For the current Christmas season, The Speculaas Spice Company is adding several larger wooden moulds to its existing range of wooden moulds allowing bakers, young and old, new or more experienced, to bake authentic looking Dutch speculaas biscuits the old-fashion way.
Company owner Steven Dotsch: “In the ‘good old’ days speculaas biscuits were made using a wooden speculaas mould.
"Speculaas biscuits are the mirror image of the carved wooden moulds they are baked in. The wooden speculaas mould is the old-fashioned cake form that the (home) baker used in order to make speculaas biscuits. These days of course all this has been mechanised.”
“Traditionally, speculaas biscuits come in the form of windmill shaped biscuits or male or female figurines, known as 'lovers', but these days the biscuit moulds can take many different shapes.
"Young men used to decorate these figurines and give them to their sweetheart. If she accepted, she loved him back. Apparently this is where where the Dutch expression for flirting, “iemand versieren” (literally 'to decorate someone'), comes from”.The vandotsch speculaas moulds are made from specially selected untreated European beech wood which is grown in plantations, rather than being logged from a primeval forest.
The moulds are all carved using traditional methods in an artisan environment in The Netherlands.
For best results, the vandotsch speculaas moulds need oiling before first use.
What about The vandotsch speculaas spice mix?
Steven goes on to add: "The vandotsch speculaas spice mix is based on the spice mix recipe from my Dutch grandmother. The vandotsch speculaas spice mix consists of a perfectly-balanced mixture of nine organic spices including real, high grade, cinnamon from Sri Lanka, cloves, ginger and six other spices in order to give our spice mix that unique kick.
"The vandotsch speculaas spice mix is endorsed by home bakers, food bloggers, chefs and celebrity bakers alike, including two Great British Bake Off finalists.
Both the vandotsch speculaas spice mix as well as the wooden moulds make a perfect birthday or Christmas gift for young and old to enjoy making speculaas biscuits the ‘old-fashion’ way.
"The gift pack consists of the vandotsch speculaas spice pack together with one of our authentic Dutch vandotsch speculaas moulds and an information sheet how to use the mould as well as how to make the speculaas biscuits. The packs can be purchased online at https://www.speculaasspice.co.uk.
The new wooden moulds
The Speculaas Spice Company have a limited number of larger wooden vandotsch speculaas moulds for sale at: https://www.speculaasspice.co.uk/wooden-molds including:
• A Dutch clog - £16.49
• a man and a woman, both in typical Dutch clothing - £26.99
• an iconic Dutch windmill - £24.99, and
• a Sinterklaas/SantaClaus mould - £28.99
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