I love to bake, a lot, and recently I’ve been experimenting with cookie butter. I discovered cookie butter about a year ago and I’ve been busy developing new ways to bake with it.

Cookie butter is a spread that’s been popular in Europe for many years and is now available and gaining popularity in North America. Made primarily from speculoos cookies, cookie butter looks like and has a similar consistency to peanut butter.

When I did some reading on the origins of cookie butter and speculoos cookies in particular, I realized that I practically grew up on these cookies! Speculoos, or speculaas, cookies are a Belgian spiced shortbread cookie that are popular year round in Europe. You’ve probably seen them in old-fashioned type tins around the holidays and you may have seen them in the cookie section of your grocery store. Speculoos cookies are brown in color, crunchy, and often have a caramel flavor in addition to hints of cinnamon. In Europe and the Middle East, these cookies are served as tea biscuits and used for baking – they’re consumed and enjoyed all year round.

Cookie butter is primarily made of crushed up speculoos cookies, with the addition of oil/fat, milk ingredients, sugar, and flour. It’s caramel in color, and is used as a breakfast spread or in recipes. There are many variations of cookie butter: smooth, crunchy, and mixed with hazelnut or other ingredients. It’s very sweet and I’ve been known to eat it straight out of the jar! It smells and tastes delicious.

If you have a sweet tooth, you will love cookie butter and you’ll want to find lots of ways to use it. I recently spent time developing a recipe using some of my favorite ingredients, like oatmeal and chocolate. I tested it on my daughter and her friend and they loved these little cookie butter cups.

These cookie butter cups are like a piece of fudge or a truffle. They’re sweet and smooth and, by making them in mini-cupcake liners, they are a small indulgence. Of course, they can be made as drop cookies, or poured in bigger sizes. The key to making these cookie butter chocolate oatmeal cups is to use pure cocoa, with no additions of carbonate. I used Ghirardelli, but you can use any cocoa, as long as you check the label. If you use the cocoa with sodium carbonate, it tends to thicken the mixture and alter the texture.

What I love about these cookie butter chocolate oatmeal cups is that they’re no-bake, nut-free, and use one pot to make. They take about 5-10 minutes to make and can be stored in the fridge or at room temperature.

By the way, I’m using Penotti Cookie Notti cookie butter, made by one of the original manufacturers of spreads in Europe. You can find it next to the peanut butter in most grocery stores.

Here’s my original recipe.

Cookie Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Cups
(Yields 20 Mini Cups)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/4 cup milk
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder (I used Ghirardelli)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup crunchy or plain Penotti Cookie Notti cookie butter
3/4 quick cooking oats (not instant)
Broken pieces of speculoos cookies and sprinkles for decorating (optional)

Method:

• Line mini cupcake tins with 20 liners
• Bring the margarine, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder to a boil in a small pot over low heat
• When the entire surface of the mixture starts to boil, let it boil for one minute
• Remove from heat
• Add the vanilla and the cookie butter and stir until smooth
• Stir in the oatmeal
• Use a spoon or an ice cream scoop (2-3 tsp) to fill the muffin cups
• Place a broken piece of speculoos cookie in the center of each muffin cup or add sprinkles on top, if using

Penotti Cookie Notti Cookie Butter

Making Cookie Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Cups

Cookie Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Cups

Cookie Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Cups Made With Penotti Cookie Notti

Note: you have to work fast once you add the cookie butter. Don’t let the mixture sit or it will thicken and change the consistency of the cups and they will be harder to scoop out and decorate.

I’ve made other recipes using cookie butter but you’ll have to stay tuned for those in future posts! Have you tried cookie butter as a spread or in recipes? I’d love to hear how you enjoy cookie butter!

This post is sponsored by Penotti Canada and I have received compensation for this post. All opinions are my own. Recipe copyright of Mary Ashkar & SweetLifeStyle.ca