Vegan Speculoos
These vegan holiday biscuits are crunchy and so delicious. Speculoos are buttery shortbread-like cookies made with lots of spices - cinnamon and cardamom included so they just scream Christmas sweets!
You may be asking what are speculoos cookies? First of all I would actually call them biscuits. But that’s just me personally, maybe they can be cookies.. Anyway speculoos are crunchy, spiced biscuits. They are similar to shortbread but usually thinner. They originated in Belgium and traditionally they are made in wooden molds but I wouldn’t expect you to have these so a rolling pin and cookie cutters are just fine. But if you have one of those fancy embossed rolling pin, use that! It would look amazing.
I have always loved speculoos. I usually got them every year before Christmas from my mum who used to buy them in Germany. They actually call them spekulatius in Germany. They are one of my favourite festive biscuits, along with lebkuchen (there might be lebkuchen recipe coming soon, yay!).
What ingredients do you need for these biscoff cookies?
VEGAN BUTTER - I would strongly recommend using an actual vegan butter and not margarine. Margarine has a different water content so it behaves a bit differently. I haven’t tried the recipe with margarine so I don’t know how it would turn out. For vegan butter I usually use either Flora or Naturli.
CASTER SUGAR - I used white caster sugar but I also tried out the recipe with light brown caster sugar and both works great. With light brown sugar you’ll get a bit more colour but the difference is not that big.
GROUND ALMONDS - I used ground almonds but if you have almond flour, you can use that too. I just find that because ground almonds are not as fine, they bring a bit more interesting texture.
CINNAMON, CARDAMOM, CLOVES - these are the spices that make that great flavour of speculoos. I actually added a bit more of cardamom, purely because I really like its flavour so if you like things extra flavorful, add a bit more of cinnamon and cardamom. I wouldn’t add more cloves because it might be too overpowering.
CACAO POWDER - or cocoa powder, whichever you have at home. The only reason for cacao in this recipe is to bring a bit more colour. So if you don’t fancy it, leave it out.
How is speculoos made?
Into a big bowl sift all purpose flour, all the spices (cinnamon, ground cloves and ground cinnamon and baking powder. Add ground almonds and salt.
Whisk well until well mixed.
In another bowl mix vegan butter, caster sugar and non dairy milk. To make it easier for yourself use either a hand mixer or a stand mixer but you can also mix it with just your hand.
Slowly add flour mixture into the butter mixture and while mixing - until dough forms.
Remove the dough from the bowl, cover with cling foil and place it into the fridge for 24 hours.
Take out the dough, leave it for about 30 mins for it to become softer and place on a floured surface.
Roll it out so it is around 4 mm thick and cut out shapes.
Transfer cut out shapes on baking sheets lined with baking parchment and bake in preheated oven 180C/160C (fan) for about 8 minutes (until they are golden brown around the edges).
Tips on how to make these vegan spiced biscuits
How to store speculoos? In an airtight box (place them there once they are completely cooled down).
How long do speculoos last? Few weeks! That’s why they are the perfect Christmas cookies - you can make them ahead and enjoy them on Christmas Day (and the whole December too, haha).
Are speculoos and biscoff the same? I read that biscoff is given name for Lotus biscuits. They should be very similar, obviously homemade version is going to be always a bit different.
Where does speculoos come from? Speculoos are from Belgium but they also make them in Netherlands.
For more vegan festive bakes be sure to check out:
Vegan Christmas Cookies (Gingerbread like but better)
If you make these speculoos, and take photos of them, you can tag me on instagram - @bigbakesmanifesto and use hashtag #bigbakesmanifesto too! I’d love to see you making my recipes. Or follow me on Pinterest, where you can comment and rate my recipes.
Makes 4 baking sheets of biscuits (amount of biscuits depends on how big your cut shapes are)
Ingredients
250 g all purpose flour
1 tsp cacao powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom (you can add another 1/8 tsp if you like)
2 tsp baking powder
50 g ground almonds
1/2 tsp salt
175 g vegan butter (I used vegan Flora)
150 g caster sugar
2 tbsp non dairy milk
Method
Sift flour, cacao powder, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and baking powder into a big bowl. Add ground almonds and salt and whisk well so it is all combined well.
Put vegan butter, caster sugar and non dairy milk into another bowl. Mix with a hand mixer or in a standing mixer (you can do it just with your hand but with a mixer it is easier and quicker. Add 1/3 of a flour mixture and mix. Add another 1/3 of a flour mixture, mix and repeat with the rest of the flour mixture. Mix well until dough forms.
Remove dough from the bowl, cover with a cling foil and place into the fridge for 24 hours.
After 24 hours take out the dough from the fridge and leave it for about 30 minutes (it depends on how warm your flat/kitchen is, mine is quite cold so I left it out for about an hour - just when it is more pliable.
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C (fan) and line four baking sheets with baking parchment.
Roll out the dough into 4 mm thickness on a floured surface. I also like to put some cling foil on top of because it makes it even easier. Cut the dough into whichever shapes you fancy and place the biscuits on baking sheets.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. The thinner your biscuits are, the less time they need in the oven. They are ready to be taken out when they start to get golden brown around the edges. Let them cool down, transport onto a cooling rack and then store into an airtight box (they will keep for few weeks).