I only recently learned about Speculoos. We went to Bruges Waffles and Frites* in Salt Lake City for breakfast. One of the options is Speculoos and crème fraiche on your waffle. It was so good, I had to get some at home. I found it online at The Belgium Shop.** I have subsequently seen it at Trader Joe’s.
My daughter-in-law came across this recipe online*** and forwarded it to me so I tried it right away.
Speculoos is a kind of crispy cookie made in the Netherlands. They grind the cookies up and mix them with something to make a spread that looks a lot like peanut butter. These are good but you have to spread a generous amount of Speculoos on the cookies to make them really interesting.
The irony fails to escape me: grinding cookies into a paste to be used to make cookies.
Yield:
2 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
6 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup Speculoos spread
1 cup chocolate chips
Additional Speculoos for filling
Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Stir in egg, vanilla and ½ cup Speculoos.
With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix just until incorporated.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Using a spoon or small ice cream scoop, drop about 2 tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto the parchment paper.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges.
Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, make sandwich cookies by spooning more Speculoos in between two cookies. (Highly recommended.)
Notes:
* http://www.brugeswaffles.com/main.php
** http://shop.belgianshop.com/acatalog/Lotus.html
*** http://dishingupdelights.thedailymeal.com/
Oh, so you found out about one of favorite places to go for dessert. Get the Torpedo with raspberries and vanilla bean ice cream. Awesome!
I can think of only a few things that would not be good with speculoos spread. I’m surprised to read that the spec. flavor was on the subtle side. Maybe the best thing to do is spread spec. on a Tad cookie and let the combined cinnamon flavors go to work.
Oh! Those look divine. But, I don’t get it either, all that work just to grind them up into a paste?! I’ll buy the jar, thank you very much.