Speculoos at Maison Dandoy for St. Nicholas Day

St. Nicholas Day (December 6th) is right around the corner, and that means it is time for speculoos! These crispy brown sugar and spice cookies, popularized in the US by the brand Biscoff, are extremely popular in Belgium and the Netherlands at this time of year. Though you can get speculoos stateside, if you are Brussels, you can try a taste of the original old-style speculoos at Maison Dandoy, who has been baking them up since 1829. Speculoos are traditionally eaten with tea and are associated with advent time and especially St. Nicholas Day.

There are Maison Dandoy locations sprinkled throughout Brussels, and we went to the Tea Shop location (Rue Charles Buls 14) in the center of the old town. The tea shop has a restaurant upstairs (another post on this to follow) and a lovely store on the first floor filled with beautifully displayed and packaged Belgian cookies. The speculoos at Maison Dandoy are stamped with a windmill, shaped by traditional molds or even by special springerle rolling pins with designs imprinted on them. You can also get a vanilla or chocolate version of speculoos at Dandoy if you are so inclined, though we are purists and prefer the original. Though of course the original recipe is secret, you can try an imitation Dandoy recipe from Un déjeuner de soleil (in French – auto-translated here. Eat the Love has another speculoos recipe and even more history. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate St. Nicholas Day than with cookies and tea!