Speculaas

The weeks prior to December 5th are always a busy period in the Netherlands, because on that day, or rather evening, it is time for Sinterklaas. On the eve of Saint Nicholas's birthday, we exchange presents in his honour. This is one of the biggest Dutch holidays, an evening on which people exchange presents, badly-written poetry, and interesting 'surprises' (Sinterklaas, incidentally, was the inspiration for the American Santa Claus, and there are several similarities between the feasts). It also involves lots and lots of candy, of the type you only eat around this time of year (although supermarkets have started stocking things earlier and earlier, with some shops selling pepernoten as early as September). The important ones are pepernoten (or kruidnoten), speculaas (of which kruidnoten are also made), suikergoed, borstplaat, and taai taai. All Dutch oddities sometimes found in Belgium or Germany, but no further afield than that. Which is a shame, because they're all very tasty.
When I was kid, I loved to make my own pepernoten (a standard thing in primary school), but I hadn't made them for years. When we were in Belgium, we picked up a speculaasplankje, which is a wooden board with figures cut out. Mine has a windmill shape and a rooster shape, figures which undoubtedly have some traditional meaning that I don't remember. But you don't need a speculaasplankje to make speculaas, you can just use a cookie cutter instead.
There are a wide variety of recipes, but I used the following:

175 g plain flour
100 g butter
75 g brown muscavado sugar
baking powder
speculaaskruiden (mixed spice: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom and pepper)
2 tablespoons water
almond flakes

I have not specified the amount of speculaaskruiden as I think these should be added according to taste: it can be quite spicy if you put in too much).

Preheat your oven to 160 C.
Mix all the ingredients together until they form a firm ball. This may take a while. If your dough has become too soft and runny, put it in the fridge for a while to firm it up.
Now you can roll out the dough and cut out the shapes, or if you're using a speculaasplankje, you first put a but of flour in the shape, then press a ball of dough in the shape until it is completely filled, cut off the superfluous dough, and then 'tap' the shape onto a prepared baking tray (this may take some practise).
Sprinkle the almond flakes over the top and bake for about 20-30 minutes until they are firm.

I used my remaining dough to make pepernoten: just roll a small amount of dough between your hands until it becomes round, and press it down gently onto the baking tray. These may need a little bit longer in the oven.

Both are great eaten warm just out of the oven, but you can keep them if you store them in an airtight container. Otherwise they will go soft and chewy pretty quickly.