Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably well aware of the cookie butter craze. Biscoff first came up with this idea as a way to use the broken cookies from their factory. Trader Joe’s then came along with their own version, and Pinterest has never been the same since. (Last year, I jumped into the fray and made these Espresso Cookies with Biscoff Buttercream.) But where does this cookie butter come from, you ask? Speculoos cookies. Crumbled up. With spices and a bit of oil, molasses and water. But the key is the speculoos cookies. Speculoos cookies not ringing a bell? What about Biscoff cookies? Yup, same thing. Biscoff is just the brand name, and it seems to be more recognizable here in the States than speculoos.
Thin, crunchy and spiced with all sorts of holiday seasonings, these Speculoos Cookies definitely deserve a spot on your holiday cookie plate!This past Spring, my wife and I got to travel to Belgium and the Netherlands for vacation. We had the chance to go on a private tour of the main Lotus Bakeries factory, and that was nothing short of awesome! (Lotus makes Biscoff cookies.) Even my wife, who openly states that she is not a baker, counted this as one of the best parts of the entire trip. I suspect it’s because she’s an engineer…and the factory was an engineering marvel. There were conveyor belts of cookies running up, down and all around us the entire time. I kinda wanted to stand at the end of one of the belts with my mouth open. Like a real life cookie monster. Nom nom nom. (We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the factory, but we did snag this one with our tour guide…who also happened to be the head baker.)
Lotus-pictureWe were definitely spoiled by the desserts in Belgium. There were chocolate stores on nearly every corner, and we may or may not have had a nightly Belgian Waffle from a street vendor near our hotel. And there was speculoos flavored everything! Chocolate bark with speculoos cookies crumbled on top. Speculoos flavored hot chocolate. Just plain old speculoos cookies served alongside a delicious cappuccino. Needless to say, I was inspired to come home and make my own batch of speculoos cookies for the holidays!
Thin, crunchy and spiced with all sorts of holiday seasonings, these Speculoos Cookies definitely deserve a spot on your holiday cookie plate!Speculoos cookies are traditionally made using a wooden mold. The dough is pressed into the mold and then turned out onto a baking sheet. These molds are straight legit, too. They are often passed down through the family, and the better quality ones are pretty expensive. We picked up an inexpensive mold on our trip…mainly as a keepsake. I did make several cookies using the mold, but the shape didn’t hold as well as I would have liked. You can still see the windmill pattern, but it’s a bit blurred. I suspect it’s due to the quality of our mold, but I definitely want to try it again and refrigerate the dough longer before baking.