Last Updated: 07/03/2023
If you’ve been on the food side of TikTok lately, you’ve probably seen the word ‘speculoos’. It’s being used in pretty much any sweet recipe you can think of – from biscuits and cakes, to overnight oats and tiramisu.
But what actually is speculoos? And how can you get this unique flavour into your recipes?
Read on to find out:
- What is speculoos?
- Are speculoos and biscoff the same?
- How do you make speculoos biscuits?
- What other recipes can you use speculoos in?
What is speculoos?
Speculoos flavour is a blend of warming, sweet spices usually found in biscuits.
The speculoos flavour comes mixing dark brown sugar with various spices, including:
- Cinnamon
- Ginger
- Cardamom
- Cloves
- Nutmeg
- White pepper
Speculoos – also called biscoff – is similar to gingerbread and ‘pumpkin spice’ flavour. It also goes well with caramel to make sweet recipes that need a hit of warming spices.
Image: Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash
Where does speculoos come from?
Speculoos has origins in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, where it is a tradition at Christmas time. Speculoos (or speculaas) typically refers to the shortbread biscuits made with that specific blend of spices.
Traditional speculoos biscuits are often in the shape of windmills, nativity characters, or animals. Most people today make them in a plain rectangle shape.
Are speculoos and biscoff the same?
Yes! Biscoff is just a branded commercial name for speculoos flavour. However, some biscoff flavour biscuits can be more chewy or cookie-like than the traditional, crispy speculoos biscuit.
How do you make speculoos biscuits?
The recipe for speculoos biscuits is pretty similar to any classic biscuit recipe, just with different spices. You won’t need any eggs or egg substitutes because you’re aiming for more of a thin crispy biscuit than a risen chewy cookie.
Just add the spices in with your flour and sugar and make the biscuits as normal.
What other recipes can you use speculoos in?
Use speculoos to add a touch of spicy sweetness to your favourite recipes. Here are just a few speculoos flavoured recipes you need to try:
Sponge cake
If you have leftover speculoos biscuits you can crumble them up to add extra texture and flavour to a classic sponge cake. To carry the flavour through the rest of the cake, spread speculoos spiced buttercream between the sponge layers.
For a vegan sponge cake use a plant-based egg substitute like flaxseeds or aquafaba. You can also swap in dairy-free buttercream and frosting made from vegan butter.
Breakfast tiramisu
Sweet speculoos spices and a hit of coffee? What more could you want? This breakfast variation of a tiramisu layers coffee-flavoured vegan yoghurt over flavoured oats.
Recipes
Speculoos Tiramisu Breakfast Recipe
2022-10-17 12:00:20 • By Amelia Dunn
This version of speculoos tiramisu also mixes protein powder with the oats to add a nutrition boost and keep you full all morning.
Latte
If breakfast isn’t your thing and you prefer to just grab a coffee, then try a speculoos vegan latte. Most of the speculoos flavour in this recipe comes from the protein powder, but you could also just spoon a little of the spice blend into a normal vegan latte if you don’t want the protein. Feel free to use any plant milk of your choice.
Recipes
Speculoos Protein Iced Latte Recipe
2022-09-26 15:00:30 • By Amelia Dunn
Cookie dough
Who says you need to bake cookie dough for it to be delicious? Edible cookie dough uses heat-treated flour so there’s none of the bacteria risk like with raw cookie dough.
Just take your favourite cookie dough recipe and add a few teaspoons of speculoos spice blend to the flour and sugar before mixing in the wet ingredients.
Protein shakes
Satisfy your sweet-tooth and hit your nutrition goals by adding a speculoos twist to your everyday protein shake.
Simply add 30g of Speculoos flavour Soy Protein Isolate Powder to 350ml of water or plant milk and shake!
Take home message
Speculoos makes a great addition to any sweet recipe in need of a twist. The suggestions here are only a fraction of the speculoos recipes you could create! If you do bake anything from this list, remember to tag us and use the hashtag #myvegan.
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Eleanor Taylor
Writer and expert
Eleanor is Myvegan's Content Executive. They love to write articles on all things Myvegan and cook new vegetarian and vegan recipes.
