Homemade Biscoff Biscuits (Speculoos Cookies)

These homemade Biscoff biscuits (AKA Belgian Speculoos cookies) are spiced with a mix of aromatic warm spices, filling your home with the most amazing baking smells while they bake. Totally addictive and simple to make, you’ll be wanting to bake them again and again!

Speculoos biscuits are well known for being versatile, being incorporated into other desserts and bakes, such as cheesecakes, buttercreams and mousses. And you might ask why to bake them if they are so easy to buy, the answer is they taste so much better and they are so simple to make!

ORIGIN OF LOTUS BISCOFF!

Biscoff is actually a product made by Lotus bakeries in Belgium, famous for their speculoos biscuits and biscuit-based products. Biscoff is short for biscuit with coffee. These cookies are often found today when served with coffee at restaurants.

This recipe is almost a perfect copy of the original Biscoff, but it does depend on having some specific ingredient types. These biscuits will still taste fantastic if you don’t have those ingredients at hand, but they will not be exactly the same as the original.

If you decide to give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment below and rate it – it’s really helpful to me and the other readers. And don’t forget to take a picture and tag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram. I love seeing what you come up with! 🙂

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INGREDIENTS

For this recipe all you need are these ingredients:

• Butter – adds structure and flavour. I use salted butter for most of my baking as it intensifies the flavours, but feel free to use unsalted if you prefer. Make sure it’s at room temperature before using.

• Brown sugar – gives the biscuits their crunch, crispy edges and a more flavourful taste. To get these to be as close to the original Biscoff you need to use Belgian brown sugar which comes from beets not cane sugar.

• Egg – this recipe uses only half an egg to bind and give flavour.

• Spices – to get those unique flavours we use ground Ceylon cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cloves and ground cardamon.

• Baking powder – is a raising agent that helps to create a light biscuit.

• Plain (all-purpose) flour – builds structure.

TIP: I highly recommend adding a good pinch of fine salt to your biscuit doughs. In a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory way, salt intensifies the mouths’ ability to taste sweetness. It is the sodium that sends signals to move glucose into the sweet taste receptor cells, thus triggering the cells to register sweetness. The result is that salt not only alerts our ‘salt sensitivity’, but also triggers our ‘sweet sensitive’ taste buds.

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SUBSTITUTIONS

While I am making recommendations for alternative ingredients, I haven’t necessarily tried them. If you try making any adaptions, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.

VEGAN OPTIONS

• Butter: I recommend Naturli vegan block or Flora plant-based block butter alternative.

• Egg – replace the egg with 2 teaspoons of water. The biscuits will be a little crunchier but still taste great.

GLUTEN-FREE OPTION

• Flour: replace the gluten flour with a 1:1 alternative gluten free flour, such as Doves Farm Free plain gluten free flour. If possible, choose a flour which contains xanthan gum or alternatively, add 1 tsp to your batter for stability. You can also try Doves Farm gluten free self-raising flour.

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WHAT VARIATIONS CAN I MAKE?

• Spices – try adding more spices, such as anise or white pepper.

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NUTRITION

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STORAGE AND FREEZING

Biscoff taste best fresh out of the oven, but they will keep for up to a week stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Freezing the baked biscuits – cool the biscuits completely after baking and place them in a freezer bag or airtight container. They will last up to 1 month. When you are ready to serve, allow the cookies to reach room temperature.

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TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

Here is some kitchen equipment that I use and recommend for this recipe.

• Earthenware Mixing Bowl Mason Cash, Cream 29 cm Chip Resistant.

I like the sturdiness of this bowl and its 4 litre capacity means I can use it for mixing just about everything in the kitchen. It is also microwave, freezer and dishwasher safe.

• Mixing Bowls Set of 5, Stainless Steel Nesting Bowls with Airtight Lids, 3 Grater Attachments, Size 5, 3, 2, 1.5, 0.63 QT

These different size mixing bowls are really useful depending on the amount of food you are preparing. They also have airtight lids that fit snugly to seal and keep food fresh, so this set can be used as dry storage bowls with lids on. The plastic lid of the largest bowl has a removable centre. Where one of 3 graters can be used.

• 3 Plastic Mixing Bowls, Non-Slip Base, Soft Grip Handle, Microwave and Dishwasher Safe, Compact, Stackable, Ideal for baking and cooking, off-white, 1.5 Litre, 2 Litre, 2.5 Litre.

I do own a plastic mixing bowl but I am personally not a big fan of them. These 3 bowls are on the smaller size but good for the odd cake making.

• Rolling Pin with Removable Silicone Thickness Guide Rings, Beech Wood (40 x 3.9 cm)

I love this rolling pin, its variable guide rings make rolling out biscuit doughs, pizzas, or flat breads so much easier!

• Silicone Baking Mat, Standard, 2 Count, 42 x 29.5 cm

I love using these baking mats. They stop everything sticking to the baking tray and are really easy to clean.

• Baking Tray, 45 x 30 x 2 cm

This tray is ideal for smaller bakes. sometimes I don’t always want to use my main baking tray that came with my oven as it is so big. This one is just the right size and I can use the silicone baking mat on it.

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TIP: I highly recommend using metric measurements and a digital kitchen scale, rather than cup measurements. If you have ever ended up with dry, dense or crumbly baked goods, it might be because of inaccurate volume measurements, not all measuring cups are made equally. All my recipes on this blog are carefully developed so that you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success, using metric measurements. It is also a lot easier, less messy and you will get far better, consistent results. 🙂
If you are interested in understanding conversions, here you will find the best conversion chart.

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RECIPE TIPS

Use room temperature ingredients – this is really important; it makes it easier to work with and allows the ingredients to emulsify properly.

Avoid over baking the biscuits – by keeping an eye on them towards the end of the baking time. All ovens are different and Biscoff are fairly thin and can easily get too dark or burn.

The dough should be sticky – avoid adding more flour to the recipe unless it’s really necessary. In method one for rolling out the dough we use parchment paper and allow time for the dough to rest in the freezer/fridge to firm up. In method two more flour is used to roll out the pastry but expect the biscuits to be harder.

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