Gluten free Speculoos spiced muffins

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Speculoos spiced muffins

If you are not a fan of traditional Christmas sweet dessert type foods, ie you don’t vibe with  mince pies or Christmas cake, then this spiced muffin recipe may work as an alternative. They are light, fluffy and more ish, and are great for Christmas but also year round. These are also gluten free and dairy free. They are spiced with Speculoos and I use this spice mix* but there are plenty of variations out there you can choose from.

What Is Speculoos?

Speculoos is a classic spiced biscuit originally from the Low Countries — particularly Belgium and the Netherlands — and beloved across Europe. Think of it as a thin, crisp, caramelised shortcrust cookie with warm, cosy flavours thanks to spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and cardamom, and a gentle sweetness from brown sugar. Traditionally, these biscuits are associated with the festive season, especially around St Nicholas Day on 6 December, when families would bake them in decorative shapes using wooden moulds.

While the cookie itself is crisp and lightly spiced, its flavour has inspired a whole world of products. One of the biggest trends over the past decade has been speculoos spread (also called cookie butter), a creamy, caramel-spiced paste made from crushed speculoos biscuits. It’s become a favourite alternative to peanut butter or Nutella on toast, crêpes, pancakes — or even eaten straight from the jar.

This is a basic muffin recipe, that I have adapted to incorporate Speculoos spice mix. To me it smells like Christmas and although I like to bake all year round, this is a great spice base to use for Christmas and festive baking. This recipe makes 12 smaller muffins or 8 large ones and you can freeze them for later. This recipe is dairy free and gluten free but you can switch it back to non gluten free and and whatever oil or fat works for you.

You need:

280g of plain flour, we used Dove’s Farm gluten free plain flour.

2tsp of baking powder

1 large egg.

200ml of the milk of your choice. We use soya milk or oat milk for this recipe in our house.

65g of butter or oil, of your choice. I used dairy free spread. I find Pure spread works well for baking and doesn’t leave any aftertaste.

2 tsp of spice mix

80g of dark brown sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

icing sugar to decorate

Muffin tin, with cases, and oven preheated to 180 degrees. I prefer to use reusable muffin cases* but paper cases are perfectly fine too.

• Beat the butter eggs and vanilla extract together until fluffy and light.
• add the egg, t
• hen add the dry ingredients, mix in well
• and then add the milk, mix again until smooth, and a thick batter like consistency.
• Pour into muffin cases, and cook for approximately 20 minutes, until golden, and a cake skewer comes out clean.
• Sift some icing sugar over the top, whilst they are still warm, and then allow to cool.

Enjoy with a cup of tea, or coffee, or like my children often prefer, with some yoghurt, for dessert after supper. Whilst these are a sweet dessert they are not an overly  “sweet” muffin, although you could add more sugar, if you wanted to. You could ice these with a vanilla or even a biscoff based icing for extra impact if you want to be more fancy.