There is little that beats the smell of freshly baked speculaas, spiced cake or apple pie in which warm spices play the leading role. Did you know you can very easily make speculaas spice mix yourself?

With a few spices from your kitchen cupboard you can assemble an aromatic mix that is often even more fragrant than a ready-made variant.

In this blog I share a classic recipe, a variant with allspice (piment) and three delicious ways to use your homemade speculaas spices.

What are speculaas spices?

Speculaas spices are a blend of different spices traditionally used in Dutch and Belgian baked goods.

Cinnamon usually forms the base, complemented by nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom and mace, among others. Together they provide the warm, spicy flavor we know from speculaas and other autumn and winter recipes.

The exact composition differs by family, baker and region. That's exactly why making it yourself is so fun: you can adjust the mix to your own taste.

Recipe: classic speculaas spices

As soon as the days get shorter and the first Sinterklaas songs are heard, they appear again in every supermarket: pepernoten. Or… are they actually kruidnoten? Many people confuse the two. In this blog we dive into the history of pepernoten, explain the difference between pepernoten and kruidnoten, and share a delicious recipe to bake kruidnoten yourself.

Help yourself to a handful while you read on with appetite.

The origin of pepernoten

Pepernoten are small, chewy cookies about the size of a large marble. Originally they were square and resembled pieces of ontbijtkoek in texture. They were made from rye flour, honey and anise, supplemented with spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and coriander seed. Remarkably, there is no pepper in pepernoten.

In the 17th century spices were imported from the Dutch East Indies. Whatever was available on the ship was used. This produced a spicy, sturdy biscuit that was eaten during Sinterklaas. At the time they were called peperneuten or peperbollen