Gevulde Speculaas ( Eggless Version)-Traditional Dutch Pastry

The next month of Daring Bakers reveal date has arrived and I am feeling so lazy to draft a post. But as I finished the challenge two weeks before and the snaps are all ready, I had to do it. This month's challenge is a traditional dutch pastry hosted by Francijn of Koken In De Brouwerij. She is a Dutch baker and she challenged us with Gevulde Speculaas which means Stuffed Speculaas. The pastry has an almond filling. The dough has a spice powder which is called as the Specullaask Ruiden (Speculaas spice mix), which can be bought in a store if you live in Netherlands. But as I reside in Madurai, I opted to prepare my spice powder according to Francijn's recipe. This spice powder is so versatile and can be used in cakes, muffins, cheeses cakes and so on.. The almond pate has egg in it and so I substituted egg with curd. The filling went very thin and so I added 2 tbs of flour to make it little bit thick. Once baked it firmed up and it was so delicious. You can make the filling and the dough the previous day and can assemble and bake it the next day. I didn't have a large tin so I ended up with a circular speculaas baked in a loose bottomed pan and a rectangular speculaas baked in a loaf tin. The pastry was flaky and the filling was soft. This is the first time I am hearing about this pastry and was very thrilled to get it right. I am giving the spice mix proportion for the exact amount of the powder required in the recipe. If you are going to prepare and store it then make all the teaspoon measures into table spoon measures and increase cinnamon to 4 tbs. 


Ingredients:
For The Speculaask Ruiden:
Makes 2 tbs of the spice Powder:
Powdered Cinnamon-1 tbs
Ground Cloves-1/2 tsp
Ground Mace-1/2 tsp
Ground Cardamom-1/2 tsp
Powdered White Pepper- 1/2 tsp
Powdered Fennel-1/2 tsp
Ground Nutmeg-1 tsp
Powdered Coriander-1/2 tsp

For The Dough:
Flour-1 3/4 cup
Baking Powder-1 tsp
Brown Sugar-3/4 cup
Salt-a pinch
Speculaas Spice Mix-2 tbs
Unsalted Butter-3/4 cup
Milk-1 tbs

For The Almond Filling:
Almonds-3/4 cup+1/8 cup
Granulated Sugar-1/2 cup+ 1/8 cup
Curd-1/2 cup
Flour-2 tbs
Lemon Zest-1 tsp

Blanched, peeled and halved almonds for decoration
Milk for Milk Wash

Procedure:
For The Filling:
1. Blanch and remove the skin of almonds. 
2. Grind it in a mixer jar to fine powder.
3. Now add sugar and grind it to make the mixture finer.
4. Add the curd and flour and mix well.
5. You can refrigerate this mixture and use it the next day.

For The Dough:
1. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 
2. Mix all the ingredients given for the spice mix and mix it to the flour.
3. Add butter and mix well.
4. If the dough is dry then add milk and knead it to a soft dough.
5. Divide it into two and place it in a cling wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.
Assembling The Speculaas:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Grease the loose bottomed tin. You can also make it in a rectangular deep tray.
3.  Roll out one portion of the dough between two cling wraps to fit the pan.
4. Remove the top cloing film, invert the rolled out dough inside the pan and remove the wrap.
5. Brush it with milk.
6. Spread the filling on top of the pastry.
7. Roll out the second portion of the dough same as the first portion and place it on top of the filling.
8. Give a milk wash.
9. Decorate it with halved almonds.
10. Bake for 40 minutes. If the top browns too fast, cover it with a piece of foil.
11. Remove form oven and allow it to cool completely.
12. Remove the outer ring of the pan.
13. Gently with a large spatula, remove the speculaas from the base plate and transfer to a serving plate.
14. Slice it up and serve.




The proportion of spices used in the spice mix. Cinnamon should be 1 tbs. I made a mistake in typing. So please forgive me. OK?




Mix all the spices to get the important ingredient of this Dutch pastry.




Add all the ingredients given for the dough except milk.




If necessary add milk to make a soft dough. Divide into two and refrigerate.




Grease a loose bottomed pan.




Roll out a portion to fit the pan. With the remaining dough I made a speculaas in a loaf tin.




Line the base with the dough.




Give a milk wash.




Spread the filling on top.




Place another portion of rolled out dough on top.




Brush with milk and decorate with almonds.




Bake for 40 minutes.




Remove from pan and slice it up.




Can you see the layers of the speculaas? It was so nice..




Serve it and Enjoy!!


Hope you liked it.

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