Sunday, January 29, 2012

Star Speculaas


These delicious cookies are our Club: BAKED recipe for the 1st of February! We are posting a little early because we are teaming up with another baking group that is also baking through Baked Explorations for this pick. You can find the recipe for these cookies here at Baked Sunday Mornings if you do not have the book and would like to give these a try.


I decided to mix up this cookie dough in my food processor since it specified a hand pastry mixer to get the dough blended together and I just find using the processor so much easier and more consistent that using my hand pastry mixer. This dough formed perfectly in the food processor, it was such a cinch to toss all the ingredients in there and let it work some magic :)



This dough was very easy to work with and roll out and cut. I am not used to rolling out cookie dough this thin -- 1/4 inch, so it was a touch tricky to transfer my star Speculaas to the cookie sheet, but I managed to get the job done.


I baked my cookies for 10 minutes at 350 on insulated baking sheets, they were plenty done by that time and I think if I'd have baked them for 15 minutes they would have been burned.


They were plenty crispy crunchy at the 10 minute mark. Their aroma reminded my family of gingerbread, and I loved the little citrus twist from the orange zest. They were perfectly spiced and ideal for tea. I decided to add a little frosting and sprinkle border to half of the cookies.



I had a new shaker of Valentine's Day nonpareils (or shall I call them hundreds and thousands? I just can't resist, I love that name) that were begging be used even though it isn't quite February yet. I think the cookies turned out so pretty! All three of my little ones and picky husband liked these cookies very much, yay!

Even though I'm traditionally more of a thick gooey chewy cookie fan, I thought these were wonderful and enjoyed every crispy crunchy bite. They reminded me of the Moravian Spice cookies that I used to get as a child while visiting Winston Salem, North Carolina. I'm such a nostalgic person, and any cookie that can conjure up childhood memories is a win :)

10 comments:

Kris' Kitchen said...

Fun to have you baking along with us. Very nice post with lots of pretty pics. Icing and sprinkles are a nice touch.

Jaime said...

Super cute! I love the hearts.

Nina said...

I love the stars and the royal icing. I would have decorated mine too, but I'm just bringing them to work as a nice little snack.

Lucy said...

These cookies look delicious and very difficult to resist! I love the pretty sprinkles and icing border.

Lorraine said...

Great shots of your cookies! I love how you decorated them. I am more of a soft chewy cookie fan as well. These were good, but not my favorite. I had to use a knife to lift up the cookies to get them on the cookie sheet. I think I made mine a little too thin though.

Crystal said...

Can't blame you for wanting to the Valentines sprinkles- they look adorable & great pictures. Nice job!

Tessa said...

Love the frosting with the sprinkles. So pretty!

Gloria - The Ginger Snap Girl said...

Love your decorations! Glad to hear these were a hit with your whole family. I thought I would love these cookies, but didn't have as much success as I hoped. Oh well.

I was lazy and didn't roll out my dough. I did a log and then sliced off rounds. But when I do roll out cookies, I always roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. You can use the paper to help peel the cookies away and transfer them to your baking sheet.

Susan said...

These are so perfect! I love the decorations. I baked mine a shorter time because I prefer softer cookies, too. I thought these were delicious & easy.

Teri said...

You are right! Any recipe that brings wonderful memories is a great recipe! I love your cookies. The edge trim is beautiful!

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