Ingredients
GEVULDE SPECULAAS
Speculaas spices
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon pumpkin spices
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon mace
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon ginger
Almond paste for two recipes
10 oz blanched almonds (1 16 oz bag whole almonds, need to take skin off, easiest way is to boil water and dump almonds into boiling water for 20 seconds, drain and rinse in cold water and peel, can also put in large bowl and just grab almonds and squeeze a few times. This will get most skins off quickly. Rest just takes time to do).
10 oz sugar (use 5/8 to ¾ cup)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
Speculaas dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ sticks of butter
2/3 cup light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon orange zest
½ teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons milk
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ tablespoons mixed spices
¼ teaspoon almond extract
Preparation
Speculaas spices
Mix together - this makes enough spices for 2 cakes, but only going to use half of this for one recipe.
Almond paste for two recipes
Place into a food processor, grind almonds very fine, add sugar, eggs, lemon zest and almond extract. Pulse until it forms a ball. Put into a jar or container and place in the freezer, keeps a while (don’t know how long, usually doesn’t last that long).
Speculaas dough
Mix into one small ball of dough.
In spring form, divide dough in half. Roll or smooth in bottom of spring form. Use ½ of almond paste mix for next layer. Then top layer gets rest of dough and cover till you see no more almond paste. Then take 2 tablespoons sugar, some almond extract and little water and mix till you have a thick paste. Brush this over the top to cover. Then add slivered almonds to decorate (optional).
Preheat oven to 375 and bake for 20 minutes. Need to watch so doesn’t burn.
If you want to make 2 Gevulde Speculaas’s, then just double dough mix.
Enjoy!
