Speculoos

Speculoos is a thin, deeply spiced brown-sugar biscuit, pressed with a decorative pattern before baking until it snaps crisp. The tradition of spiced holiday biscuits belongs to the wider Low Countries region shared by Belgium and the Netherlands, but Belgium — through the Lotus brand, born in a small Belgian bakery — turned the biscuit into a fixture found on coffee saucers worldwide.

What it really is

A dough of flour, brown sugar (traditionally a moist Belgian cassonade), cinnamon and other warm spices comes together dense enough to press firmly into a carved wooden or plastic mould before baking. That pressing is what gives speculoos its raised pattern — often a windmill, a saint, or another traditional figure — and the dough bakes until it's thin, dry and fully crisp all the way through, rather than soft like most spiced biscuits.

It started as a holiday biscuit and became an everyday one. Speculoos was traditionally baked for Saint Nicholas Day in early December; the version now handed out with coffee across cafés worldwide is a much smaller, plainer everyday descendant of that seasonal original.

How it's served

• With coffee, most often as the small biscuit set on the saucer.
• As a snack on its own, sometimes spread with butter.
• Crushed and used as a base or topping in other desserts, such as cheesecakes and ice creams.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the wheat.
• It's naturally vegetarian.
• Note if it's a house-made version or the well-known commercial brand, since regulars often recognise the difference.