Gluten-free stuffed speculaas
Speculaas is a traditional Dutch cookie (also known as speculoos in other countries). It is a delicious autumn cookie with a warm spicy flavour. This is because of the autumn spices that are used in it: cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and cloves. The spices mixture that we use for making this cookie is actually very similar to the pumpkin spice that is used a lot in the United States. In November and December, when we celebrate the holiday Sinterklaas, speculaas is eaten a lot. We eat speculaas in its simplest form as a cookie, but we also have stuffed speculaas and gluten-free stuffed speculaas is one of my favourites.
Dutch stuffed speculaas is two layers of speculaas with a layer of almond paste in between. Almond paste is made of ground almonds and sugar and the combination of the almond paste and the speculaas is wonderful. It is one of my favourite treats in the winter months.
I actually thought stuffed speculaas was something I couldn’t eat anymore since ground almonds are low FODMAP only in a very small amount, but when I started to calculate I realised that when I made a slightly thinner layer of almond paste, I could still make low FODMAP and gluten-free stuffed speculaas. You can eat a maximum of two pieces of this stuffed speculaas at a time, but it is better than nothing!
And I must say, this gluten-free stuffed speculaas is just as good as the stuffed speculaas with gluten that I ate before I had intolerances.
Gluten-free stuffed speculaas with homemade almond paste
I choose to make my own almond paste. You can easily make this with almond flour, sugar and a bit of lemon zest. The only thing to keep in mind is that it has to rest in the fridge for a week. So you’ll have to prepare it a week before you want to make your Dutch stuffed speculaas.
If you don’t feel like making it yourself, you can also buy almond paste in the supermarket and use it in this recipe. Just make sure that no high FODMAP ingredients have been added.
Important: almond flour is low FODMAP up to 24 g per portion. If you cut the stuffed speculaas into 12 pieces, one piece of speculaas contains 12 g of almond flour. This means that a maximum of two pieces of stuffed speculaas per portion are low FODMAP.
I made some extra speculaas dough and used the other half of the dough to make speculaas chunks. Thick speculaas cookies. And wow, I never had such delicious speculaas chunks in my life, they were amazing! Definitely give these a try too if you love speculaas!
Laat je het me weten als je mijn gluten-free stuffed speculaas gemaakt hebt? Ik zou het heel leuk vinden als je me laat weten wat je van het recept vindt door hieronder een reactie en een rating achter te laten. Je kunt ook je creaties met me delen op Instagram door de hashtag #karlijnskitchen te gebruiken of door mij te taggen via @karlijnskitchen.
Gluten-free stuffed speculaas
- Total Time: 2 hours 10 mins
- Servings: 12 1x
Description
Gluten-free stuffed speculaas! A traditional Dutch spiced cookie with a filling of almond paste. So yummy! This version is low FODMAP, gluten-free and low lactose.
Ingredients
For the almond paste
- 150 g almond flour (or almonds that you grind yourself)
- 150 g granulated sugar
- Zest of 1/2 lemon
- 2–3 tbsp water
- egg yolk
For the speculaas
- 240 g gluten-free flour
- 160 g dark brown sugar
- 3 tbsp pumpkin spice
- 200 g cold butter (you can replace this with coconut oil to make the recipe entirely lactose-free)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp lactose-free milk
- A pinch of salt
- Almond halves or slices to decorate
- One egg, to brush on top of the dough
Instructions
A week before
- Mix in a bowl the almond flour with the granulated sugar. Add the lemon zest and 2-3 tablespoons water. Knead until you have a firm paste. Not too wet and not too dry.
- Turn it into a ball and wrap the ball in clingfilm. Put it in the fridge to rest for a few days (a week is best).
Baking day
- Mix in a bowl the gluten-free flour, dark brown sugar, pumpkin spice, salt and baking powder together. Add the cold butter and the milk and knead into a supple dough. If the dough remains too crumbly, you can add some milk. If it is too wet, you can add some extra flour.
- Roll the dough into a ball and cover with clingfilm. Leave to rest in the fridge for at least an hour (or overnight).
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). Grease a rectangular baking tin and cover with baking parchment.
- Roll the dough into two rectangular pieces. The one piece slightly bigger than the other. If the dough is difficult to roll, you can also divide pieces of dough over the baking tin and press them with your fingers into a flat piece. Put the largest piece of dough into the baking tin and also press some dough into the sides of the tin so standing edges are formed.
- Add an egg yolk to the ball of almond paste and knead it into a supple mixture. Divide the almond paste over the layer of dough in the baking tin.
- Put the second layer of dough on top of the almond paste and press the sides together so the almond paste is covered by the dough on all sides.
- Beat an egg and brush it on top of the dough. Decorate the dough with some almond halves.
- Bake the stuffed speculaas in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Category: Cakes & sweets
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Dutch
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 piece (1/12th)
- Calories: 381
- Sugar: 14
- Fat: 21
- Carbohydrates: 43
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 4
Together we go for a calm belly!
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7 Comments
Ahhh, the angels are singing! This looks so good. Def making this soon!
Aww thanks 🙂 Soon there will be a recipe online for your favourite: original speculoos/speculaas too 😉
I didn’t know that stuffed speculaas was a thing! I associate those cookies with my mom–we always called them windmill cookies because they often come shaped like windmills in the U.S., and my mom loves them. I bet she’d be thrilled if I made some of these for her for the holidays.
Aww 🙂 They come in windmill shape too here!
I just made your recipe for filled speculaas, but the GF flour I used was very sticky and almost impossible to roll out. I either need to find better GF flour or leave the dough in the fridge overnight(I left it in for about 3 hours) or maybe both. I used store-bought almond paste this time for a quick recipe test before the holidays. I definitely plan to make this again. Thank you so much for posting this GF recipe. I grew up eating this for Sinterklaas and have missed it since going GF!
The dough will be stickier for this recipe. If you can’t roll it out properly, you can also flatten it with your hands instead of rolling it out. For me it also helps to put the dough between two sheets of baking parchment and roll it out like that.
Thanks for the suggestion. Is there a particular GF flour brand that you prefer?