RECIPE: The Best Biscoff Biscuits (Hasselste Speculoos)

After living in Australia for over two years, I slowly realised how widespread the Belgium Biscoff Biscuits are worldwide. Known as Speculaas or Speculoos in Belgium, these Biscoff biscuits are delicious. If you didn’t have the pleasure of tasting them before, they are thin, caramelised and very crunchy, which is everything you want in a biscuit.

Besides biscuits, there is also a speculoos spread that is very popular in Belgium (which my mum sent over to me because I missed it that much). I have yet to see them everywhere, but more and more supermarkets in Australia are also starting to sell them. The other day I ran into a couple in the supermarket saying: biscoff spread? That can’t be any good. But as a proud Belgian, I defended my product, and they bought one. I’m sure it was not their last jar of the speculoos spread. Once you start, it’s hopeless, and you’ll keep coming back for more.

However, the Lotus biscoff biscuits are just some of the Speculoos variants to find. Even within Belgium, different kinds of Speculoos depend on where you are. My favourite will be the one made in the Belgian city of Hasselt. Unfortunately, they are nowhere to be found in Australia. I started baking them myself one day because I couldn’t resist. On my last day of work, I made these for all my colleagues at King Island Dairy, and they just loved it! It took me multiple tries, but the recipe got fine-tuned, and I’m happy to share it below.

Recipe:

Ingredients for 14 Servings of Biscoff Biscuits:

• 250 Grams of self-raising flour
• 150 Grams of (un)salted butter 
• 150 Grams of Brown Sugar 
• Pinch of salt 
• Pinch of milk (optional)
• Honey 
• 20 Grams of Speculoos Spice mix
  • It can be hard to find these pre-made. I’ll explain below how to make the spice mix yourself.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F
2. Line a baking tray (or tin if you prefer a thick biscuit) with baking paper.
3. Start melting the butter in a pot. 
4. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, milk, salt, and the spice mix (see below).
5. Once the butter is melted, pour the butter into the bowl, then add the honey. Mix carefully as the butter is boiling!
6. As soon as a dough forms, use your hands to divide it into small pieces, or roll it out and use biscuit cutters to cut. If you make it like me (nice and thick), place it into the baking tin and spread it out using your hands until evenly spread.
7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the oven or until baked brown. *Start enjoying the smell of your Speculoos.
8. Remove the speculoos from the oven and let them cool down before enjoying your homemade Belgium biscuits!

Notes:

• If the dough is too wet, you can add a little more flour.
• If the dough is too dry, you can add a little milk.

How to make the speculoos spice mix:

Essential ingredients for 20 grams

• 11 grams of ground cinnamon
• 2 grams of ground nutmeg
• 2 grams of ground cloves
• 1 gram of ground:
  • aniseed
  • white pepper
  • coriander seed
  • ginger
  • Cardamom

Add ons:

• 1 gram of ground mace (optional)
• 1 gram of ground-dried mandarin zest (optional)

Feel free to play with the spices; some like adding cinnamon or ground cloves. It all depends on personal taste.

You can convert the ratio into different measurements if it’s too hard to measure the spices in grams. 11 tablespoons of ground cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of ground nutmeg, or 110 grams of ground cinnamon, 20 grams of ground nutmeg. As long as you end up with 20 grams mixed up for the above recipe. You can store all the rest away in a jar.

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