I'd never heard of speculoos till Edd Kimber aka The Boy Who Bakes mentioned it to me. Speculoos (or speculaas) is a spiced, gingerbready biscuit from Belgium and the Netherlands, which also comes as a spread, brilliant for using in cakes and other desserts.
So when I came across packets of speculoos in the adorable little Wye Bakery run by Mary Braithwaite and Nigel Ings (who'd moved from France to the village of Wye in Kent), I scooped some up as a present for said Boy Who Bakes (they also sold us some Campteclaire and Peveloise - artisan French bread flour - and gave us gluten and yeast).
Then today I felt like a snack, so I raided my freezer to find some Prune and Armagnac ice cream I'd made (this David Leibovitz recipe).
I had a couple of bites, and sucking the spoon I suddenly thought, "Y'know, I bet those speculoos biscuits would be really nice with this".
And so I opened one of Edd's packets, and I slathered fat wodges of ice cream between some of those biscuits and I ate them.
Goddamn, it was good. The spices in the speculoos plus the wonderful brittle snap was a perfect foil for the fruity, boozy ice cream - like a sophisticated version of a Maxibon.
Anyway, this probably makes me a slightly rubbish friend, but hell, he just came back from Amsterdam with these, so hopefully he'll forgive me.
Wye Bakery
Wye Village
Kent
wyebakery@yahoo.co.uk
01233 812 218
Comments
I looove speculoos.... tried to make them once, ought to try again now my skillz are (vaguely) better.
NYUM to your combo with the ice-cream!
Distilled sunshine grape. Ice bound!
Meemalee magic!
@chumbles - Beautiful haiku, sir!
I always associate speculoos with coffee, because that was the only place I encountered them.
They are served at a local café (and some parts of the continent) with coffee.
And now you have a new suggestion for his speculoos for Edd to make for himself, that he wouldn't know about if you hadn't broken into the pressie.
Is that justification enough or shall I go on a bit more?
@Josordoni - You're *so* right :)