Speculoos Cookies--from Belgium for Christmas

I have not heard about Speculoos until I visited my friend in Brussels two years ago. She insisted that I take home a heavy jar of that typical Belgium specialty for kids to try. It looked pretty much like crushed cookies mixed with caramel.

Speculoos for Belgium is what Nutella is for Italians, and peanut butter for Americans--a spread that is served on anything you like, mostly bread. It is creamy but at the same time almost crunchy with the buttery caramel taste, enhanced by some spices.

I did not expect to be impressed much with Speculoos. But when I tried it, I became highly addicted to it, especially with a sweet tooth like mine. I alternated with my son making frequent trips to the kitchen cabinet where Speculoos was hidden and three days later the whole jar was gone.

I looked at the list of ingredients trying to discover the secret of its taste but there was nothing special in it but regular cookie ingredients. I searched different sources to get the right recipe. All the recipes I found were pretty similar. The only difference is that some used egg, some did not. Some recipes called for light brown sugar, other for dark brown sugar. Recently, one was also shared in The Washington Post Wednesday food section.

This week I volunteered to prepare two dozen cookies for my son's Christmas cookie party at school. Instead of making typical American cookies, which I am not good at, I decided to try the WP recipe for Speculoos cookies. My choice was also very seasonally appropriate: in Belgium, they make these cookies on the 6th of December for St. Nicolas and serve them trough the entire Christmas season.

Speculoos cookies are traditionally very thin and either square or animal-shaped, but it is hard to make them very thin at home. I made them about 1/8 inch thick and used Christmas cookie cutters to make different shapes. I also used an advice from the Washington Post recipe and rolled out the dough between wax paper sheets which made working with that pretty sandy dough much easier.

Speculoos Cookies

Ingredients:
2 sticks plus two tbsp (250 g) of good quality butter, room temperature,
1 and 1/2 cup dark brown sugar,
4 and 1/2 cups sifted unbleached, all purpose flour,
1 tsp baking powder,
3 tbsp milk,
1/2 egg (or no egg at all but add extra tbsp of milk),
1 tsp ground clove,
1 tsp ground cinnamon,
1/2 tsp ground star anise,
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg,
1/2 tsp salt,

Preparation:
1. Beat butter with sugar in a stand-up mixer on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until smooth. Stop the mixer a couple of times and scrape the walls of the bowl.
2. Beat egg with milk in a separate bowl and add to the butter mixture. Run mixer for about 2 minutes, or until all ingredients are combined.
3. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add them to the mixture, about a cup at a time, while running the mixer on a low speed. Let incorporate each dose in between, scraping again the walls in between. The dough would be kind of lumpy and sandy but not too sticky.
4. Place the dough on a working surface. Knead gently to form one big ball. Divide it in half.
5. Cut four large pieces of waxing paper about 20 inches long. Place half of the dough in between two wax paper sheets and roll it out with a rolling pin into a rather thin square. Leave the dough between the wax paper sheets. Place both of them on top of each other on a cookie sheet and refrigerate, preferably over night or at least for two hours.
6. Preheat oven to 370F.
7. Grease two or three large cookie sheets with butter.
8. Place the first piece of a dough on a working surface. Remove wax paper from the top of the dough and cut out cookies with the cookie cutter (or a sharp knife, if you do rectangles).

9. Using a thin spatula, transfer them to the baking sheet. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, until brown. Cool them on a wire rack.

Serve plain or coated with melted good quality Belgium chocolate.

Sour Cabbage Sautéed with Mushrooms

Sour cabbage is a typical winter vegetable. In Polish cuisine there are at least three types of dishes featuring it as a main ingredient: sour cabbage soup, sour cabbage salad, and many versions of sour cabbage cooked or, rather sautéed, with dried mushrooms, including our famous "bigos".

But I have just realized that, so far, I have not posted any sour cabbage recipes. One reason for that is that my favorite sour cabbage-based dish (sour cabbage sautéed with dried porcini mushrooms), which we serve for Christmas Eve, requires a lot of dried porcinis, which may not be affordable here in the US, unless you have picked up your porcinis yourself (like my friend from Bethesda, who finds porcinis in his backyard).

So, if someone asked me about a sour cabbage dish I would probably recommend this simple modern dish based on sour cabbage and white mushrooms, which in Poland we often pair with cabbage. It is an easy dish and requires only widely available ingredients.

There is a long-standing tradition of eating sour cabbage in France, especially in Alzace (choucroute) and Germany (sauerkraut) and also among Jewish people. However, I noticed recently an increased interest in sour cabbage beyond this traditional circle. I suppose this is as much for its rather exotic sour taste (at least for those who did not grow up eating it) as for its great health value.

The lactic acid bacteria (lactobacilli) play a key role in the transformation of cabbage into sour cabbage and are also important anti-cancer agents. The importance of lactobacilli has been acknowledged by modern nutrition science, and many food items are now enriched with them. They can sometimes cause a strong digestive reaction in some people, but they are also responsible for the very low rate of digestive tract cancer, especially colon cancer, among the Polish population.

Those who are curious how cooked sour cabbage tastes, may wish to begin with this sample dish.

Sauerkraut saute with mushrooms

Ingredients:
2 cups sour cabbage (look for it under "sauerkraut" in your local supermarket),
2 cups chopped onion,
2 cups finally sliced white cap mushrooms,
salt and freshly ground pepper,
1 tsp caraway seeds,
4-6 tbsp vegetable oil.

Preparation:
1. In a frying pan heat the oil and fry the onions for about 5 minutes, until transparent.
2. Add mushrooms and fry together until the mushrooms become slightly gold.
3. Add to the pan cabbage, caraway seeds, freshly ground pepper, and mix everything thoroughly.
4. Turn down the heat to "low" and sautée cabbage for 20-30 minutes, until it is soft.

This cabbage tastes best served with water boiled or roasted potatoes. It can also be used to stuff savory pastry and pierogi.

Poppy Seeds Cake--to Follow Tradition

There is in Poland a long tradition of poppy seeds cakes for Christmas. Choices are many: strudels, cookies, croissants, tarts, and elegant cakes layered with cream.

Poppy seeds desserts have been so popular in Poland that nowadays you do not need to go through the messy and labor intensive process of soaking and grinding poppy seeds several times, but you can get a very good ready-to-use poppy seeds paste in most food stores. I usually bring a couple of cans of it from Poland for my Christmas cake.

My favorite poppy seeds desserts is the layered cake with light coffee cream. Somehow the combination of poppy seeds and coffee is very unique and sophisticated. But not everyone has access to the really good quality poppy seeds paste. Fir instance, the one that you can buy in the US in small cans next to almond paste is not good enough, so I decided to post a simple poppy seeds cake that we make from whole seeds.

Whole poppy seeds are sold in Eastern European or Middle Eastern food stores--especially Jewish--and sometimes in Indian stores, and in some regular food stores where it they are sold as a spice. Even for this simple yet delicious cake it is important to get a good quality, preferably blue, poppy seeds. When you buy them, please make sure they are fresh. Unfortunately, sometimes they may have a kind of musty taste, which can ruin the whole cake.

Poppy Seeds Cake

Ingredients for the cake:
2 cups flour,
2 stick butter,
1 and 1/2 cup sugar,
4 eggs,
1 tsp baking powder,
1 cup milk,
1 cup poppy seeds,

Ingredients for ganache:
1 cup milk chocolate chips,
3 tbsp half and half cream or table cream.

Preparation:
1. Put milk in a medium pot together with butter cut into cubes. Bring to boil. Turn off the heat and cool down the mixture to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 350F.
3. Separate eggs. Put the yolks in a bowl of the stand-up mixer. Add sugar and beat together until eggs are almost white. Working at a slow speed pour in milk with butter, then flour with baking powder and, at the end, poppy seeds. Let it mix well.
4. Beat whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Using a spatula fold them in the poppy seeds batter. Mix well.

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5. Spread a tsp of butter over the nine inch baking tin with high walls. Sprinkle with a little bit of flour (Wondra is the best for this purpose) until all the surface is covered. Pour in batter and put in the oven.

6. Bake for 30 minutes, then increase the heat to 370 for another 15-20 minutes, until the top of the cake is gold. Cool down the cake completely.
7. In a small pot melt chocolate with the half and half cream, stirring all the time until it is melted and smooth. Cool down a little bit and spread on top of the cake. Let the chocolate set for about half an hour in the refrigerator and serve.