Lesson 1: Language- Pronunciation
Speculoos
Dutch: Speculaas
French: Speculoos
German: Spekulatius
Lesson 2: Anatomy
The Specs of the Speculoos
Let us study the structure of each Speculoos biscuit.
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| Ship, farmhouse, elephant and horse images stamped on Speculoos biscuits (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Speculoos is a shortcrust biscuit with a rectangular shape. It is thin, crunchy and infused with spices. The front side of the biscuit is usually impressed with animals and other images from folk stories of St. Nicholas. The impression is done through a wooden stamp. The back of the biscuit is flat. The color is slightly brown.
Lesson 3: Botany
The spices used in the Speculoos biscuit are white pepper, ginger, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. The best things in cooking are just a garden away. These plants, which are of vegetable origin, grow in the garden or backyard of most homes. Other than the leaves, their parts are dried, crushed or powdered to give that pungent and aromatic taste in most dishes and bread.
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| The spices that give the Speculoos biscuit that "bite" in the flavor (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Lesson 4 : History
In the early days, Speculoos used to be served only on the feast of St. Nicholas every first week of December, in the Netherlands and Belgium. Also during Christmas in Germany. It was believed that the name Speculoos originated from the latin word, speculator, which refers to a bishop or the ephitet of St. Nicholas, "he who sees everything."
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| Saint Nicholas, the merry Saint associated with the tradition of the Speculoos biscuits |
In Eeklo, Belgium, blue-collar workers made sandwiches of Speculoos biscuits and butter, since it is cheaper than cheese and meat. These workers have long discovered that by lunchtime, the biscuits would have softened and turned into a spreadable consistency. This might have given the concept to several manufacturers to create their own versions of Speculoos cookie butter, spread and paste. By 2007, versions like Trader Joe's Cookie Butter, Biscoff cookies and Belgian Spice Cookies, were marketed.
Speculoos in the Philippines
No one exactly knew why or what started the cookie crackle.
In the Philippines, there was an overflow of stocks of Speculoos cookie butter in leading supermarkets in the last quarter of 2013. Prior to that, a Speculoos Cookie Butter craze has been going online. Consumers pay as much as Php500 for a jar plus the shipping fee. By February of 2014, the stocks are gone. The online craze also tapered off.
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| The jar of Trader Joe's Speculoos cookie butter I bought online, standing beside a pouch of the local "pan de sal" from Pan De Manila |
The popularity of Speculoos Cookie Butter was adapted by McDonalds Philippines. They used cookie butter in one of their McFlurries during the Christmas season. Although, they did not disclose the brand they used. Nevertheless, the Cookie Butter McFlurry taste so good. In the 1st quarter of 2014, the Cookie Butter McFlurry was discontinued, as it was a limited edition McFlurry.
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| One of the many McDonald's McFlurry Cookie Butter I slurped :) |
Nestle Philippines has an ice cream collection called Temptations. Temptations has 5 international flavors that comprise its Flavors of the World collection. Since I'm missing the Cookie Butter McFlurry of McDonald's, I got a tub of the Dutch Speculoos from the Netherlands.
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| Tubs of Dutch Speculoos in the chest freezer in a supermarket |
Upon opening of the tub, I was enticed by a long chunky strip of Speculoos cookie burrowed in thick creamy vanilla ice cream. As I dig my spoon, the chunky blocks of cookies bleed a caramel-like color, staining the light butterscotch color of the vanilla ice cream with each fold and unfold stroke of the spoon.
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| Waiting for "open sesame!" |
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| The long trip of Speculoos cookie looks like a vanilla pod |
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| The Speculoos treasure has been partially uncovered! |
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| Chunks of golden cookie butter unearthed by the spoon
The taste captures the Speculoos Cookie Butter I love, only creamier. I also taste the spices, which tend to be masked by sugar in the Cookie Butter spread version and in McDonald's McFlurry.
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| Look, Ma! I found a gold mine! |
I still have the Speculoos biscuits from Belgium which I bought last December from a local supermarket. Just 4 pieces of these flat spiced biscuits with a mug of brewed coffee and I'm done with my breakfast. I'm accustomed to a light breakfast as long as there's coffee.
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| Belgian Speculoos cookies, spiced with cinnamon only |
I go kooky with Speculoos cookie! In a merry way, like old Saint Nicholas.
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