Every year when I make my Christmas Cookies, I try out one or two new recipes. Or new-to-me recipes. Some are traditional cookies, some are modern cookies. One of the two new types that I made this year are these: Speculaas (Dutch) aka Spekulatius (German). They are a traditional Dutch spice cookie, usually rolled very thin and then imprinted with a design. While I have a few imprinting rolling pins, my dough wasn’t cooperating particularly, so instead of the imprinting pin, I went with a Christmas-y cookie stamp. All the same in the end. These cookies are very nice, a lovely traditional spice and will definitely stay in the cookie madness repertoire.
cookies
I had intended to make rugulach. But then last night, just before I rolled up the rolls here, I found myself uninspired and frankly, a bit lazy. And I couldn’t find my ruler — and if you know me, I can’t cut a straight line if I tried. So, instead, I rolled the rugulach dough into logs, with the jam spread in the inside, and baked these Spiced Peach Swirl Cookies up this morning. Turned out it was a pretty nice compromise.
I was lucky enough to be given some lovely local honey the other day. I love honey, and any time it is local, all the better. So, with a bit of said honey, I decided to make these Honey Oatmeal Scotchies — oatmeal cookies sweetened with honey and butterscotch chips. Very nice snack — or maybe to go into lunch boxes if kids are going back to school (big IF there, right?)
So, these cookies are a little out of character for me: for starters, they are bigger, like the size of my hand. That is unusual for me as I prefer smaller cookies. And second, they use artificial colors in the sugar, which I do once in a blue moon. But back in late June, i made some fantastic strawberry jam, and then in mid-July, I found a strawberry shaped cookie cutter, so I knew that these cookies needed to me. They are actually quite yummy, with just a hint of almond in the cookie itself. And the homemade jam is great too.












