Winter treats for cosy times

How about some delicious winter treats? Very tasty and packed with pure ingredients and healthy fats. A bonus: they are super easy to make and you only need 6 ingredients (oatmeal, dates, almonds, cocoa powder, gingerbread spices and almond extract). With this recipe, Stefanie made 16 rectangular filled speculaas, which she beautifully styled with our fade blue linens.

Almond extract
A tip before you start: do not make this recipe without almond extract or aroma. This concentrated almond flavor really makes for the tastiest stuffed speculaas.

Spiced bisquit:
40 grams of oatmeal
20 grams of almonds (or almond flour)
120 grams dates without seeds and soaked in warm water
3 tsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp of speculaas spices
salt

Filling:
120 grams of almonds (or almond flour)
3 dates without seeds and soaked in warm water
1 tsp of speculaas spices
1/2 tsp almond extract
salt

16 extra almonds for topping

Required
A blender or food processor
Rolling pin or glass (wine) bottle
Baking paper (to roll out the dough)

Preparation
Grind the oatmeal and almonds in a blender or food processor. Add the remaining ingredients for the speculaas and mix into a firm dough.

For the filling you also start grinding the almonds. Add the remaining ingredients for the filling and grind until it sticks together and has the structure of almond paste.

Put the gingerbread dough on a sheet of parchment paper and press it flat with your hands. Place a second sheet of parchment paper on top of the speculaas. Roll out the gingerbread into 1 rectangle and divide it by 2 so that you have 2 equal shapes: 1 for the bottom layer and 1 for the top layer. Divide the filling (the almond paste) with your hands on the bottom layer of speculaas. Add the top layer of gingerbread (use the baking paper to lift the layer neatly).

Press the layers together, cut off blocks and add an almond to each block. In the refrigerator, it can be kept for at least 5 days.