Today marks the 15th recipe Club: Baked has made from Baked Explorations. Last July we started on a journey to bake our way through all the recipes in this cookbook. This week is a little different because we are teaming up with the Baked Sunday Mornings group since our schedules matched up for this week's pick, Speculaas.
I was excited to see Speculaas on the baking roster because I'm a big fan of sugar and spice and everything nice and that's what I envisioned for these crunchy spice cookies. I have made a similar spice cookie, Speculoos, the French cousin of the Dutch Speculaas, in the past and really enjoyed them, leaving me with high hopes for their Dutch counterpart.
I'm just going to rip the bandaid off and say it. I didn't care for the Speculaas. The spice combination just didn't work for me. Though I'm not quite sure why. I like all the components but somehow the overall balance of spices was off. I will say that I didn't use fresh grated nutmeg, so perhaps that had something to do with it. These cookies also baked up darker than I prefer. In the Baked Explorations book the authors allude to Speculaas being like the biscoff cookies that Delta Airlines serves as a snack to its passengers. I have had Delta's cookies, they are delicious and completely addicting. I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear that I don't think the Speculaas live up to the famous airline cookie.
I'm definitely in the minority here because it seems my fellow bakers had a lot of success with their cookies. You can see how everyone's cookies turned out by clicking here. For the recipe head over to Baked Sunday Mornings.
I've made 12 of the 15 Club: Baked recipes and this is the first one that I really didn't care for. Not too bad on the odds overall.
Next up on the baking schedule--Soft Candy Caramels.
They may not have been your favorite but they still look great. Beautiful photo!
ReplyDeleteCute idea with cookies/twine- great pic for cookies you didn't care for. They look much better than what you described to me- they look good.
ReplyDeleteSorry you didn't care for these, but I agree that the odds for the recipes have been pretty good. I've only had one so far (that I've been able to make) that was just so-so.
ReplyDeleteMine turned out much darker than yours. I used the freshly ground nutmeg which I think was really good, but the orange zest is what stood out the most in mine. I'm sorry you didn't care for them. A few bakers also added the cardamom that was in the text, but not in the list of ingredients which I am sure gave the cookies an even better flavor. I want to try them again with cardamom now. :) The presentation of your cookies is so pretty!
ReplyDeleteMine were darker and I agree, they didn't taste the same as the biscoff cookies, but mine were good. My coworkers enjoyed it and came back from more...so that's saying something for my health conscious workers.
ReplyDeletei agree, not my fave. the orange zest threw me off!
ReplyDeleteIt's sometimes hard to admit we don't really like something. I have made 54 recipes from Baking From My Home To Yours. I had 1 recipe I didn't like, I actually had to throw away. But, great odds I'd say.
ReplyDeleteGloria - I love your picture! I agree with you, not really my favorite. There wasn't anything that I could detect that went wrong, but I just don't like crispy cookies as much as soft and chewy ones.
ReplyDeleteSorry you weren't a fan of these! They were a little crispy for my personal tastes but my family liked them so I was happy. I missed the Speculoos with FFwD and would love to give them a try sometime soon and see how they compare.
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