Lotus

Biscoff.  Or, depending on what country you are in, perhaps you know it was Speculoos.  Or perhaps you don't know the base at all, but you know of something called "cookie butter" or "biscoff spread" or "speculoos butter".  Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about?

I'll start with the basics.  Lotus is a Belgian bakery, founded in 1932, known for their biscuits - hard style, slightly spiced, shortcrust biscuits: Speculoos biscuits (or, Biscoff in the UK and US).  Biscoff = "biscuit" + "coffee", as the biscuits are designed to go alongside your coffee.

The biscuits are ... well, boring, honestly.  Sure, I guess they go nicely with a cup of coffee, and are served with coffee and espresso in many places in Europe (and on some flights), but ... why?  They are boring, really.

But a few years ago, someone realized you can grind them up into a paste, add more vegetable oil and sugar, and turn them into a butter-like spread, much like peanut butter, but with just the biscuits as a base.  "Cookie Butter".  Let's just say, this stuff got popular fast, particularly when Trader Joe's introduced a version.

Given that I was never into the cookies, er, biscuits, and I don't like things like Nutella in general, the cookie butter fad never really hit me.  I didn't know what I'd do with it really, and the few times I did have it, it always just felt too rich (and, um, it is.  Don't look at the nutrition stats).  Remember the time I had it slathered inside the otherwise delicious fried chimney cake cone soft serve ice cream from Turn Dough in Venice?

I guess people use cookie butter nearly anywhere you might use peanut butter, in sandwiches, globbed on ice cream sundaes, on waffles or pancakes, etc, but yeah, it just hasn't ever struck me as something I really want.

But I also love trying new snacks, particularly when people recommend them to me, so when a friend recommended a grab-n-go snack pack featuring Biscoff spread ... I couldn't resist.

I'm glad I didn't.  I think I have been missing out on some cookie butter fun.

Biscoff & Go Cookie Butter and Breadsticks.

"Enjoy your Biscoff on a go with this individually packed of breadsticks and Biscoff Cookie Butter dip. Perfect for lunch box, party favors, snacks."

"Cookie butter and breadsticks".  I'll admit, this certainly didn't sound very exciting.  Breadsticks?

The packaging looked like Dunkaroos (does those still exist?), or cheese spread and crackers.  You pull pack a foil top to reveal a compartment with the item to dunk, and a compartment with the dip.

Cookie Butter & Breadsticks.

"Enjoy the great taste of the famous Lotus Biscoff Cookies crushed into a smooth spread and served in a snack pack with crunchy breadsticks. To create this irresistibly smooth spread, we crush the Lotus Biscoff cookies finely after baking. That's how we keep all the goodness of their unique flavor. Take this snack pack wherever you go!"

The breadsticks looked as boring as I thought they might.  They certainly are not something I'd call "breadsticks" as they are not soft and doughy, but I don't have a better name for them either.  Hard, bland style not sweet cookie sticks that taste a lot like hard bread?  Yeah.  The breadsticks alone are not exactly a tasty item, although I certainly can't claim they taste *bad* either.  I think they'd dunk equally well in a cheese sauce, pesto, or anything else you might dip, well, breadsticks into.

And then the sidecar of cookie butter.  Spreadable caramelized biscuits.  Consistency like peanut butter.  Very sweet, with a depth of flavor from brown sugar and a touch of spicing.  So very rich.

It turns out, the bland breadsticks are what you need to combat the richness of the spread.  While a spoonful of the spread is quite delicious, much more than that just isn't actually appealing.

I enjoyed dunking them several at a time into the spread, and getting a big glob on the end of my sticks.

Breadstick + Cookie Butter + Toffee Bits.

And then I started dunking the sticks, with cookie butter, into more toppings.  Toffee bits were first.  I liked adding more texture, but they weren't quite what I wanted with the cookie butter.

I enjoyed them even more when I pulled out my can of whipped cream and a shaker of rainbow sprinkles, and made creations with several breadsticks, a generous glob of cookie butter, far too much whipped cream, and some sprinkles just for fun.

I wanted to do a version with breadstick + cookie butter + cacao nibs, and started to come up with many other great ideas, but then I looked down, and alas, the entire package was gone.  Doh.

Turns out, I liked these things.