I have many recipes that I have never tried. One of them was a recipe for Speculaas, given to me a few years ago by a dear friend who has since passed away. I decided this was the year to finally give it a try. Usually, I carefully follow a new recipe the first time I make it, but I took a chance and substituted Earth Balance Spread for the butter in this one. That may not have been a good idea.
Following the recipe instructions, I had packed the dough into a wax paper lined box and refrigerated it overnight. There were no suggestions for box size, so I used a Tupperware bread box.
Upon removing the dough from the box, I tried to slice it 1/8" thick, as directed. It simply crumbled. Oops. That was discouraging!
With assistance from my son, we managed to get this many slices that were tolerable in quality.
Most Speculaas recipes call for cooky molds. (I may have one somewhere.) This recipe did not call for molds, and sounded easier. My son suggested pressing the dough into a donut pan. Then I remembered the Pampered Chef silicone bar pan! I added extra coconut oil to some of the dough, and extra water to some of it. Then I pressed arbitrary amounts into the bar molds.
The cooky bars came out of the pan beautifully! The ones with the extra coconut oil are slightly darker than the ones with the extra water. They all stuck together nicely. Another time I will try making them with real butter, and/or use a different recipe. It was a tasty experiment, well worth repeating with slight alterations.
