Speculoos (sold as Biscoff in the United States and the United Kingdom) is a

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be ...

originally manufactured in Belgium. Although the name is similar to

speculaas Speculaas (, , , , ) is a type of spiced shortcrust biscuit baked with speculaas spices. Speculaas is usually flat in the shape of a picture and is especially popular around the feast of St. Nicholas and during the time of Advent. The oldest ...

, speculoos is a different product. The biscuits are made without the mixture of

spices A spice is a seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garni ...

used in speculaas. The main ingredients of speculoos are wheat flour, candy syrup (from beet sugar), fat, and sometimes

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...

. Fewer spices are involved in the process of making Belgian speculoos compared to the Dutch speculaas, as the spices were much more expensive to import to Belgium as opposed to the Netherlands. Speculoos was developed in the 20th century around the area of Verviers and made as an alternative for people who could not afford Dutch speculaas. The origins of speculaas are much older. In the 2020s the names ''speculaas'' and ''speculoos'' are sometimes used interchangeably in Flanders.

Brands

In Europe,

Lotus Lotus may refer to: Plants *Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly: ** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae **Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...

Speculoos is the most recognized brand. This manufacturer supplied the biscuits individually packaged to the catering industry. In the United States and the United Kingdom, the same company is branded as Lotus Biscoff, short for ''biscuit with coffee''. In October 2020, Lotus Bakeries decided to omit the word "speculoos" from local markets, to harmonise their brand. Several chains of supermarkets have started their own product under their generic name. In the US, windmill or almond windmill cookies are mostly based on Speculoos.

Spread or paste

Workers in the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

traditionally made a sandwich in the morning with butter and speculaas or speculoos cookies. This would develop into a spread-like consistency by lunchtime. In 2008, two competitors entered a contest on the Belgian television show, ''The Inventors (de Bedenkers)'', with a spread made from speculoos cookies — Els Scheppers, who reached the semi-finals, and the team of chef Danny De Mayer and Dirk De Smet, who were not selected as finalists. Spreads made from crushed Speculoos cookies went into production by three separate companies and become popular. By 2007, several Belgian companies began marketing a speculoos paste, now available worldwide under various brands and names: as ''Speculla'', ''

Cookie Butter Cookie butter (Dutch: ''speculoospasta'', Danish: ''trøffelmasse'') is a food paste made primarily from speculoos cookie crumbs (such as Biscoff in the United States and United Kingdom), fat (such as vegetable oil, condensed milk or butter), ...

'', and ''Biscoff Spread''. As a form of spreadable Speculoos cookies, the flavor is caramelized and

gingerbread Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as ...

-like, with a color similar to

peanut butter Peanut butter is a food paste or spread made from ground, dry-roasted peanuts. It commonly contains additional ingredients that modify the taste or texture, such as salt, sweeteners, or emulsifiers. Peanut butter is consumed in many countri ...

and a consistency ranging from creamy to granular or crunchy. The spread consists of 60% crushed speculoos cookies along with vegetable oils. In the United States, the California-based and German-owned variety grocery store chain

Trader Joe's Trader Joe's is an American chain of grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. The chain has over 569 stores across the United States. The first Trader Joe's store was opened in 1967 by founder Joe Coulombe in Pasadena, California ...

sells their own brand of cookie butter, a thick buttery paste made up of the cookies, as well as their own cookie butter ice cream.

References

{{Reflist Biscuits