Belgium is a tiny country, but it sure does how to make cookies. I grew up with spéculoos, probably because I lived close to the Belgium border.

My friend Laurent who is Parisian never heard of Spéculoos. So that’s why I came up to that conclusion. Actually The Netherlands and Germany do have their version of Spéculoos, and Northern France too. It’s a crunchy cookie with spices, and quite a substantial amount of cinnamon.

I did not bake those cookies for myself since I am not a huge fan of cinnamon but for one of my friend Mike. I thought Mike being American, he must like cinnamon. Usually spéculoos are thinner and have animal or rectangular shapes, I played a bit with it and made them round and thicker.

The particularity of theses spéculoos is the cinnamon essential oil that I added. I bought a book called “cuisiner aux huiles essentielles” (Cooking with essential oils” from Valerie Cupillard) which is quite an innovative cuisine.

Essential oils don’t only have to be used in baths, perfumes, massages, etc…if you only use a few drops they can also used in cooking. It gives a complete new dimension to your vegetarian dishes. Cooking with essential oils are a true olfactory discovery linked to the pleasure of your palate. Essential oils are very concentrate and a few drops are sufficient.

There are some strict rules to follow when cooking with essential oils. They always have to be diluted in a oily or syrupy mixture, and never be ingested pure.

Those cookies are delightful with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, or can even be used as a base for various desserts, such as on crumbles, verrines, crusts, etc…their use is infinite and their flavor exquisite. It’s truly very versatile cookie with lots of personality.

Ingredients for about 15-20 spéculoos

• 8.8 oz (or 250 g) flour
• 4.4 oz (or 125 g) brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp four spices
• 3-4 drops of cinnamon essential oil
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3.52 oz (or 100 g) butter
• 1.76 oz (or 50 g) almonds, ground
• 1 pinch salt

Preparation

In a mixing container, blend flour, sugar, ground almonds, baking powder and spice powders. Melt butter, and beat egg. Add drops of cinnamon essential oil to the butter, then mix butter and egg to the flour-spices mixture. Add salt. Mix all ingredients well, you will obtain a soft dough. Form cylinders with dough of about 2 inches diameter. Wrap in plastic film and place in refrigerator overnight. The day after, remove from refrigerator and cut in small disks, about 5 mm. If you like them thicker cut them to 1 cm.

Place on a cookie sheet and cook in a pre-heated oven at 350F for about 15 minutes. Do not over cook or the spéculoos will become too hard.

I reconciled with cinnamon thanks to Rui, my lovely Japanese neighbor. I decided I didn’t like cinnamon after moving to the US, where cinnamon is used in almost every dessert. I think I had a cinnamon overdose and refused to eat anything where I could taste it. Rui, gave me half a loaf of bread she made even though she said it didn’t turn out very well and was embarrassed to give it to me. I gave her fresh yeast a few days earlier, and she used it making this bread. One thing I never told her is that I don’t eat cinnamon and that I have been on a cinnamon rebellion for years. Jamais de cannelle !!! So I politely took the bread and what else to do? since I am polite, I tasted it, even though you could smell cinnamon one kilometer away…I thought well, if I don’t like it, will I be lying and tell her, I love it, or be honest and say, I hate it? Tough call, what would you do? Polite or brutally honest?

I was lucky, it was love at first bite! What a delicious, moist, and soft bread, a pure delight for breakfast with butter and jam. Then I thought “well, for someone who doesn’t like cinnamon, I did a pretty good job finishing it”.

After that happy encounter with cinnamon, I decided to make my own bread…yes with cinnamon…actually, this bread is closer to a brioche than to what we French call bread. It has the ingredients and texture of a brioche. Now thinking about it, we do have a bread that is called “pain brioché” which is something in between a bread and a brioche, so talking about nuances and making people confused, yes the French are the masters of it.

It’s faster to make than a bread or a brioche, you don’t have to prepare it the night before, so it’s a great recipe to have in hands. Essayer c’est l’adopter! To try it is to adopt it.

Ingredients for one loaf

• 8.81 oz (or 250 g) flour
• 0.52 oz (or 15 g) yeast
• 3.7 fl oz (or 11 cl) milk
• 0.35 oz (or 10 g sugar) + 1 tbs
• 1 small egg
• 5 g salt
• 0.88 oz (or 25 g) butter
• 4 tbs raisins
• cinnamon to taste

Preparation

Dissolve yeast in 1/3 of milk. In a recipient mix milk/yeast mixture, sugar and 1/5 of the flour, mix well and let it rest for about 1 hour. Add the rest of the ingredients (except raisins, cinnamon, 1 tbs sugar) and mix well, to form an elastic dough, knead the dough for about 15 minutes.

Form a ball, and let rise for about 2 hours. Flatten the ball to form a rectangle, spread 1 tbs sugar raisins and cinnamon. Roll the dough and let it rise for another hour. Using a brush, spread some yolk on top. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 45 minutes.

This has been something that arrived out of the blue after a crazy wedding weekend…ricotta is an ingredient I like to put everywhere, and I love it particularly in desserts.

On my last trip to France, I bought a pain d’épices spices mix. I have wanted to make pain d’épices for a long time, it literally translates to “spiced bread” and is a wonderful and spicy cake from Alsace, my neighboring region. The base of the cake is honey and lots of spices, it has a dark brownish color, and is quite sweet. Kids love it. Even though you can find many variations to the cake, the city of Reims has its own, the city of Dijon as well. In Alsace you can find a Pain d’épices Museum that retraces the history of that cake with all the tools developed for its fabrication.

I would certainly not call this cake a pain d’épices, but it does have a few important ingredients that pain d’épice has such as the spices and the honey, so there is an after taste of pain d’épices. The spice mix I used is composed of star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and clove. Since I don’t like cinnamon that much, I did not add too much, but I know that Americans are very fond of that spice, so whoever likes it can add more if desired. For those who won’t have the spice mix available, I would just use the loose spices powder.

The ricotta made this cake very moist and soft and the spices are not overpowering, so it turned out really well. To be enjoyed with a nice hot cup of tea a bowl of fresh fruits or whatever you feel like having.

I added Mirabelle liquor which is something I brought from France, my dad makes it with our mirabelle plums he grows in his garden. You can find it I think in some specialty liquor store in the US. You can use other fruity liquor as well, such as calvados, Grand Marnier, etc…

Ingredients for 6

• 3 eggs
• 4 tbs honey
• 6 tbs light brown sugar
• 1 cup ricotta
• 1 cup white flour
• 1/3 cup quinoa flour
• 5 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 tbs dried cranberries
• 3 tbs golden raisins
• 2 tbs candied orange zests
• 2 tsp pain d’épices spices mix or (1/2 tps cinamon, 1/2 tsp cardamom, 1/2 tsp clove, 1/2 tsp star anise powder)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• zest of half a lemon
• 1 tbs herbal liquor (I used Mirabelle, a liquor made out of plums)
• Powdered sugar to sprinkle on top

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, mix eggs, sugar, honey then add ricotta. Add oil. Mix well. Add liquor. Add flour and baking powder and baking soda. Mix well. Add spices, lemon zest, and dried fruits. Mix well to get a smooth consistency.

Bake in a non-stick deep dish, in a 375F pre-heated oven for about 45 minutes, check after 30 min. to see how the cakes comes along, and keep cooking or until the cake is cooked all the way through.