One of my favorite Dutch treats growing up was dense, flavorful cake called Speculaas. Dutch Speculaas and Boterkoek were staple coffee time treats in our house, but the traditional recipes are far from slimming! Heavy on fats and refined carbs, they were as delicious as they were fattening.
I’ve been enjoying a Trim Healthy Mama-friendly Boterkoek (“butter cake”) for a long time (you can get the recipe for it here), but Speculaas was harder for me to convert!
I wanted it to be dense in texture, but not calorie-dense, so I left out the almond paste filling that is often used in the middle of speculaas cake and chose to use a combination of meals and flours instead of sticking with just almond flour.
This version of Dutch Speculaas is made without any special ingredients, but if you have the Trim Healthy Mama Baking Blend on hand, you can use 1 cup of it in place of the almond flour, golden flaxseed meal, and coconut flour.
For moisture, I used eggs, 0% fat Greek yogurt and butter, and the traditional Speculaas flavor comes from a combination of:
- ground cloves
- cinnamon
- ground ginger
- ground nutmeg
A small handful of sliced almonds sprinkled on top of the Speculaas adds a pleasant crunch to the cake.
This recipe yields 16 squares of Dutch Speculaas; cut 4 rows down and 4 across. They keep very well covered in the fridge, or you can freeze them in an air-tight container for later use.
This low-carb, gluten-free, sugar-free version of Dutch Speculaas will transport you back to Holland in slimming, Trim Healthy Mama-friendly style! A THM S. No special ingredients. You can use 1 cup of Trim Healthy Mama Baking in place of the almond flour, coconut flour, and golden flaxseed meal. Gentle Sweet can be used in place of xylitol in half the amount. Low-carb Dutch Speculaas | THM: S
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Looking for more healthy versions of your favorite Dutch recipes? You may wish to try some of these!
Boterkoek | THM: S
Dutch Salad | THM: S
Hazelnut Meringue Torte | THM: S
“Dropjes” | THM: S
Looks delicious! Do you know how much Super Sweet Blend we could use as the sweetener?
Hi Rebecca! You could use Super Sweet in a quarter of the amount plus a wee bit more.
First boterkoek and droppies…and now spekulaas!!! I love you!!!
Can’t wait to try it!
Waiting for boerenkool.
I hope you enjoy them, Linda!
Yes! Boerenkool!
Husband is half Dutch so I am familiar with some Dutch stuff. I also like the option to use the baking blend as I am not that fond of almond flour. It’s just too caloric dense for me personally.
Yes, I’m trying not to rely on almond flour alone too much either for the same reason!
I would love to try this!
Looking forward to trying this one!
I made a recipe last Christmas that reminded me of my Oma’s Jan Hagels. Yum! Thanks for THM-ifying these Dutch favs!!
you’re welcome!
I have this Speculaas recipe baking right now and it smells great. Have you ever tried to make the Dutch recipe “Boterkoek” THM (I may have spelled it wrong)
It’s posted above! And it’s delicious might I add
I can’t wait to try this and others I see you have links to. I have only been doing THM for about 3 months and as yet I haven’t converted any of my traditional recipes, except saucijses (partially, still working on the outer bread). As another Dutchie, missing coffee time, Thank You.
Would you keep this in the fridge?
It’s in the oven now and smells delish!
The Speculaas that I have had is a crisp cookie…. is it the flavorings that make Speculaas? Have you made/had the cookie? I would love to make it THM friendly.
I too have always had speculaas as a cookie. Would love those at Christmas time… Also, how about Koek? Any recipes for that? I really miss my morning koek with well aged Gouda …
This is FANTASTIC. Thank you so much – we still have all of our Dutch goodies we got in our Christmas package ready to serve to guests that come over.. but I’m finally getting mine in March! <3 . I baked mine in a 9×9, and took about 8-10 minutes off the bake time, and it's great!
These were superb! The only thing I changed is the 1/2 tsp vanilla extract to 1 tsp almond (which I think it needs!)
I’ve been browsing through your recipes, and they all look amazing. But this one stopped me in my tracks! I grew up in the Netherlands, and I don’t think there is anything I love more than speculaas. Well, maybe boterkoek and you have a recipe for that too!! You have no idea how happy this makes me! Thank you!!
hi i was wondering, can we make these in a muffin tin? easier to serve?
Thankyou!!
Nice recipe!! But…. speculaas is a cripsy cookie. We also have “gevulde speculaas” (filled speculaas). Between the speculaas is a layer of almond past. And then there is boterkoek, a thick buttery smooth compact cake 😉
There’s an speculaas cake, but that’s just a cake with the taste of speculaas.