Speculaas

The spice trade crystallised into a biscuit

Origin: Netherlands

From the journey of Cinnamon.

Speculaas are the direct expression of Dutch colonial spice power in edible form. The name is thought to derive from the Latin speculum (mirror), referring to the carved wooden moulds into which the dough was pressed before baking. Every spice in speculaas (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, white pepper) was controlled by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) at its height in the 17th and 18th centuries. When the Dutch wrested control of the Sri Lankan cinnamon trade from the Portuguese in 1658, cinnamon became the most prized ingredient in speculaas, giving the biscuits their characteristic warm, sweet-spice depth.

Ingredients

Dry

  • 250 g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 0.25 tsp fine salt

Spice Mix

  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1.5 tsp ground ginger
  • 0.5 tsp ground cloves
  • 0.25 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 0.5 tsp ground cardamom
  • 0.25 tsp ground white pepper

Fat

  • 150 g cold butter, cubed

Sweetener

  • 100 g dark muscovado sugar

Wet

  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp whole milk

Method

  1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, all the spices and salt.
  2. Add the cold cubed butter and rub into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
  3. Stir in the dark muscovado sugar.
  4. Add the egg and milk. Mix together with a fork, then bring the dough together with your hands into a firm, smooth ball. If the dough is sticky, add a little more flour.
  5. Flatten into a disc, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  6. Preheat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan). Line two baking trays with baking parchment.
  7. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to approximately 4mm thickness. Cut into rectangles approximately 5x8cm, or press into lightly floured speculaas moulds.
  8. Place on the prepared baking trays with a small gap between each biscuit. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are set and lightly golden. The biscuits will still feel slightly soft in the centre.
  9. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack: the biscuits will crisp up significantly as they cool. Do not move them until fully cool.

Notes

Speculaas improve with resting: store in an airtight tin for 2 days before eating for best flavour. They keep well for up to 3 weeks in a tin. If you have access to a speculaas mould, the traditional windmill or Saint Nicholas figure shapes are pressed in before baking.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
c. 1890 CE
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1890 CE
3000 BCE100 CE1640 CE1890 CE
Cinnamon

Cinnamon

Cinnamomum spp.

Spices & AromaticsTree Bark

🌍Origin

Sri Lanka, South India and Southeast Asia. — c. 3000 BCE

🌱Domestication

Three distinct species of Cinnamomum shaped the global cinnamon story, each with its own origin, character, and trade corridor. Cinnamomum verum (true cinnamon) is native to Sri Lanka’s hill country, where Salagama caste peelers developed the delicate art of stripping, drying, and rolling the inner bark into thin, layered quills: a technique unchanged for millennia. Sri Lanka produces 80–90% of the world’s C. verum to this day, and it remains the benchmark for quality. Cinnamomum malabatrum (Malabar cinnamon) is native to the Western Ghats of Kerala: here it is not the bark but the aromatic leaf that is traded, known to the ancient world as malabathrum and recorded in the 1st-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as a prized Malabar coast export. Cinnamomum burmannii (Indonesian or Korintje cinnamon) is native to the forested highlands of Sumatra and is the most widely sold cinnamon in the world today: bolder, more pungent, and less complex than C. verum, it is the cinnamon of American supermarkets, most Southeast Asian cooking, and the majority of commercially produced cinnamon products globally. Cinnamomum cassia (Chinese cassia) has a fourth independent origin in the forests of Guangxi and Fujian, traded westward along the Silk Road since at least 2700 BCE. The spice on any given kitchen shelf is one of these four, and they are not interchangeable.

⛵Global Voyage

One of the most prized ancient spices, cinnamon’s source was deliberately obscured by Arab and Phoenician traders for millennia (a disinformation campaign so effective that Roman authors believed it was harvested from bird nests or guarded by giant serpents in an unnamed southern land. The quest to reach and control the cinnamon supply drove some of the most consequential chapters in European colonial history: the Portuguese seized Sri Lanka in 1518, the Dutch VOC ousted them in 1638 and established the brutal plantation system that devastated the island’s forests, before the British took control in 1796. The ancient Roman name for Sri Lanka was Serendib) the origin of the English word serendipity (because any trader who stumbled upon it was set for life. A parallel story unfolded in China, where Cinnamomum cassia had been independently cultivated and traded westward along the Silk Road since at least 2700 BCE, reaching Persia and Arabia through an entirely separate corridor long before Sri Lankan C. verum arrived. A third thread ran through the Indonesian archipelago: Cinnamomum burmannii) native to the forests of West Sumatra, cultivated by the Minangkabau people of the Padang Highlands (entered the spice trade through the Srivijaya Empire and the maritime networks of the Javanese archipelago. Bolder and more pungent than the Sri Lankan original, it is this variety that would eventually become the dominant cinnamon of the modern era, filling American supermarket jars and Southeast Asian kitchens alike. And a fourth corridor ran from Kerala’s Western Ghats, where Cinnamomum malabatrum was traded as malabathrum) an aromatic leaf, not a bark (through the Indian Ocean networks of the 1st century CE. From the Americas to Scandinavia, cinnamon became woven into the culinary identity of nearly every civilisation it reached) but its story is not one origin, one species, or one people: it is three or four distinct trees from different corners of Asia, converging on the same spice rack.

🍽Modern Culinary Role

One of the world’s most universally used spices, but which cinnamon depends entirely on where you are. Cinnamomum verum (true or Ceylon cinnamon), produced almost entirely in Sri Lanka, commands premium prices for its delicate, floral, paper-thin quills; it is the cinnamon of European fine baking, Mexican canela, and the historically authentic spice trade. Cinnamomum burmannii (Indonesian or Korintje cinnamon), produced primarily in Sumatra, supplies the bulk of the American market and most commercial ground cinnamon globally, its thick, dark bark is more pungent and astringent than C. verum and contains higher levels of coumarin. Cinnamomum cassia (Chinese cassia) and its close relative Cinnamomum loureiroi (Vietnamese cassia) dominate the East and Southeast Asian markets, their bold, sharp flavour essential to Chinese five-spice and Vietnamese phở. Cinnamomum malabatrum (Malabar leaf cinnamon) survives as a niche spice in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, its aromatic leaves used in rice cooking and folk medicine. What is sold simply as ‘cinnamon’ in most of the world is C. burmannii; what is sold as ‘true’ or ‘Ceylon’ cinnamon is C. verum. The distinction matters: flavour, coumarin content, and price differ substantially.

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