Speculoos - Christmas cookies in February

Catching up on another past recipe from French Fridays with Dorie I decided to make speculoos, the Belgian Christmas cookies featured in Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. I chose them because I was going to visit my honey at work for the first time, and I always like to make a nice impression on the people he works with (or on anyone for that matter.) This recipe said it made 70 cookies, which meant there would be plenty for them, and for me, and it didn't seem too hard.

I made the dough the night before so it could chill. I didn't have enough brown sugar so I added some more granulated sugar, but left the measurement just shy of its full amount since it's sweeter. I didn't have any cookie cutters that were 1.25 inches, so I improvised, and found a plastic bottle with the mouth about that size. I also threw in a couple with a penguin cookie cutter for my mom, who loves penguins.

Suspicious Speculoos

I was planning on making the short ribs in red wine and port tonight, but between the two grocery stores I visited late this evening, I only found about 3lbs of short ribs. I'm wondering if I'm even buying the right thing, since Dorie's recipe calls for "12 short ribs, each with one bone (about 9lbs)". I got about 3 bones per package, so that's about 9 short ribs at 3lbs. Something's not adding up. I decided to figure it out tomorrow.

In the meantime, tonight I chose to make the dough for the speculoos cookies, yet another recipe that the FFWD group has already tackled. I rolled the dough out and put it in the fridge to chill overnight. I can tell that the house is going to smell AMAZING when they bake tomorrow. I thought 2 1/2 t of cinnamon was a lot, but I love cinnamon and it provides major circulation benefits I think.

Also, very exciting news - I purchased my first dutch oven today!!! I chose a 6 qt red one by Lodge. That was another small detail slowing down my short ribs progress. Tomorrow, amazing smelling Christmas cookies (xmas in February is ok) and day one of the ribs recipe. Pictures to come!

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