeat step 5 until all of the dough is used!
Caitlin
We served the Tuiles as garnish on Martha Stewart’s Poppy Seed Tartlets with Lemon Curd. Usually Martha and I have a love hate relationship: I love the way she can make everything look so delicious. I hate the way her recipes always look better than they taste. I love the way everything matches- down to the forks on the table. I hate the way the recipes aren’t always right. This recipe however, I simply loved. Not a trace of hate; only a slight misunderstanding- when the magazine said to cook the curd for ten minutes, or until it thickened up, I didn’t realize it meant it would take almost an hour before seeing any thickening. But after that extra detour of time, the tartlets were not only pretty, but tasted pretty too! 
