Whip up a batch of homemade speculoos spread in 5 minutes with just 5 ingredients! This speculoos cookie butter recipe is ridiculously easy, sweet and spicy with that iconic cinnamon flavour you know and love.
In This Post You’ll Learn
Why We Love This
Speculoos spread is totally moreish and so quick and easy to make. All you need are some spiced speculoos biscuits (also known as Dutch windmill biscuits) and a few easy pantry staples.
Having this recipe in your repertoire is like having the world’s best cookie butter available on demand! Pair it with ice cream or your favourite desserts, or use it to make everything more delicious.
(Or just scoff it down with a spoon as a tasty treat like we do!)
Related: Speculoos Tiramisu / Kaya Jam / Caramilk White Christmas
What is Speculoos Spread?
Speculoos spread (also known as speculoos cookie butter) is a spread made from crushed speculoos biscuits. The texture is similar to smooth peanut butter but with a spicy cinnamon flavour.
Where We Learned This
We first discovered this deliciously smooth spread while travelling through the Netherlands. The handy little jar of spiced cookie butter made the rounds with us through quite a few countries during our European adventures. One spoonful was enough to add it to our list of ‘MUST RECREATE AT HOME’!
What You’ll Need
- Speculoos Biscuits – You can use any brand of Dutch windmill cookies, also known as speculoos or speculaas biscuits. Sub with any other crunchy biscuits with strong caramel or brown sugar flavour.
- Brown Sugar – This brings the delicious caramelised flavour you’re looking for. Sub with white sugar only if you don’t have any brown sugar on hand.
- Evaporated Milk – Adds creaminess and gives the spread a smooth buttery texture.
- Butter – We use salted butter to bring out the sweetness and spice. Sub with unsalted butter and a pinch of salt if you need.
- Other Ingredients – You’ll also need lemon juice and ground cinnamon.
How to Make Speculoos Spread
First, gather your ingredients: See recipe card below for measurements.
- Pop your speculoos biscuits and brown sugar in a blender or food processor and pulse until nicely crushed and blended.
- Add the evaporated milk and blend for around a minute.
- Finally, add the butter, lemon juice and ground cinnamon and blend until smooth, glossy, and irresistible!
Wandercook’s Tips
- Storage – Store homemade speculoos spread in the fridge in an airtight container or clean glass jar. It will last for around 1 week (assuming it’s not polished off well before that)!
- Melt in the Microwave – If your spread has firmed up too much from being in the fridge, you can pop a portion into a small glass bowl and microwave in short 10-20 second bursts to get it nice and spreadable / pourable again.
- Leftover Evaporated Milk? Why not make a Malaysian Three Layer Tea or Mexican Tres Leche Cupcakes!
FAQs
Use it as you would any regular cookie butter! Spread it on toast, drizzle over ice cream, tiramisu, waffles or pancakes, or serve as a dip for fresh fruit.
Swirl it through homemade treats like muffins, cakes or ice cream pudding. Or use it to flavour whipped cream in desserts like pavlova, meringue roulade or ripple cake.
Variations
- Make it Vegan – Substitute the butter and evaporated milk for coconut milk and coconut oil. It’ll change the flavour but will still be totally worth it.
- Make it Crunchy! – Stir in extra crushed biscuits or nuts into the spread.
Try these amazing recipes next:
- Speculoos Tiramisu – So quick and easy, no eggs or mascarpone required!
- Ginger Kisses – Delicious with homemade buttercream.
- Ginger Fluff Sponge Cake – So impressive (yet surprisingly easy to make).
- Poffertjes – Dutch Mini Pancakes – So cute, perfect for a surprise treat!
- Vanilla Slice – Our favourite no fuss take on a bakery favourite.
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and a star rating below!
Ingredients
- 150 g speculoos cookies 5.29 oz, aka Dutch Windmill biscuits
- 25 g brown sugar 0.88 oz
- 100 ml evaporated milk 3.38 fl oz
- 10 g salted butter 0.35 oz
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Pop your speculoos biscuits and brown sugar in a blender or food processor and give them a quick spin until nicely crushed and blended.150 g speculoos cookies, 25 g brown sugar
- Next pour in your evaporated milk and give it all another good spin for around a minute.100 ml evaporated milk
- Finally, throw in your butter, lemon juice and ground cinnamon and give everything another good pulse. The resulting mixture should be smooth, glossy, and near irresistible. Good luck and enjoy your speculoos adventures!10 g salted butter, 1 tsp lemon juice, ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Video
Recipe Notes
- Storage – Store homemade speculoos spread in the fridge in an airtight container or clean glass jar. It will last for around 1 week (assuming it’s not polished off well before that)!
- Melt in the Microwave – If your spread has firmed up too much from being in the fridge, you can pop a portion into a small glass bowl and microwave in short 10-20 second bursts to get it nice and spreadable / pourable again.
- Make it Vegan – Substitute the butter and evaporated milk for coconut milk and coconut oil. It’ll change the flavour but will still be totally worth it.
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56 Comments
Melissa Chudy
05/01/2024 at 4:53 amThis looks so good! I’m excited to try it, I just found some evaporated coconut milk at the store yesterday! I was curious what the portion size is and is it really 939 calories PER portion?
Wandercooks
08/01/2024 at 10:42 amHey Melissa! Nice work on the evap coconut milk! The nutrition info is for the whole jar. 🙂 People use the spread for all different purposes, so just divide by the amount you think you’d use. EG if you think you’ll get 20 portions out of it and you just eat it on toast, that would be just under 47 calories per portion.
Christina yee
30/11/2023 at 3:13 amHave you tried water bath canning to seal this in a jar, make it last longer than 1 week.
Wandercooks
04/12/2023 at 10:55 amWe haven’t tried this Christina, so can’t say much on the topic unfortunately. Do let us know if you try it.
Hannah
29/09/2023 at 7:48 amI skipped the lemon juice but otherwise stuck to the directions and it came out DELICIOUS!
Wandercooks
29/09/2023 at 7:59 amHow GOOD is it? Love being able to make it yourself at home. Enjoy!!
Joelle Kastner
07/04/2023 at 3:38 amI’ve never had speculoos before but decided to try a dessert recipe that featured it. So I bought speculoos cookie biscuits but did not realize I also would need speculoos spread too. I found this recipe, though, and decided to make my own. It is extremely quick and easy to make and tastes absolutely delicious. I definitely will be making it again.
Wandercooks
07/04/2023 at 1:32 pmOh nice save Joelle! So glad you were able to make it from scratch. And bonus, I hope you have leftovers to try on some toast!
Fred Levi
28/02/2023 at 6:12 amI used coconut cream & a few dashes of coconut milk to equal 1/2 cup
And pure maple syrup – 1 Tablespoon
YUMMY !
Wandercooks
02/03/2023 at 5:21 pmOh nice variations, thanks for letting us know that works too! 😀
Elize
24/12/2022 at 4:25 pmExcellent! Made this today as a Christmas present for my daughter and I am blown away by the results! I used home made biscuits and it turned out wonderful. Thank you for this recipe! Highly recommend this
Wandercooks
30/12/2022 at 9:06 amSo good Elize! I hope she absolutely loves it, especially because it’s made with your homemade biscuits. Yum!
Ari
13/09/2022 at 2:47 amHello, how many grams does this recipe make? Or what size jar?
Wandercooks
14/09/2022 at 4:48 pmHey Ari, we just used a large jam jar we had on hand and didn’t weigh the final weight sorry!
Nadeen
11/04/2021 at 9:46 amHi,
Will the flavor effect if I use regular sugar instead of brown sugar ?
Wandercooks
12/04/2021 at 9:37 amHi Nadeen! It will be a slightly lighter flavour, but totally fine to use regular sugar as long as it’s a finer grain, so you don’t have any grittiness in the final result. 🙂
Regina
07/12/2020 at 3:08 amHi! Can i use regular milk instead of evaporated milk?
Wandercooks
07/12/2020 at 10:21 amHey Regina, you can use your regular milk to make evaporated milk for the recipe. Gently simmer 1 cup of full cream milk for about 10 minutes on low-medium heat until it reduces to about half. Wait for it to cool, then use in the recipe.
Mariana
23/08/2020 at 12:42 amHiii!!! Delicious!! Can I use this recipe to fill cookies before baking them???
Thank you!!!
Wandercooks
24/08/2020 at 1:26 pmHey Mariana, we’ve had readers use it as icing for cakes and cupcakes, but not as a cookie filler. Do you mean baking it with the fill in it, or spreading it between two cookies to stick together? I would say the latter would work well, but you’d have to do a test batch if cooking them with the filling. Hope this helps! 🙂
Catalina
07/06/2020 at 1:31 amHI! I loved this recipe! I’m trying to find a recipe that could last longer than 1 week… do you have any ideas about how to substitute the evaporated milk for a not-so-perishable ingredient? Thank you <3
Wandercooks
08/06/2020 at 3:44 pmHey Catalina, as evaporated milk has a high level of sugar, it probably would last longer than a week in the fridge. What you can do so you don’t have to substitute is portion it out and freeze what you’re not using. This will keep it freshest for longest. If it’s been in the fridge for longer than a week, keep an eye on it for mould and give it the sniff test for any sour notes. If in doubt, throw it out!
Amani
29/05/2020 at 1:17 amWhat can I use instead of evaporated milk?
Wandercooks
29/05/2020 at 1:45 pmYou can make try making Evaporated Milk yourself: Gently simmer 1 cup of full cream milk for about 10 minutes on low-medium heat until it reduces to about half. Wait for it to cool, then use in the recipe. Otherwise, you could try using cream but I’m not sure how the end result would turn out as I haven’t tested it. Let me know how it goes! 🙂