Speculoos ice cream, the perfect December dessert

Can one enjoy ice cream during winter? Absolutely! This ice cream with speculoos is a great way to use left-over speculoos cookies from the celebration of Dutch Santa Claus. It can be served as a refreshing entremet between courses, and of course it is a great dessert – especially when accompanied by a glass of Amaretto. Depending on where you live, speculoos may be difficult to find in shops. They can be made at home, using this recipe for speculaasjes. Although it is fun using traditional speculoos moulds, the cookies can also be made in any other shape you like.

Raw ice cream

This recipe is for uncooked ice, the egg yolks are not heated. Use pasteurized egg yolks if this is a problem for you, for example if the ice cream is to be served to people with fragile health. Elsewhere on Coquinaria is a recipe for vanilla ice cream in which the egg yolks are heated.

Another recipe using speculoos spices is for Dutch muffins. And more recipes for Dutch Santa Claus can be found here.

For 4 to 6 servings, about 8 decilitres or 27 oz.; Preparation in advance 10 minutes; Preparation 50 minutes(with ice cream maker) to 4 hours (deep freeze and stirring ).

2½ dl (1 cup) full fat milk
2 dl (0.7 cup) cream (at least 35% fat)
100 gr white or dark moist sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla sugar (home made)
3 egg yolks
4 to 5 speculoos cookies (about 50 gr/1.75 oz)
1 Tbsp speculoos spices
pinch of salt

Preparation in advance

Put the spuculoos cookies in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Do not grind to flour, some larger crumbs will add a little bite to the ice cream.
Beat the yolks with sugar to a creamy froth. Add milk and speculoos spices, keep beating.
Add a pinch of salt to the cream and beat it separately.

Preparation

Add the beaten yolks to the beaten cream, and stir in the speculoos crumbs.
With an ice cream maker – Pour the preparation into an ice cream maker and follow the instructions.
Manually – Pour the preparation in an aluminium container and put it in the deep freeze. Stir every 30 minutes, scraping down the sides.

To serve

Serve one or two scoops with an extra cookie and some cream.

Use until …

Home made ice cream is at its best when eaten straight after preparation. If there are any leftovers, use these within three days as the ice cream has not been heated during preparation.

Ingredients

All descriptions of ingredients

Spice mix for speculaas

In the Netherlands the spice-mix for speculaas can be bought ready-made. I doubt whether that is the case elsewhere in the world. So here you have a mixture to make yourself: Take cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, white pepper, ginger and cardamom (everything powdered) in a ratio of 8:2:2:1:1:1 (whether you use grams, teaspoons or tablespoons, the proportions must be the same). The used spices betray the age of the recipe for speculaas: this combination of spices can be found in many fifteenth century recipes.

Vanilla sugar, home made

Fill a jar with sugar, and add one split vanilla pod with seeds. Close the jar with a lid and put it on a shelf. Shake the jar occasionally, and whenever there is a left-over vanilla pod (when only the seeds are needed), just add it to the jar. Occasionally refill with sugar. The sugar will turn slightly yellow. This is much cheaper than using prepackaged vanilla sugar.