Holiday baking – my 3 favorite spice mixes

I just love holiday baking (with my kids)! The whole house fills with all these wonderful smells due to the spice blends. Nothing says holiday quite like warm wafts of cinnamon-scented air filling the kitchen. Fragrant, aromatic spices like ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, all spice, anise and cloves are traditional flavor profiles in holiday recipes.

Being a Dutchie living in Central America with a lot of North American friends that we celebrate the holidays with, I can definitely say I get the best of all worlds when it comes to holiday baking. Like I said, to me holiday baking is all about the spice blends; they create that special, nostalgic taste in holiday baked goods.

I discovered there are only slight differences and nuances to baking in different continents. Today I am sharing with you my 3 most used holiday spice mixed and their uses.

my 3 favorite spice blends

pumpkin spice mix

Used of course for pumpkin and pecan pie, but don’t forget a pumpkin spiced latte or hot cocoa. Recently I have been making pumpkin spiced smoothie bowls for breakfast.. A-MA-ZING!

My pumpkin spice mix consists of ginger, lots of cinnamon, cloves and all spice.

speculaas spice mix

Speculaas is a crispy Dutch cookie eaten year around, but mostly over the holidays. They are known for their delightfully spicy kick, which comes from a blend of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, anise, cardamom, and a tiny bit of white pepper. This spice blend is an unusual but awesome one, combining classic holiday flavors with a twist from the anise and white pepper.

So crispy speculaas cookies are made with this spice blend, but I also sprinkle it on my cappuccino and use it in granola, a great gift for the kids to give their teachers right before the winter holiday break! And for Thanksgiving I always bring my Dutch apple pie and I put this spice mix in the dough.

In the Netherlands we also use this spice blend to make ‘pepernoten’; marble sized cookies that are eaten around the holiday of ‘Sinterklaas’ which is on the 5th of December. Sinterklaas is a historical figure similar to Santa Claus. The recipe for these little flavor bombs will be up here very soon. Another great recipe to file under ‘holiday baking’!

gingerbread spice mix

Gingerbread cookies are actually very similar to speculaas cookies (see above), just the spice mix is a little different. Like I said, it is all in the nuances! Equal parts of ginger and cinnamon are combined with a bit of ground nutmeg and cloves. Cakes, bread, cookies and even ice cream can be spiced with this.

All 3 holiday spice blends are lovely. I hope you will enjoy them as much as we do. They are

warm and cosy – fragrant and aromatic – perfect for baking – versatile

All of these holiday recipes are made with these spice mixes: healthy pecan pie, crispy speculaas cookies, pepernoten, gingerbread cookies, pumpkin smoothie bowl and porridge and more. Please stay tuned!

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