Lotus Cookie Cinnamon Buns with
Speculoos Cream Cheese Frosting

Lotus Cookie Cinnamon Buns with
Speculoos Cream Cheese Frosting


Every since Trader Joe’s introduced their cookie butter, speculoos has been flying off the shelves faster than their pareve chocolate chips disappeared. If you live under a rock, and you still haven’t heard about speculoos, let me fill you in. Speculoos is a spiced shortcrust biscuit, or what Lotus (a popular manufacturer of speculoos cookies) calls, “The Original Caramelized Biscuit.” 

Speculoos cookies have been a popular treat in Belgium for years, and are sometimes referred to as Lotus or Biscoff cookies. Their popularity reached new heights, when a few years ago, a woman won a television contest for inventing a sweet spread made from the cookies. Speculoos spread went viral, with many companies, like Trader Joes, selling their own versions.

With TJ’s nonkosher cookie butter’s popularity rising, kosher foodies everywhere were left out in the dark. My fellow kosher food bloggers TheKosherFoodies and KitchenTested wanted a taste so badly, they made their own cookies just so they could crush them up into spread afterward.

But if you know me, the nonbaker, I was not about to follow suit. Slave over homemade biscuits and crush em up into crumbs? What am I, crazy? So I went the easy route…I bought them. And how, might you ask, did I find kosher Lotus cookies? Well it just so happens that I live in Brooklyn, where Pomegranate, the most awesome kosher supermarket in the world, is located. Pomegranate pretty much carries every kosher item available under the sun, from mundane to gourmet. If they don’t have it, it’s probably not kosher. And since Lotus Cookies are manufactured in Israel with a kosher symbol, Pomegranate imports them, so all their kosher consumers can enjoy “The Original Caramelized Biscuit.”

We spoke a lot about Speculoos’ origin, but what about the taste? Well when I first bit into these cookies, I immediately thought of ginger snaps, but without the ginger. They have more of a faint cinnamon & brown sugar taste, and they practically melt on your tongue when you eat them. Basically, they’re insanely delicious.

After picking up a package (ok, maybe 2), I thought about how I could turn these caramelized biscuits into something truly extraordinary. Since they’re reminiscent of cinnamon and brown sugar, I figured I would pulverize them into cookie crumbs, and use them inside, and outside, of cinnamon buns. Instead of a traditional speculoos spread, I did a play on cream cheese frosting, just like you’d spread over traditional cinnamon buns. The results were out-of-this-world amazing. If the picture doesn’t speak louder than words here, I don’t know what will.

Do me a favor. If you live in New York (or Israel for that matter) and you can get your hands on a package of these melt-in-your-mouth cookies, MAKE THIS. Better yet, if you’re up for the challenge, and you can’t get a hold of these cookies. Make your own. And then make this. You can thank me later.

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39 thoughts on “Lotus Cookie Cinnamon Buns with
Speculoos Cream Cheese Frosting

  1. Looks delicious. Fyi I went to Pomegranate and they didn’t have the cookies (apparently they are past the sell by date from the distributor). I visited my local kosher supermarket and they had them there! Can’t wait to make them!

  2. ok i live under a rock bc i did not know that speculoos comes from these lotus cookies that i adore and have been buying in LA for a while meanwhile wishing i could taste the nonkosher TJ spread! and now i can make it myself! and put them in yummy cinnamon buns. amazing. this is the best recipe!

  3. Oh gosh gosh gosh! These look like that fabulous smell from Cinabon that always used to captivate me in a shopping mall. I never tasted them and they always smelled so good. These look wonderful and I am imaging the wonderful fragrance.

  4. Are the ones from Israel imported from Belgium and just get their kashrut from an Israeli kashrut agency? Or are they really being manufactured in Israel?
    Because if they are just imported then maybe the lotus cookies bring sold in the regular stores here in America are also kosher? The European products many times do not have the kosher stmbol on them even though they are kosher…
    I really want to try the spread….
    I live in Miami, haven’t seen it here in the kosher stores..

    1. I don’t know the answer to that. All I can tell you is that the ones being sold in kosher supermarkets have a kosher certification from Israel. In addition, most of the Lotus products that my cousin sent me from Belgium also had a kosher certification from Israel. I know for a fact that the spread is not available kosher in the USA. Cookies (with a kosher certification) yes, but not the spread. Maybe someone in Israel can ship you a jar?

      1. hi do you have the package with the certification from israel? threw mine out by mistake, and need to know if they’re pas yisroel…
        thanks!

        1. Hey Batsheva, I don’t have the package but if they are made in Israel with a Badatz hasgacha, I’m fairly certain that makes them Pas Yisroel.

  5. I HAVE to get to the bottom of this.. I will call or email customer service tomorrow. Will let you know if I find any info.

    1. This is what the Food Network suggests for making your own cookie butter, revise accordingly: Roughly crush 12 gingersnaps, 6 whole graham crackers and 5 shortbread cookies, then pulse in a food processor until finely ground. Add 3 tablespoons cold water and pulse until combined, then let sit 10 minutes. Add 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and a pinch of cinnamon. With the processor running, slowly drizzle in 1/2 cup coconut milk and blend until smooth. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

  6. Got here a little late, but with Shavuos coming up wanted to make this reciep and I have been combing brooklyn for these lotus cookies, and can’t seem to get my hands on them, anyone have a clue who carries them locally? Pomegranite does not carry them any more. Thanks for your help.

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