ffwd - speculoos!

I had a big cooking weekend last week! I made the speculoos, since I wanted some cookies to take to work, plus I had houseguests. So it was fun to try out this recipe, along with others, including another Dorie recipe (for my next post!). We'll stick to cookies for here. I was grateful for some other ffwd posts, so that I got some good ideas for rolling these out and handling the dough. Thanks!!

I'm posting this a little late because today's been a "cookie day" too. My niece Jillian arrived at 8:30 to start (she wanted to come at 7:00, but it's my day off!! nooooo!). We made dozens and dozens of cookies - some she took home as samples, but we've learned over the years that between my brother, sister-in-law and the two girls (and their friends), it's a better bet if I'm the keeper of the cookies!! They'll get more for Christmas Eve, plus I have to take some up north for Grandma & Grandpa (and the rest when they come up). It seems to work out. We tried some new cookies (red velvet shortbread dipped in white chocolate, and some oreo balls in chocolate - a theme going), as well as old favorites. So it was a lot of fun!!

On to Speculoos. I really liked these cookies a lot. A bit easier than I expected, and quite tasty. I do want to try them again and use a filling (I think I read about Nutella and Dulce de Leche... mmm). But here we go!



simple ingredients, including some of my favorite flavors



dry ingredients - look at those spices!

 

I took someone's advice and rolled the dough between sheets of parchment - it allowed it to be super thin
this is after the dough's frozen for a bit



because of the parchment and freezing, the cut-outs were a breeze
as long as I worked quickly
I decided that since everyone said they smelled like Christmas, I thought, why just make circles?
though they looked beautiful, who knows, these might be the only ones I cut out this year!!
I also read where people had difficulty with detailed shapes, but I found that with the frozen dough, they came out ok
I realize that not everyone would think a sheep was a "Christmas" shape, but for me - well, yes!



finished cookies... I think they look pretty cute! oh, see the little Westie in the corner...

 The reason I was baking cookies was that I had a group of co-workers (and friends!) from Puerto Rico coming for the week to my office to do some training - so I wanted to make sure that they were welcomed "properly". Of course, all people that love food and cooking, eventually end up talking about food. After the last time they were all here, they gifted me with a couple of Puerto Rican cookbooks. I've made some recipes already, but thought it would be fun to have some cookies out of one of the books to go along with the Speculoos. So I found a recipe for "Tasty Cookies"  or Mantecaditos. I might translate them as shortbread. Well, they were wonderful!! I kept a plate to share with my family (my Dad's 80th birthday!) on Sunday, and then brought the other plate to work. Needless to say, they were all gone quickly!!! (I see a trend here). Both definitely things I'll make again.