5-Minute Cookie Butter Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is a substitute for cookie butter? ›

A few substitutes for cookie butter include peanut butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter, tahini or cashew butter. To approximate the sweetness of cookie butter, you can experiment with mixing your preferred nut butter with honey and ground warming spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and/or ginger.

Cookie butter (Dutch: speculoospasta, Danish: trøffelmasse) is a food paste made primarily from speculoos cookie crumbs, fat (such as vegetable oil, condensed milk or butter), flour, and sugar. The ingredients are mixed until it becomes spreadable on a sandwich.

But for all those cookie-crazed consumers out there, I'm here to offer a blinding revelation. Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter is an almost identical copy of Lotus Biscoff Spread. Never heard of it? Well, Biscoff was around first (in Belgium, anyway).

You can store and serve homemade cookie butter at room temperature for much of the year, but you'll need to take some precautions when your kitchen gets especially hot or cold. In warmer months, you may need to keep it in the fridge, then allow the cookie butter to soften at room temperature prior to use.

Due to its liquid nature, using oil in cookies typically results in a denser texture. Also, because oil is 100% fat, it doesn't react with flour the way butter does (butter contains water). Because of that, your cookies won't be as fluffy. If you're a fan of flat cookies, then using oil is an excellent option.

But before we ever snagged a jar off grocery shelves in the U.S., it was better known as speculoos spread and made from traditional European holiday cookies. So, how did cookie butter emerge from relative obscurity and become something we eat by the spoonful nightly on our couches?

Cookie butter is known for its high-fat content. The majority of the fat comes from crushed cookies and added oils. A typical serving may contain around 14-16 grams of fat, including both saturated and unsaturated fats. It is advisable to consume it in moderation, especially for individuals watching their fat intake.

Not trying to blow any minds here, but cookie butter is made of cookies. Specifically, it's made from a spice cookie also known as a speculoos cookie. So far so good.

cookie butter was discontinued. It was one of my. favorites.

Why is cookie butter so good? ›

The main flavors in cookie butter come from the various, fragrant spices used to make the cookies that are then blended to make the spread. Some additional ingredients may be added to the spread, but the main flavors come from a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, clove, anise seed, ginger, white pepper, and cardamom.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, the same company is branded as Lotus Biscoff, short for biscuit with coffee. Company founder Jan Boone Sr. created the original recipe in 1932. In October 2020, Lotus Bakeries decided to omit the word "speculoos" from local markets, to harmonise their brand.

Considering the above point, it's a wonder that cookie butter isn't loaded with sugar and fat. There are only 90 calories in one serving (a tablespoon), six grams of fat, and only five grams of sugar. The only real downside is that unlike peanut butter, cookie butter offers virtually no protein.

Though we do, admittedly, love eating it straight from the jar, Trader Joe's Cookie Butter can be added to almost any type of dessert recipe for cookies, brownies, and even cakes.

Unsalted butter gives you complete control of the overall flavor of your recipe. This is especially important in certain baked goods where the pure, sweet cream flavor of butter is key (butter cookies or pound cakes). As it pertains to cooking, unsalted butter lets the real, natural flavor of your foods come through.

Butter is an emulsifier and it makes cookies tender. It also adds in the crispy-around-the-edges element. Adding too much butter can cause the cookies to be flat and greasy. Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly.

You can use salted butter instead of unsalted butter if that's all you've got — especially if you're making something simple like cookies where the chemistry of adding salt in a specific amount and at a certain time won't have a meaningful impact on the outcome (as it would with yeasted bread).