Today marks my first post of 2012, and even though I tried a lot of new foods last year, I’m always ready for more. Like everyone else, I ate quite a bit during the recent holiday season (turkey, stuffing, etc.), but only one thing really stood out as new.

On a recent trip to Trader Joe’s in Midtown, the GF found something that she’d heard of but didn’t know existed in the east coast TJ’s stores: “cookie butter.” It sounded awesome; how could you go wrong with those two ingredients paired together? However, I had a feeling there was more to it than just cookies and butter.

Cookie Butter

After reading the ingredients, I still had no real idea of how it was going to taste. The contents were a dark brown color, and the main ingredient was something called “speculoos.” I wasn’t familiar with that word, but after some research, I learned that it’s a type of sweet biscuit popular in several European countries. From what I could tell, the “butter” was a blend of speculoos cookies and several different oils (canola, coconut, rapeseed, palm). Much like peanut or almond butter, this wasn’t actually butter, but a sweetened spread that can be used to put on fruits, toast, ice cream, etc.

Rather than spread it on something, I decided to try it alone. I scooped about a teaspoon out of the jar, and it had about the same consistency as Nutella. This stuff was pretty awesome, I must say. The texture was a bit grainier than Nutella due to the blended cookies, and the taste was sweet with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. It was basically like eating a holiday cookie in paste form, and I could see where eating too much of it could probably make you sick.

Rather than OD from eating this alone, I’ll use it as a spread or topping in the future – maybe on a toasted bagel. It’s much too sweet and rich to be consumed by itself, but if Nutella isn’t rich enough for you, I highly recommend trying it.