If you want to choose the cocoa percentage, bake speculaas biscuits with speculaas spices and a separate chocolate bar whose percentage is clearly stated. Traditional baker’s speculaas and a speculaas baking mix are mainly options for the spiced base. Ready-made biscuits with chocolate are better suited to crumbling into a dessert than to choosing your own balance of spices and cocoa.
If cocoa is the main reason you want to bake dark speculaas biscuits, a separate chocolate bar with its percentage clearly stated gives you more certainty than the colour of the dough. You can then choose the speculaas base and the amount of chocolate yourself.
For you, the spices and how you prepare the dough matter more than a high cocoa percentage. Jumbo suggests resting the dough for longer as one way to bring out a more intense speculaas flavour in its biscuit recipe.
If you use a mix or combine speculaas with chocolate, check the ingredients and allergens in both. A label such as vegan or lactose-free does not automatically mean that a product is suitable for someone with a gluten or nut allergy.
First decide whether you want a stated cocoa percentage, want to bake spiced biscuits from scratch, or simply need a dessert ingredient that is ready to use. These are different reasons for looking for dark speculaas.
Choose this if: you want to decide the cocoa percentage of the ingredient you add.
The trade-off: you’ll also make the speculaas dough yourself and need to choose the balance of chocolate and spices.
Choose this if: shaping your own biscuits and starting with a familiar spiced base are your priorities.
The trade-off: the traditional baker’s speculaas and baking mix reviewed do not list cocoa as an ingredient.
Choose this if: you want to crumble biscuits for a base or dessert rather than bake speculaas yourself.
The trade-off: you can’t adjust the ingredients in a biscuit that already contains chocolate. Check the label if the cocoa percentage matters to your choice.
| What to consider | What to check when buying | Who it matters to |
|---|---|---|
| Cocoa percentage | Check the percentage on the exact chocolate bar and read the ingredients. The colour of speculaas does not tell you how much cocoa it contains. | I want to choose a deep cocoa flavour without relying on the colour of the biscuit. Around 46% of consumers say that being able to check the cocoa percentage is their top priority. |
| Spices and control over baking | Compare the speculaas spices and choose between individual ingredients and a baking mix. If you make the dough yourself, follow your recipe’s instructions. | When I bake biscuits myself, I mainly want to control the spiced flavour and the preparation. That is the top priority for around 36% of consumers. |
| Allergens and use | Read the current label for both the speculaas base and the chocolate, including any warnings about possible traces. Follow the baking instructions on a mix. | If I have an allergy, I need to be able to assess every ingredient before combining them. This check is the top priority for around 18% of consumers. |
Dark speculaas can get its colour from other ingredients too. According to the Voedingscentrum, dark chocolate contains at least 35% cocoa, so the label ‘dark’ doesn’t automatically mean it has the higher percentage you may be looking for.
If you want to choose your chocolate deliberately, pick a bar with a specific cocoa percentage on the label and choose the speculaas spices separately.
AH Bakkersspeculaas contains wheat and may contain almonds. Allergens or possible traces may also be relevant in chocolate you add.
For the full recipe, check the current ingredients list and allergen information for every product.
You can crumble a ready-made biscuit into a dessert, but you can’t change how much chocolate and spice it contains.
Choose dough ingredients or a baking mix if you want to shape the biscuits yourself and decide how much chocolate to add.
For the Koopmans Speculaas Koekjespakket, the manufacturer states that the dough is not intended to be eaten raw and must be thoroughly heated.
Follow the baking instructions for this mix and serve the biscuits only after baking.
Lotus Bakeries presents Biscoff spread as an ingredient for desserts. This makes the range relevant for a dessert with a speculoos flavour, but it is not evidence of a high cocoa percentage.
Albert Heijn offers a recipe and ingredients for baking classic speculaas from scratch, as well as ready-made baker’s speculaas biscuits.
Jumbo offers a speculaas biscuit recipe and a separate organic chocolate bar with 85% cocoa. This means you can assess the spiced base and chocolate separately.
According to ALDI Netherlands, Biscotto Bakkersspeculaas is ready-made speculaas in a 600 g pack containing 48 biscuits.
These bars are separate chocolate ingredients for anyone who wants to make speculaas biscuits with chocolate from scratch. The stated cocoa percentage applies to the bar, not the finished biscuit. Choose the dough, speculaas spices and amount of chocolate separately.
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For anyone who wants to choose a chocolate bar with a stated cocoa percentage for homemade speculaas.
The bar contains 90% cocoa and weighs 100 g.
Decide how you want to use this bar in your recipe, and check the current allergen information before use.
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For anyone baking speculaas biscuits from scratch who wants to choose the percentage of the chocolate they add.
The bar contains 85% cocoa and weighs 100 g.
Decide how to use it based on your recipe and check the current allergen information.
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For anyone who wants to use separate chocolate with a stated percentage when baking speculaas.
The bar contains 78% cocoa and weighs 100 g.
The bar is not a substitute for speculaas dough. Check how to use it in your recipe and read the current allergen information.
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For anyone who wants to put together their own combination of speculaas spices and a chocolate bar.
The bar contains 70% cocoa and weighs 100 g.
Check how to use it in your baking recipe and assess the allergens in both the bar and the speculaas base.
No. That label does not tell you the cocoa percentage of the finished biscuit. According to the Voedingscentrum, dark chocolate contains at least 35% cocoa. If you want to choose your chocolate carefully, pick a bar with a stated percentage, and remember that the amount you use also affects the biscuit.
Check the current ingredients and allergen information for both the speculaas base and the chocolate, including warnings about possible traces. AH Bakkersspeculaas, for example, contains wheat and may contain almonds. Check the label separately for any other base or bar.
Not with the Koopmans Speculaas Koekjespakket: the manufacturer says the dough is not intended to be eaten raw and must be thoroughly heated. For another mix, follow the instructions on its packaging.
