Homemade Gingerbread Cookie Butter Recipe

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I'm late to the cookie butter party.  Everyone is raving about it, I know, and spreading it on everything, and baking with it, and eating it straight out of the jar.  You know why I hadn't tried it until a few weeks ago?  Because of the name of it at Trader Joe's:  Speculoos Cookie Butter.  Maybe it's because I'm a whole-to-part reader, but every time I see that name, I immediately think of a speculum.  Ladies, you know what I mean.  And it's NOT an association I have with anything fun or delicious.

But Santa brought a container of Biscoff brand cookie butter for my daughter's stocking, and I bravely tried it.  And yes, it is delicious.  I can totally see why people love it.  But the true brilliance and possibility didn't occur to me until I was cleaning out my cabinets, and came upon a gallon sized bag of gingerbread house trimmings.  HOMEMADE cookie butter!  Not only would it be delicious, but it would also use up all of those gingerbread scraps!

I started with this cookie butter recipe, and it was ok.  A little greasy.  I experimented a bit, and found that I vastly preferred switching the measurements for the liquids around.

Gingerbread Cookie Butter Recipe:

  • 8 ounces of gingerbread cookies
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Whenever I bake gingerbread houses, I end up with all these cookie scraps trimmed from the edges.  My husband lurks around the kitchen, waiting for fresh scraps when I bake, but I make a LOT of gingerbread houses every year, and I always end up with several gallon size Ziploc bags of trimmings.  My girls and my husband make a valiant effort to eat them (they're perfect for dunking in milk!), but most get either sent in to my husband's office, or eventually thrown away.  Not this year!  Oh no, they were transformed into gingerbread cookie butter that's a gift-worthy confection all on its own.

Start this transformation from scraps into magical cookie spread by using a food processor to crush the cookies into a very fine powder.  I suppose you could use a blender for this, too, but it seems like it would be much harder than using a food processor.  Multiple batches.  Scraping down the sides.  With my Cuisinart, I just let the blade whirl until the cookies are powder.  (Wait!  Brainstorm!  I should totally make gingerbread cookie powder to make graham cracker style pie crusts, too!)

Add the powdered sugar, water, and oil, and blend blend blend.  The longer you go, the creamier it gets.

We tried it on some apple slices--the girls gave it an enthusiastic two thumbs up.  

It was also magical on freshly baked ciabatta toast.  (I love King Arthur Flour's ciabatta recipe.) 

And yes, I admit it, delicious by the spoon full.

Of course, to make this recipe, you'll need some of those gingerbread scraps, so you might as well make a gingerbread house!  Lucky for you, I have everything you'll need to know in my handy new e-book, Gingerbread for Beginners:

Nicole Wills, creator of Tikkido

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