Counting Down The Days.

I have told you how much I love Christmas right? And I do mean embrace-the-whole-festive-season-with-both-arms-wide-open-and-then-some love.

It’s really almost as though my internal clock has a special alarm set just for Christmas- by which I mean the whole of December.

You see, the minute December arrives, my brain seems to think it’s green light to go crazy on the festive season.

The blasting of Christmas songs (yeap, no prizes for guessing what’s playing on my- sorry can’t help it!- new computer that is the epitome of gorgeousness), the dreaming of festive treats on a list conscientiously updated through the year, the frantic shopping for Christmas gifts, I embrace it all with a recharged passion year after year- even if it means having to leave work the weekend before Christmas to jostle with the crazy crowds to get all my shopping done or baking gingersnaps in the wee hours of the morning after a crazy day at work.

What can I say, it seems my crazy Christmas spirit knows no boundaries.

And this year is truly no exception. Especially since it’s the first Christmas in three years I won’t be slogging it out at work (it’s really kinda pathetic how excited I am about this!).

So in the spirit of embracing Christmas in all its entirety, I decided to get an usually early start on Christmas baking and this site (what? you couldn’t tell from the falling snowflakes- thank you, WordPress for the genius feature!- and Christmas index on the sidebar?) this year.

And boy did I pick the perfect recipe to kick start my festive baking.

Now, I won’t lie.

I have been dreaming about making these cookies for the better part of this year (hell, I even bought the book the second I found out it had a recipe for speculaas) so these cookies really had some big dreams to realize. And let me tell you, for all the dreaming I’ve been doing of these cookies, they were wildly beyond anything I ever imagined and hoped they would be.

I don’t know if it was the crispness, the deep caramel flavour, the slight warmth from the spices or the perfect balance between the sweet and salty undertones of these cookies- or most likely, the combination of them all- but these cookies really just blew my mind right from my first bite. My mind couldn’t even find the words to describe these before I started reaching for more and making a mental note to never stop making these for Christmas.

So Christmas might still be another sixteen days away but I’m definitely keeping this new tradition of starting the Christmas baking and the season to be giving early. Especially if the Christmas baking is starting with a batch (or two) of these cookies every year.

Speculaas [adapted from The Gourmet Cookie Book]

Note: Incredible as these cookies are, there are a couple of things about them I should probably share. First up, these cookies will spread so cut them thin if you want them in rectangles, not squares (still delicious but just not as elegant). If you run out of dark brown sugar and are thinking of just substituting with caster sugar, like I usually would, please don’t, with these cookies- the molasses in the dark brown sugar is what gives these cookies their delicious caramelized flavour- unless of course, you have molasses on hand. Also, the original recipe calls for ground ginger which I didn’t have so I used ground white pepper like the book suggested and the cookies still somehow tasted like gingersnaps (well, caramelized gingersnaps) even without the ginger. Lastly, make these. Seriously. You won’t regret it, trust me (and in the rare chance that you do, please send them my way).

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
3/4 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
125g salted butter, softened
1 1/2 tbsp rum
Small handful of slivered almonds
1 egg white, for brushing

1. Line two baking trays with baking paper and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt and white pepper together.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and dark brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir in the rum.
4. Add the flour mixture in two batches, stirring only until just combined.
5. Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper into a rectangle about 1/4-inch thick and let the dough firm up in the fridge for at least fifteen minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 175C. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into rectangles about 2 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches and place the rectangles on the prepared baking trays. Brush the dough lightly with the egg white, pressing the slivered almonds into them.
7. Bake the cookies, one tray at a time, in the middle of the oven for about 14-16 minutes or until the cookies feel a little firm when lightly pressed. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking trays; they will firm up as they cool. Makes about 24 cookies

Posted by thecoffeesnob on December 9, 2011

http://eatandbehappy.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/counting-down-the-days/