Stamped Cookies #34 Speculaas Cookies from Martha Stewart

Stamped Cookies #34 Speculaas Cookies - made dough October 27, 2023 from Martha Stewart

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground mace

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

pinch of ground cloves

6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup water

confectioners' sugar, for dusting on surface

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, mace, white pepper and cloves.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in half the flour mixture then beat in water. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until just combined.
4. Divide into three parts and shape into discs, 1 inch thick. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. Roll dough into 1" thick and stamp out cookies. Cover and chill or freeze stamped cookies for 1 hour.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space cookies. Reduce heat to 250 degrees F and bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until cookies are set and just beginning to turn light gold around edges, for 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool completely.

Thanksgiving just ended so I feel like I can legit post these Christmas-ish cookie stamped cookies. Although I do have mixed feelings about this cookie. I tried to follow the recipe as faithfully as possible and did when it came to mixing and chilling the dough. Where I couldn't stick to it is how long it says to bake it. Against my better baking judgment, I did bake the cookies at 250 degrees F. That's such a low temperature that I was afraid the stamped impressions would melt out of the cookies before the dough actually baked. Fortunately they didn't.

However, I couldn't bring myself to bake the cookies as long as the recipe said to. 55 to 65 minutes is a long, long time to bake cookies, even at a low temp. I made it to 40 minutes before I pulled these out. The cookies weren't exactly dry but they definitely were not moist or fudgy. The flavor was decent but not as flavorful as I expected given all the spices in it. Next time I'm going to bake them more traditionally at 350 degrees F and try taking them out at 10-12 minutes.