Speculaas with a Cookie Press
Do you remember making cookies (or biscuits) with a cookie press? Great for making butter cookies or speculaas. Food memories are the best, aren’t they?
Anyone my age probably had a Mum or a Nan that had one, although they might have been called a cookie spritz, cookie press, or simply a cookie maker. Maybe she still has one, because these are built to last. The memories these cookies evoke are lovely. My Mum didn’t bake much, but I do remember making and decorating these with her, and now I’m making them with my grandson.
The hardest thing we had to do was choose which design we were going to use next. We made several batches of cookies and because he’s nine he likes to make the biscuit dough. I’ve developed a recipe that is very easy and can be made in a food processor.
These cookies will last for at least two weeks (if kept in an airtight container).
We made butter cookies and a speculaas (or speculoos) flavoured cookie. Wow – too yummy and easy to boot.
Speculaas with a Cookie Press
5 stars tells us you love the recipe
becs-table.com.auEquipment
- 1 Cookie Press
- 1 Food processor or Thermomix
Ingredients
- 375 g plain flour
- 250 g brown sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground aniseed or Star Anise
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 250 g unsalted & chilled butter cut into small cubes
- 45 g brandy or rum
Instructions
- Set your oven to 160°C and get 3 flat trays ready. I used a non stick cookie sheet made by USA pans, they're the best. We use them in our cooking school too.
- Weigh the flour, sugar, baking powder, spices and salt into the food processor. Mix for a few seconds to sift and combine. (TM: MC in 3 sec/speed 4)
- Add the small cold cubes of butter to the processor and blitz until the mix looks like fine breadcrumbs. (TM: MC in 10sec/speed 5)
- Add in the brandy and mix again until the mix starts to come together. (TM: 5 seconds/speed 5) Stop when it’s almost done, tip the contents out onto a clean bench and bring it together by hand. (I do this because it’s easier to get out of the processor while it’s crumbly before it turns to paste.)
- Divide the dough into sausage shapes to fit into a cookie press (I got 4 portions from this mix)
- Pick a die, assemble and stamp them out using a cookie press. Bake them for around 10-15 mins; remove them when you see the first signs of colour.
Notes
- When using a cookie press, don’t use baking paper. If you try to extrude your cookie onto baking paper as you lift your press the cookie will stay stuck to the unit rather than down on the paper. There’s enough butter in these cookies for them to not stick to your tray so extrude away straight onto the cookie sheet, bake, and allow them to cool before removing them.
- Your dough should be soft, but not so soft it sticks to your hands. If it is too soft you will need to cool or chill it. Warning, if you’re going to chill the dough, you need to leave it in the fridge long enough for the whole mix to be the same texture. For example, If you roll it into tubes, place it in the fridge for 10 minutes, your dough will be hard on the outside of the tube and still soft in the centre. This can cause misshaping when they’re extruded through the press.
- Your dough should be the same texture all the way through, if it’s too soft to work with, place it in clingfilm in a flattened disc and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes or longer. Then remove it and shape it into sausages to fit into the extruder.
- Using a food processor with cold butter should solve all the above issues. Changing the die mid pressing is easy, unscrew the end and replace the die then screw back on and continue.
what do you recommend instead of Brandy?
I’d use apple juice. It will work fine.
Thank you, we have already added this recipe to the family recipe box – love both versions.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. So glad you like them. 😉
Do you have a recipe for plain biscuits using a forcer.
Hi Marilyn, I wrote this recipe for Eveten, they have the plain one on their site but here it is
Ingredients
260g plain flour
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
225g unsalted & chilled butter cut into small cubes
2 large yolks
5g vanilla (1 tsp)
Method
Weigh your flour, caster sugar and salt into your food processor. Mix for a few seconds to sift and combine.
Then add the cold small cubes of butter to the food processor and mix until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.
Add in the two yolks and vanilla and mix again until the mix looks like large breadcrumbs.
Tip the mix out and bring together by hand.
Divide the dough into sausage shapes to fit in the cookie press tube.
Pick a die, assemble and stamp them out.
If I have Speculaas spice already, does that mean I just add all the spice amounts (2 and 2/3 tblsp of Speculaas spice)?
Check your mix, if it’s a commercial one you’ve bought pre-made and it’s just spices (no extra sugar, baking powder etc) yes go for it. I use my sweet warming spice blend in these as well by adding up the qty of spices up. Our Aussie tsp are 5ml but our Tablespoon is 20ml. So I get 2 and 1/2 Aussie Tbsp. 😉
Hope that makes sense.
These are so tasty. I plan to vary them as I improve with the biscuit press.
Thanx Jean, I’m a bit addicted to that machine at the moment. LOL So easy to make the dough and press them out.