I really have no frame of reference for these cookies. I’ve never flown with Delta, so I haven’t crossed paths with “the greatest snack in the sky“. And in the last year when Biscoff recipes started popping up on food blogs (in both spread and cookie form), I honestly had no idea what they were talking about.
The Baked boys share their obsession with these cookies in their recipe for Speculaas; a shortbread type of cookie with brown sugar and warm spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves). Even though I have no idea if these cookies taste like the inspiration, I will say that to me, they were essentially just like a soft gingerbread cookie, although not nearly as delicious as the ones I made at Christmas. They were barely sweet, and that tiny addition of orange zest was all I could taste (I detest citrus in baked goods, but I added it anyway, since I was trying to follow the recipe exactly).
I actually made these cookies in my food processor, as the recipe calls for cutting in the butter, and I was feeling a bit lazy after my Sunday morning ass-kicking workout with my trainer. Since I made half the recipe, I only added half an egg (i.e. lightly beat it in a measuring cup and added half), but the dough seemed super dry and crumbly. I wrapped it in plastic wrap to chill, but I had a bad feeling that it would be a disaster to roll out. Back in the FP it went, with the other half of the egg, and the dough came together easily. It rolled out okay, but wasn’t that smooth. I’m not sure if this is because I halved the recipe, but I’m curious to see if everyone else’s dough came together nicely without adding any extra liquid.
You can find the recipe here!
Previous Baked Sunday Morning Posts:
Susan
February 2, 2012 12:10 amI really liked these, too. I love that you used hearts. I skipped the ginger & used cardamom.
cookinchemist
February 1, 2012 10:34 pmI halved the recipe too and my dough was actually a little on the sticky side. Not sure why?
I haven’t had the Delta cookies either, but I would have to counter the best cookie in the sky version as Frontier serves fresh (hot) chocolate chip cookies 🙂 Nonetheless, these were good and we really enjoyed them here!
Gloria
February 1, 2012 10:26 pmYour hearts look great. I was too lazy to roll out my dough and instead rolled mine into a log and sliced off rounds. I wasn’t a big fan of these cookies, but glad I tried them. I don’t think the original Delta cookies have orange zest in them, so I was surprised to see it this recipe.
Crystal
February 1, 2012 1:16 amThese look great! I had no exposure to these cookies either prior to our Club Baked event. I only had round cutters but will buy some molds later on and try this or another version of the Speculaas again.
Lorraine
January 31, 2012 8:29 pmYour hearts came out great! I didn’t know much about these cookies until I baked them this weekend. I guess I have had those Delta cookies, but I found these to be pretty different. I didn’t use the orange zest at all because I didn’t have it. I’m not sure how much of a difference it made, but it seems like other speculaas recipes don’t have orange zest
Byn
January 31, 2012 10:22 pmi wish i left it out! i really didn’t like the citrus in there.
Nina
January 31, 2012 2:37 amYour hearts look lovely! I noticed that I must have baked mine for too long. Mine were a nice crunch and much darker. They look so lovely! I’m so glad that all of us who are baking from the Baked book were able to do a recipe together!
jaime
January 30, 2012 3:05 pmLove the hearts! I wish I would have been so clever! They look great! Well done 🙂
Krissy
January 29, 2012 7:45 pmI used a food processor and the dough was really, REALLY, crumbly after finished mixing, however, after chilling overnight, it was much nicer, even sticky. So it worked, but if I’d not had a long chilling time, I don’t think it could have been rolled without extra moisture. Your cookies look lovely. (I also added extra spice…like more cinnamon and the cardamom which was not listed in the ingredients but was in the procedure.)
Elaine
January 29, 2012 2:13 pmHi! I made mine heart-shaped as well. 🙂 I like the color of yours – they came out much lighter than mine. Mine look like they have molasses in them. I actually used the pastry cutter and didn’t need to add any extra liquid in mine. I thought the dough was rather sticky. I really liked the orange zest flavor, but agree it was intense and mine probably more so because I infused the sugar with the zest instead of adding it later. I like citrus in my baked goods so it worked out for me. You would probably like Dorie Greenspan’s version (she calls them Speculoos) because they do not have the orange zest. You can see a photo of them on my blog, but we can’t post the recipe, but I am sure you can google it if you would like to try it.