Belgium's spiced caramelised biscuit: a thin crisp cookie made with brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, traditionally pressed in carved wooden moulds depicting saints, windmills or scenes from the harvest.
Where to eat it: 7 restaurants across 2 cities.
Speculoos originated in the Low Countries in the medieval period as a Saint Nicholas Day biscuit (December 5 and 6), pressed in elaborate wooden moulds called speculaasplanken. The Dutch sister biscuit speculaas became the international name, but the Belgian Bruges and Antwerp versions developed a distinct caramel-forward profile with darker browning. The 19th century saw Maison Dandoy in Brussels (founded 1829) industrialise the form, and Lotus Bakeries in Lembeke commercialised the global biscoff version in 1932. In Bruges the biscuit is sold by Chocolaterie Sukerbuyc and Dumon Chocolatier.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy
Tip from the editors. The dough must be very cold when you roll it; warm dough sticks and tears in a wooden mould. Dark muscovado sugar is what gives the deep caramel notes; light brown sugar without the molasses gives flat biscuits.
Sukerbuyc on Katelijnestraat in Bruges makes its chocolates in the workshop behind the shop, so you watch the pralines finished, with a tearoom alongside.
Tip: The attached tearoom serves a proper hot chocolate. The workshop is visible from the counter.
Worth the queue: Pralines from the workshop behind the shop
Dumon on the Eiermarkt in Bruges is a family chocolatier making fresh pralines daily from old family recipes. Small shop, short queues, serious chocolate.
Tip: Buy a small box fresh rather than a sealed tin; the pralines are best within days. Several Dumon shops exist; this is the flagship.
Worth the queue: Daily fresh pralines from old family recipes
The Old Chocolate House on Mariastraat in Bruges pairs a praline shop with a tearoom, where you stir your own hot chocolate from warm milk and cocoa buttons.
Tip: The make-your-own hot chocolate is the order; pick your chocolate by cocoa percentage. Near the Church of Our Lady.
Worth the queue: Build-your-own hot chocolate
Diksmuids Boterhuis on Geldmuntstraat has been a Bruges food shop since 1936, with a counter of West Flemish cheeses, farmhouse bread and cured ham.
Tip: A picnic shop as much as a deli; build a canal-side lunch from the cheese and bread counter.
Maison Dandoy in Brussels has been baking speculoos since Jean-Baptiste Dandoy opened in 1829. Open daily 09:30-22:00. At Rue Charles Buls 14.
Worth the queue: Gaufre de Bruxelles with whipped cream
Maison Dandoy on Rue au Beurre in Brussels is the family's 1858 flagship beside the Grand Place. Philippe Dandoy moved the bakery here from Marche aux Herbes.
Worth the queue: Original speculoos biscuit
Wittamer in Brussels has held the Sablon corner since 1910. The family patisserie supplies the Belgian royal house, with a tea room at number 6.
Worth the queue: Royal de chocolat
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