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I had no idea, when I first started food blogging, that food was so much like fashion. Things fall in and out of fashion so quickly, and you can see this very thing happening in the food world as well. Things catch on like wildfire, someone will create a recipe with a new, trendy ingredient and it takes off, and next thing you know, you see it everywhere. In everything, on everything, under everything, swirled in everything. If you haven’t yet made anything with the new, trendy ingredient, you start to feel like you are out in public wearing jelly shoes and acid wash jeans. Wait, scratch that. Those are trendy again, aren’t they?
The problem for me is that sometimes the new, trendy ingredient is something I can’t actually eat. Take, for example, Biscoff cookies and the now wildy popular Biscoff Spread. I had heard of Biscoff cookies quite some time ago, they are famously given out on Delta flights. Or at least, they used to be before airlines started cutting all extraneous expenses. Maybe they are still handed out in business class, but I took a Delta flight home for California a few weeks ago and I saw nary a Biscoff crumb. Oh well, probably better not to even be tempted to try them. But now the hot ticket item is the Biscoff Spread, which as much as I can figure out, appears to be a peanut butter-like spread made from grinding up Biscoff cookies (and probably adding some more sugar and oil). I don’t know who thought of such a thing, or even WHY they thought of it, but it’s a mega-hit and foodbloggers are going to town with the stuff. Clearly I could never be one of those people who predicts trends in food or fashion ahead of the game!
The tipping point for me came when I saw that Trader Joe’s was now carrying a Biscoff-like spread (Speculoos Cookie Butter). And not only that, but they had thought to fill a chocolate bar with the stuff. Okay, now that’s just mean! Tempting a poor diabetic girl with chocolate and ground up cookies. Well, you know what I had to do, right? I had to make my own damn speculoos cookies. So that if I felt like it, I could make my own damn Speculoos Cookie Butter and my own damn candy bars filled with it!
The Results: Confession. I liked these Biscoff/Speculoos cookies so much that I never got around to grinding it up. My kids loved them too, so they really didn’t last long enough for me to grind up into a spread, let alone make anything with that spread. These had a lovely flavour. It’s hard to get the crisp, biscuity texture of cookies like this when baking low carb and gluten free, so I did experiment with how long I left them in the oven. For one batch, I turned off the oven afterwards and let them sit for a while. They turned out crisper, but were quite brown (tasted great!), whereas the other ones had a nicer colour but weren’t as crisp.
Either way, they are a great cookie and I will definitely make them again. We all loved them spread with a little peanut butter in the morning. Now here’s an idea…if I ever get around to grinding them up into a spread, I will spread it on some of the cookies themselves. Double your Speculoos fun!
Lighter and less crisp or darker and more crisp
Biscoff (Speculoos) Cookies – Low Carb and Gluten-Free
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 6 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup Swerve Sweetener or other erythritol
- 1/4 cup brown sugar substitute (I used Ideal)
- 1 large egg
- 16 drops stevia extract
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, spices and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat butter, Swerve and brown sugar substitute until creamy. Beat in the egg, then beat in almond flour mixture until dough comes together.
- Turn out dough onto a large piece of parchment paper. Pat into a rough circle and then top with another piece of parchment. Roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Place on a cookie sheet and chill in refrigerator for at least an hour.
- Preheat oven to 325F and line another baking sheet with parchment. Using whatever shape cookie cutter your heart desires, cut out cookies and lift carefully with a small, offset spatula or knife. Place cookies at least 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet. Reroll your dough and cut out more cookies (if your dough gets too soft to work with, you can put it in the freezer for a bit to harden up).
- Bake cookies 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are just starting to brown. For a crisper cookie, turn off oven, prop door open with a wooden spoon and let sit inside until cool.
Christine says
Did you ever make a cookie butter recipe?
Debbie says
I can’t wait to make these i love the spices used. Question do you think i could form it into a log and chill and slice off the dough rounds and bake them that way? I’m not one to use cookie cutters
Debbie
Carolyn says
I have done that with similar doughs so I think that should work.
Sarah Hallford says
Hi Carolyn,
Have you ever tried subbing lard in for the butter to make a crisper cookie? Before I went low carb, I used that with wheat based recipes and typically had great results.
I made these today and they were delicious but I would have liked them crisper as well.
Sarah
Carolyn says
Haven’t tried it in this recipe, although I am experimenting with my chocolate chip cookies…more to come!
Beth says
Is there a different flour I could try with the same outcome? I’m allergic to nuts.
Carolyn says
Sunflower seed flour, but you need to add a bit of acidity so they don’t turn green (it’s a reaction between the sunflower seeds and the baking powder). Try adding a tbsp of lemon juice.
Susan Pelter says
Finally made these and they are fantastic! Since I live in Florida and it is hard to keep the dough chilled, I cut out the first batch and rolled the second half of the dough into balls, which I then covered with a sheet of parchment paper and smashed with the bottom of a glass. The smashed ones are actually thinner and prettier than the others; they have a sort of scalloped look around the edges. In any case, these will definitely go into the regular cookie-baking rotation around here! Thanks, Carolyn!
Margaret says
I’ve never heard of Biscoff cookies before in the UK, but I have had speculoos in Belgium where they come from and they are quite dark, like the darker one in your final picture. I cannot imagine it as a spread – probably a step too far for me.