Cookie butter facts for kids

Cookie butter is a yummy spread made mostly from crushed speculoos cookies. Think of it like a smooth paste! It also has fat (like oil or butter), flour, and sugar. All these ingredients are mixed until it's easy to spread on toast or sandwiches. In places like Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, people often use it instead of nut butter or chocolate spreads.

The Story of Cookie Butter

The idea for cookie butter first appeared in 2002. A Dutch woman, known as Oma Wapsie, shared her recipe online. This recipe showed how to turn tasty speculoos cookies into a smooth spread.

The idea became very popular after a Belgian TV show called De Bedenkers (which means "The Inventors"). On the show, two different people presented their own recipes for a spreadable cookie product. One was a chef named Danny De Maeyer. The other was Els Scheppers.

Lotus, a very famous company that makes speculoos cookies (called Biscoff in the US), liked Els Scheppers' idea. They bought her recipe and started selling cookie butter. To make sure they were the only ones, Lotus also bought Danny De Maeyer's recipe in 2009.

However, in 2011, a court in Ghent, Belgium, said that Lotus could not have a special patent for cookie butter. This was because the recipe had already been shared online by Oma Wapsie years before. This decision meant that other companies could also make and sell cookie butter.

Today, many different brands sell cookie butter. You can find Lotus Biscoff cookie butter and Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter, among others.

Cookie Butter in the United States

Commercially available Speculoos cookie butter

Cookie butter became very popular in the United States around 2015. Many people enjoy it, especially during holidays. Lotus Biscoff Cookie Butter is the most well-known brand there. However, Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter is also a big favorite.

Different Kinds of Cookie Butter

In some parts of Scandinavia, a different kind of cookie butter has been used for many years. It's often very thick and has flavors like cocoa and liquor.

Swedish Dammsugare

In Sweden, cookie butter is a key ingredient in a treat called dammsugare. This name means "vacuum cleaner" because of its shape! The cookie butter is mixed with cocoa and a special liquor called punsch. This mix is then wrapped in a thin sheet of green marzipan. Finally, the whole thing is dipped in dark chocolate.

Danish Trøffelmasse

In Denmark, cookie butter is known as trøffelmasse. It's used in many traditional bakery treats. These include studenterbrød, romkugler (sometimes called trøfler), and træstammer. You can find these in most Danish bakeries.

Danish trøffelmasse often has cocoa and other crumbled cakes mixed in. Sometimes, it also includes shredded coconut, rolled oats, or fruit jams. Apricot or raspberry jam are popular choices.

Images for kids

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  Dammsugare (Sweden). Cookie butter wrapped in brightly green marzipan and dipped in dark chocolate.

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  A divided træstamme (Denmark), exposing the cocoa and rum flavoured cookie butter interior.

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  Romkugler (Denmark). Cocoa and rum flavoured balls of cookie butter rolled in a variety of sprinkles.

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  Granatsplitter (Germany). Cocoa and rum flavoured cookie butter (with butter) covered in dark chocolate.