These biscuits are made in almost every home in my area for Christmas, and the children love them. 3,3 dl water 400 grams sugar 100 grams melted butter or margarine 30 grams baking ammonia or salt of hartshorn (E503) flour Mix the ingredients, leave dough to «set» for a few minutes. Roll the dough out, as thin as you like, but still thick enough to handle. Remember to keep your surface well floured. Punch figures, bake for 5-10 min at approx 200 deg C. They are supposed to be whitish or golden, not brownish. Paint with red and green. My father-in-law used to triple this recipe and make at least two batches for Christmas. The biscuits are fairly soft when newly baked, but crisp when cool.
Sounds good Droopy. Say, what exactly is baking ammonia or salt of hartshorn? Is there another name for it?
I don't know, Netty. It's a rising agent, and has a very strong, distinctive smell. Oh, I found a link, here it is: http://www.foodsubs.com/Leaven.html
It's very traditional in these parts. They haven't got a very distinct taste, but is a nice, crunchy treat and lots of fun to make (and eat) for the children.
I want to borrow the girls, so they can decorate all my christmas cookies....lol. those look very good. Up here we make something almost like that, i think it might be the same i have to check the recipe, called Spekulasier. i never used cut outs before tho, its make like a diamond here. but i do make circles an use cinnamon an decorative sugar on top. I think i'm going to try the cut outs,, i like that. Thanks for the idea.
I don't think they're the same, Biita. I think I know the ones you mean, they're also traditional. Some of our cookies are very decorated, and others have two small lines or dots on them, but it doesn't really matter. It's fun to prepare for Christmas with the children.
Thanks for that link Droopy. It says I can substitute Baking Powder for the baking ammonia. Now I just have to find out how to convert grams into teaspoons...
More tasty-looking christmas treats! You folks are having a ball, aren't you? I agree with Droopy, Biita about the spekulasier. We have a particular type of cookie called, speculaas. I would be willing to bet that it is the same. These speculaaskoeken are made by pressing the dough into a cookie mold carved into wood. Usually in the form of a woman or farm animal. then places in an oven and baked, the cookies are brown in colour and are very crumbly. I used to drive my partner crazy by calling them "gravel cookies". Ha ha ha. A varient of this id one called gevulde speculaaskoek (filled spekulas cookie) whicj is very moist and soft and has a tasty filling. You can't buy these during the year, only now. The crunchy ones are available all year long. Here are a couple of pics of the molds: Some folks collect the old ones, you can buy newly made ones too.
Oh, the hard times us international people have! Sjoerd, I can understand people collecting those molds, they are very beautiful, with lots of details.
Sjoerd, the Spekulasier cookie kind of looks like droopys cookies she made. I did check the recipe an it is differnt to a degree. no water its milk instead. an a few other changes. the cookies have a very very thin crisp outside but are very moist inside. an don't really get that brown (unless left in the oven longer than necessary,,lol) Those placques are beautiful,, an you say they are used in the oven. What do you fill the cookies with. also how big are those cookies, because the molds look really big. Now that would fill a person up,,lol. I showed KB your cookies that you made droopy, now he wants spekulasiers for tonight..lol. So maybe i'll post what they are like with the recipe.
Biita, The carved-out depressions in those wooden plaques are filled with raw speculaas dough. You bake it then remove it. The cookies are then thin and crunchy (giving-up lots of crumbs-hahaha). The "filled speculaas cookie" is made differently. Often they are rectangular pieces, or thick round cookies. They are filled with what we call, spijs. This is a doughy-like substance. See this english translation (n0ot really good). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond_meal Basically it's a paste made of ground almonsds and suger. We fill many things with this "paste". Should we ever have the occasion to exchange seeds or something, I will include some dry and moist examples of speculaaskoek. BTW, do you recall the thread about that special type of painting that I wrote about in the Friesian village of Hindelopen? The style that is similar to a Norwegian style. Well, a couple of years ago we bought one of these speculaas planks for a forum contributer that had come to visit. She was wild about it and sorry that she didn't get one when she had the chance. She still has it hanging on her wall. There is a shop that sells antiques as well as "antiques" in Hindelopen, and they had a few of them there for sale. It was NOT an antique, but still quite nice. It's the sort of souvenier that very few visitors to our country will have.
Okay,, i think i know what your cookies are like Sjoerd. To me it sounds like a cookie here that is called Sandekake or sand cake. they are baked in a cupcake tin, as a mould, then usually filled with the almond paste mixed with creme an fruit also. or, sometimes jams or something. they are crisp an crunchy. but very good. maybe i'm wrong, its just that spekulasier isn't very crumbly unless you leave them out to dry.
