Begin januari schreef ik op mijn blog dat ik
speculaaskoekjes wilde gaan bakken, het duurde even maar nu zijn ze klaar ;).
Waarom duurde het zo lang? Nou, dat kwam omdat ik de malletjes voor dit soort
koekjes (gekocht bij Arjen Spinhoven, website: https://arjenspinhoven.nl/nl/Scale_1_12/Biscuitmolds
), maar de koekjes wilden niet goed uit de malletjes komen na bakken. Het
vervelende was dat mijn mooie malletjes (van MDF) nu kapot zijn gegaan. Voordat
je het zegt: ja, ik wéét dat je MDF niet kunt bakken in de oven, of er vettige klei in moet
doen, maar ik wilde zo graag speculaasjes voor mijn mini Oma bakken….
Ik heb contact opgenomen met Arjen hierover en hij zou
hiernaar kijken, helaas heb ik nadien nog niets van hem gehoord. Maar dat komt
nog misschien…ik hoop ‘t.
At the beginning of January I wrote on my blog that I wanted
to bake speculaas biscuits, it took a while but now they are ready ;). Why did
it take so long? Well, that was because I bought the molds for making this sort
of cookies (bought from Arjen Spinhoven, website:
https://arjenspinhoven.nl/nl/Scale_1_12/Biscuitmolds
), but after baking the speculaas biscuits wouldn't come properly out of the
molds. The annoying thing was that my beautiful molds (from MDF) have now
broken. Before you'll say: yes, I know you can't bake MDF, or put in greasy and
sticky clay in these molds, but I really wanted to bake these speculaas biscuits
for my mini Grandma….
I contacted Arjen about this and he would look into this, unfortunately
I haven't heard from him yet since. But maybe that will come… I hope so.
More information about this sort of biscuits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculaas
Ik heb 4 verschillende speculaasplankjes, hierboven staan de
grotere speculaaspoppen, ze zijn ongeveer 25 mm hoog. Deze poppen kwamen
redelijk goed uit de malletjes, maar de kleine uit gelaserde tussenstukjes óók.
Zo jammer :O!!
I have 4 different speculaas doll shaped biscuits, above are
the larger speculaas biscuits, they are about 25 mm/1 inch high. These dolls
came quite well out of the molds, but so did the small lasered details also
broke off in the molds. Such a pity :O!!
De kleinere speculaasjes (8 mm hoog) waren ook best goed
gelukt, maar zoals je kunt zien zijn de figuurtjes van deze mal redelijk diep
gelaserd, dus waren de speculaasjes te dik om 1:12 schaal te zijn. Wat nu?
The smaller speculaas biscuits (8 mm high) were also quite
successful, but as you can see the figures of this mold are quite deeply
lasered, so the speculaas biscuits were too thick for 1:12 scale biscuits. What
to do now?
Dit is het speculaasje uit de oranje cirkel, ik dacht dat ik
héél ietsjes van het reliëf zou weg schuren zodat de dikte van het koekje meer
in verhouding zou komen…..helaas verdween toen het hele reliëf, jammer!
This is the speculaas biscuit from the orange circle, I
thought I would sand (very slightly) away the relief so that the thickness of
the biscuit would be more in proportion….but unfortunately the entire relief disappeared, too bad!
Hierop besloot ik de achterkant te schuren door de
speculaasjes zachtjes en één voor één over een fijne nagelvijl te duwen. Dit
werkte wel, en het bracht mij op het idee om de koekjes even vochtig te maken
en daarna met het schuurstof weer terug in te wrijven. Hierdoor leek het meer
een koekje van deeg dan eentje gemaakt van Fimoklei ;O). Zo heb ik ook de
grotere speculaaspoppen op deze manier afgewerkt, zie boven.
It was then that I decided to sand the rearside of the biscuits, by gently pushing the speculaas one by one over a fine nail file. This worked, and it gave me the idea to moisten the cookies and then rub them back in with this sanding dust. This also made it look more like a biscuit of dough than one made of Fimo clay ;O). This way I also finished the larger speculaas doll shaped biscuits (see above).
It was then that I decided to sand the rearside of the biscuits, by gently pushing the speculaas one by one over a fine nail file. This worked, and it gave me the idea to moisten the cookies and then rub them back in with this sanding dust. This also made it look more like a biscuit of dough than one made of Fimo clay ;O). This way I also finished the larger speculaas doll shaped biscuits (see above).
Hierboven zie je een van de afgewerkte speculaasjes, ze
waren bijna niet vast te pakken tussen duim en wijsvinger (ik heb zelfs mijn
vingertoppen er bijna afgeschuurd ;O)), maar ik ben blij met dit resultaat. Nu
maar hopen dat Arjen een ander soort mal voor het bakken van speculaasjes kan
maken ;)!!
Here above you see one of the finished speculaas biscuits,
they were almost impossible to grab between thumb and forefinger while sanding
(I even almost sanded off my finger tops ;O)), but I am happy with this result.
Let's hope Arjen can make a different kind of mold, one for baking speculaas
biscuits ;)!!
Intussen ben ik begonnen om mijn plannen op papier te zetten
voor het maken van mijn mini boerderij. Inmiddels duurt mijn zelfisolatie al
maanden en het lijkt er op dat we hier nog wel maanden mee zoet zijn voordat er
gevaccineerd gaat worden en het leven weer wat normaler zal worden. Daarom heb
ik besloten om aan mijn eigen miniatuurwerk te gaan werken, ik heb er echt zin
in!
Blijf gezond en veilig, zorg goed voor elkaar!
Dank voor jullie fijne reacties, een fijne week toegewenst!
In the meantime, I have started drawing my plans on paper
for creating my mini farm. In the meantime my self-isolation has been going on
for months and it seems that we will be busy with this for months before the
vaccinations will start and life will become a bit more normal again. That's
why I decided to start working on my own miniature work, I'm really looking
forward to it!
Stay healthy and safe, take good care of each other!
Thank you for your kind comments, have a nice week!
Ilona
13 opmerkingen:
Oh Ilona, que pena que se estropearan los moldes de las galletas! Nunca he visto moldes de mdf, siempre he visto, y los que yo tengo, son de silicona que se pueden hornear muy bien y son flexibles para que la masa salga correctamente. Quizás esos que has comprado sean para masas de secado en frio que no se meten en el horno? espero que te contesten pronto y te lo aclaren.
Estoy emocionada de ver que has comenzado a bosquejar los planos de la mini granja, me encantará acompañarte en ésta aventura!!!
Cuidaros mucho!
Besos.
Your biscuits are really great and what patience to get this result. A pity that your molds are broken. It will be very interesting to see how your mini farm will be, I'm looking forward to it.
Geneviève
Dear Ilona,
Such a pity the wooden molds didn't work. I believe they are good for ceramic clay or the airdrying clays because the wood absorbs the moisture and the clays shrink a little so they just drop out of the mold.
I look forward with pleasure to seeing the progress on your farmhouse
I hope for your sake and all the Duch nation, and worldwide nations, that soon all will be inoculated and safe. We all yearn for better days.
Hugs, Drora
OMG so tiny! I can't wait to see more of your farmhouse!
Experimentar siempre está el riesgo del fracaso, pero seguro que te darán una explicación de como hacerlo bien , la idea es genial reproducir esas mini galletas. El nuevo proyecto muy prometedor.
Espero que las noticias que nos llegan de Holanda no aumenten los disturbios, cuídate.Besos
Dear Ilona
Your bisquits are beautiful, even if things didn't work out with the mold as you hoped.
Some thoughts on using the molds:
Ask Arjen whether he can make molds from perspex. Alternatively, when you get a new set of wooden molds, make one perfect cookie from the mold, then make a mold of the cookie using another material such as silicone.
If I was to use those molds, I would roll my clay into a log the thickness of a finger. Dust the end of the clay very well with talcum powder or corn flour and blow off the excess. You don't want to clog up the mold. Press the finger end straight down into the mold and pull it out again so that you have an impression of the cookie stamped on the tip of the clay. Then use a sharp blade to shave the cookie off the end of the clay log and repeat the process for the next cookie. Bake the shaved off clay cookies.
That way, you won't have clay that's left behind in the mold and you won't need to sand so much after baking to make them thinner. You will also be able to add texture and make small corrections before you bake the clay. I made some very small soap molds for myself and this is the only way I can get the little clay 'soaps' to come out of the mold. It also speeds up production if you can make a whole batch of cookies before you bake them.
I hope this helps!
Dear Megan, thank you so much for your helpful tips, I can see what I still can do now my molds are broken. I think I have to buy new ones. I've already asked Arjen for making perspex molds, but I got no answer yet. Meanwhile my plans for my mini farmhouse are on the drawing board, I hope to finish them in a few more days. I am looking forward to get started with the build. Thank you again for your comment :), stay safe and take care!!
I'm sorry to hear your wonderful molds cracked... but you did a wonderful job on saving the spekulatius you already had. Let's hope Arjen will contact you soon, he's such a kind guy and I would suppose he's open to this kind of suggestions, even more as a baking mold for these special cookies would be a great addition to his shop indeed.
Guess what?! Your post made me think "Hmmm... where are my own molds btw???" *gulp* Yes, I'm the proud owner of two of these molds... and hooray... I found them in one of my Sometime-in-a-very-far-away-future-meant-for-the-Christmas-House-boxes. And would you like to know another thing? I really admire your clean, tidy and neat workspace... if only I would be able to keep up to the concept of a clean, structured workspace. Okay, I should not be too harsh to myself... I have a structure... a structure called "chaos". *teehee*
It's good to see you working on the farm and I can't wait to see more of it.
Hugs
Birgit
Dear Ilona, I suspect that most miniaturists buy the molds to look like the item is going to be used in mini "Imaginary" methods... not to try to actually use it to make cookies!!! But you would want to give it a try! And why not? The mini cookies do look delicious once they are sanded and "dusted"! I am sure Mini-You and Grandma had a wonderful snack! I hope you do find some real molds for mini cookies... they are truly beautiful in the amount of detail they have. It reminds me of the beautiful wooden butter mold we had on our farm.... it was square with a pattern of flowers carved in it and made a pound of butter..... I am sure you know what I am talking about! :):) Stay well and keep making minis!
Patience, talent ... Ilona tu me surprendras toujours.
Désolée pour les moules mais les biscuits sont réussis.
J'ai hâte de voir le début des travaux de la ferme. Moi,j'avance à petits pas, car, je privilégie les grandes balades journalières en forêt.
Prends soin de toi ! Bises.
I would never have imagined Arjen's Speculaas molds could actually be used - That is so impressive. It is a shame they broke and that the first batch of speculaas needed so much extra work after you baked them, but it was certainly worth it. They are super cute and (I know they are Fimo clay) they look super tasty LOL.
I am so sorry that the situation and self-isolation continues in Nederland. Let's hope the roll-out of the vaccine will ease the situation very soon, so you can start getting out and about a little bit again, and most importantly, hug your sweet grandson.
Until then - stay safe.
Anna X
I'm speechless! I wouldn't be surprised if you make ants that play chess!
Hugs
Tatiana
So sorry to hear your wonderful molds cracked, but you made some amazing cookies.
Your new project is interesting and I will follow the progress.
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