Speculaas muffins.  
(printout version)

Some basics regarding the baking of muffins::
1. Always grease the muffin mould carefully. Your muffins will never be demoulded whole if you haven't done that, they will stuck to the one tiny spot you forgot to grease.
2. Use two bowls, one for all dry ingredients, and one for liquid ingredients. 
3. A teaspoon is not just any spoon laying about. It is a fixed measure of 5 mililitres, which equates the volume of 5 gram water. A tablespoon equates 3 teaspoons, or 15 mililitres.
4. Always add the content of the dry bowl to the liquid one, NOT the other way around.
5. Stir the combined ingredients only till they are just blended. The batter must remain lumpy.
6. After baking, let the muffins rest for five minutes after removing them from the oven before demoulding.

Ingredients for a mould for twelve muffins:
Dry bowl:
250 gram (2 cups) ordinary, unbleached wheat flour
125 gram (2/3 cup)sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 to 1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. speculaas spices
40 gram (1/2 cup) flaked almonds, crumbled (NOT ground)
Liquid bowl:
1 egg
2 1/2 decilitre (1 cup) buttermilk
125 gram (1/2 cup) butter, melted but not browned
Extra:
butter to grease the mould
25 gram (1/4 cup)flaked almonds

Preparation in advance:
Preheat the oven to 180EC/355EF.
Grease the muffin mould with butter. If you don't have a special mould for muffins, use a cake tin. Just remember that in that case the baking time will increase to fifty minutes.
Mix flour, salt, sugar, rising agents, almonds and spices. This is the "dry bowl".
Mix egg, buttermilk, melted butter. This is the "liquid bowl".

Preparation:
Add the contents of the dry bowl to the liquid bowl, mix with a fork until you have a lumpy batter.
Pour the batter into the muffin-holes, fill for not more that three quarters. The batter will rise during baking. Scatter some flaked almonds over the batter.
Place the mould in the middle of the oven, bake for fifteen minutes. Check whether the muffins are done by inserting a wooden toothpick into a muffin. If it comes out dry it is done, if not, bake a few minutes longer.
Remove the muffin mould from the oven, leave for five minutes.
Demould the muffins. I beat the mould lightly on the worktop until the muffins jump loose.
Place the muffins on a cake-rack to cool.

To serve:
You can eat the muffins either warm or cooled to room temperature. 

To keep muffins:
When the muffins are cooled completely, you can store them in a box for a day or two. But they are best when eaten fresh.

Spice mix for Speculaas: In The Netherlands you can buy the spices for speculaas premixed. I doubt whether that is the case elsewhere in the world. So here you have a mixture to make yourself: Take cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, white pepper, ginger and cardamom (everything powdered) in a ratio of 8:2:2:1:1:1  (whether you use grams, teaspoons or tablespoons, the proportions must be the same). The used spices betray the age of the recipe for speculaas: this combination of spices can be found in many fifteenth century recipes.

Enjoy!