Speculaas Cookies (Biscoff Copycat)

A while back I posted about chocolate chip cookies and proclaimed my unwavering devotion to chewy (rather than cakey or crispy cookies). However, there is a loophole in my rule. I'm going to call it the dunkable cookie rule. A cookie is allowed to be crispy if it is dunkable. Oreos and biscotti would be prime examples. One of my favorite dunkable cookies is the Biscoff cookie. If you're not familiar with this cookie or the equally awesome spread, you are missing out. Biscoffs are soooo good with coffee or tea.

This copycat comes darn close to the real deal, especially if you age the dough overnight. They're a bit too orangey and don't brown evenly if you bake them immediately. Unlike most cookies, these aren't laden with cups and cups of butter. So you can have 3 or 4 for dessert without wreaking havoc on your calories for the week. This recipe make a lot of cookies, but they freeze really nicely. I double wrapped stacks of a dozen and put them in freezer bags. Just let them come to room temp and they taste like you baked them that day. I could also see using any extra cookies for other uses--mashed into ice cream, alongside a pudding dessert, crushed to make a crust for a tart, dipped in dark chocolate and given as a gift. The mild spicing makes this cookie ideal for a lot of uses.

The dough is pretty straight forward.

Rolled nice and thin before baking:

Leave a little more space between cookies than I did though. Some of mine came out connected. Keep an eye on these in the oven too because they're rolled so thin. My baking time was a scant 7 minutes. You can roll them thicker, but I really like this wafer consistency. Rolled out thicker I felt they were too crunchy.

Cooling:

Speculaas Cookies (Biscoff Copycat)
Adapted from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented
Yield: 60-75 cookies (I got 73 cookies, 2 1/4" round.)
Cooking Time: 12 hours (20 min. to mix dough, overnight refrigeration, 1 hour rolling out/ baking cookies)

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated orange zest

10 Tablespoons butter (cut into small cubes)
1 egg, beaten

Directions

1. Combine all the dry ingredients, spices, and orange zest.

2. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender. Then cut in the egg.

3. Knead the dough until it forms a ball and then refrigerate overnight. (If you want to continue sooner, refrigerate at least one hour.)

4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or baking mats.

5. Flour your work surface and roll out fist-sized chunks of dough until very thin, 1/8 of an inch. Leave the rest of the dough in the fridge until you're ready to use it. Cut your cookies and form any scraps into a ball and return to the fridge until ready to reroll them.

6. Bake cookies approx. 7 minutes. They will appear doughy in the center, but will firm up as they cool. (If you roll your cookies thicker, 1/4 inch or more, your baking time will be closer to 10-15 minutes.)