Speculoos

Speculoos (spéculoos, Karamellgebäck) is a biscuit, originally manufactured in Belgium, made from wheat flour, candy syrup (from beet sugar), fat, and sometimes cinnamon. Speculoos was developed in the 20th century around the area of Verviers, as an alternative for people who could not afford Dutch speculaas. Belgian Speculoos includes fewer spices than Dutch speculaas, as the spices were much more expensive to import to Belgium than to the Netherlands. 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 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. 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 products with their Biscoff 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 traditionally made a sandwich in the morning with butter and speculaas or speculoos biscuits. This took on 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 biscuits 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, and Biscoff Spread. As a form of spreadable speculoos biscuits, the flavour is caramelized and gingerbread-like, with a colour similar to peanut butter and a consistency ranging from creamy to granular or crunchy. The spread consists of 60% crushed speculoos biscuits and vegetable oils. In the United States the grocery chain Trader Joe's sells its own brand of cookie butter and cookie butter ice cream.