Apart from my birthday, today is Sachertorte Day in the U.S. and Sinterklaas in western Europe. In fact, the whole of BENELUX celebrates St. Nicholas (or Santa Claus, whose Greek Orthodox counterpart is St. Basil) around this day: Belgium and Luxemburg on 6th and the Netherlands on 5th December. The holiday of St. Nicholas is just as important as Christmas Day: people exchange gifts and speculaas, which is the local name for gingerbread.
Sinterklaas in history
The feast of Sinterklaas has been a great event in the Low Countries since the Middle Ages, when good Christians placed money in the shoes of those in need, as 'Santa Claus' does with gifts in children's boots today. During the 16th century, Lutherans moved the celebration of St. Nicholas towards the end of December, banning the Catholic tradition. In the Low Countries, however, the festivities take place as before -despite the large number of Protestants. In the past 200 years or so, children as well as lovers have been the focus of Sinterklaas tradition: especially in Belgium, gentlemen would declare their love on the Eve of St. Nicholas Day, presenting their sweethearts with a (heart-shaped) gingerbread.
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| Municipal ban on St. Nicholas pastry in Utrecht on 1-8 December 1655 |
What does speculaas mean?
There have been three etymologies for speculaas. The word is thought to be derived either from speculum ('mirror' in Latin) because the ornamental stamps used to emboss the cookies with are mirrored on the dough or from speculator, which is another name for bishop -the ecclesiastical office held by St. Nicholas- or paraphrased from 'spices' in Dutch. Spices became widely available
in Holland after the 17th century because the Dutch East India
Company supplied the metropolis with large amounts of everything.
The recipe
Speculaas falls under the categories of both shortbread and gingerbread and even under the category of nougat. It's made with flour, unrefined sugar, butter, and your favorite mix of spices from among cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ginger, cardamom, and pepper. The dough was originally firm and hard for bakers to create the ornamental patterns with a stamp but more recent versions are often softer and filled with almond paste or chocolate. The Belgian variety, called spéculoos, is flavored with only cinnamon but the 1870 licence of Antoine Deplée, artisan baker from Hasselt -a town in Belgian Flanders- described spéculoos as "une espèce de pain d'amandes", which means they contained a fair amount of nuts.
SPECULAAS
The following version was inspired by the 19th century description of Belgian spéculoos and Janny de Moor's recipe for Dutch gingerbread.
I n g r e d i e n t s
for the shortbread:
250g plain flour
1/2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/2tsp cloves
1/2tsp ginger
1/2tsp coriander
a pinch of salt
115g butter
100g sugar
1 egg yolk + 1/2 egg white
for the almond paste:
200g almonds
200g powdered sugar
1/2 egg white
M e t h o d
1) To make the almond paste: Finely grind the almonds in the mill. Combine with the powdered sugar. Add the egg white and knead. Shape into a log, wrap in cling film and refrigerate until needed. 2) To make the shortbread: Combine the flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Melt the butter and sugar in a pan. Leave to cool, then rub into the dry ingredients. Add the egg, 1-2tbsp water and knead. Shape the dough into a ball, then wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes. 3) Preheat the oven to 180C and line a small rectangular baking tin with parchment paper. 4) Halve the dough. Roll each half between two sheets of parchment paper so that it's just a little wider than your baking tin. Flatten the almond paste. 5) To assemble: Place one layer of dough in the baking tin, making sure to cover the edges. Fill with almond paste, cover with the other layer of dough, seal the edges and bake for 35 minutes or until golden. 6) Leave to cool in the baking tin and slice with a knife.
N o t e
Gevulde speculaas (gingerbread filled with something) is typically decorated with slivered almonds.
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