More on Speculaas

After we made Speculaas with a traditional recipe but rather banal shape last month, some friends who read Ful were good enough to lend me their large speculaasplank or mold. He is of Dutch background, and their piece - a wedding present - is very handsome and certainly finely carved by comparison to others I have seen depicted around the internet.

This fineness was a challenge for actual use however, and I was told they had had limited success in actually producing the spectacular cookie result.

After some research, I had enough reason to hope that using rice flour in the mold, and on the dough surface before placing onto it, might help. As you can see pictured here, this was right - the figure of the strolling gentleman emerged cleanly.

The rice flour also manages to provide a set of attractive "points" that faded a little during baking but didn't disappear altogether. A figure this size took 30 minutes in a moderate oven. I actually gave this guy a little longer to be sure of his resilience for show, at the possible expense of his tenderness to taste!

My thanks to Peter and Hilary for this fuller experience of a delicious seasonal tradition from the Netherlands.