Spekulatius

The story

The name Spekulatius most likely comes from the Latin word "speculum," meaning mirror. The dough is pressed into wooden molds carved with figures, so that when it is turned out the cookie "mirrors" the relief: Saint Nicholas in his bishop's miter, windmills, a stag, village scenes. The molds once passed from generation to generation as family heirlooms, and carving them was a specialized woodworking craft in western Germany and the Netherlands. The dough is deliberately thin and crisp, the opposite of soft Lebkuchen, because it bakes quickly at high heat so the relief stays sharp. By tradition these cookies belong to the feast of Saint Nicholas on December 6, when children wake to find small gifts and these very cookies in their shoes, though today they are baked and eaten all through Advent. In many German families in America, the wooden Spekulatius mold is one of the few physical objects that literally crossed the ocean with the first generation of immigrants.