By Millie

I little over a month ago I got to go stay with my brother and his family in North Carolina. In the morning his wife would make us banana pancakes with nut butters and berries. They were delicious.

The recipe is so simple, I thought it would be fun for my kids to do. When I first told my kids about it they were a little nervous, We’ve tried a similar simple muffin recipe that we didn’t like, so the kids were nervous. But these pancakes were a hit. I had hoped to get better photos of the kids at work, but unfortunately, my kitchen is the darkest room in the house.

I drew the recipe out for the kids to follow. We are still getting used to cracking eggs, and I helped flip them, but there was a lot they could do on their own. One step I wished I would have illustrated was that the bananas need to be mashed, then add the eggs. One banana mixed together with 2-3 eggs. Cook them like a pancake and they’re done.

My friend Jana sent me a jar of Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter, also known as Speculoos. Speculoos has the consistency of peanut butter, but doesn’t taste anything like it. Have you ever had those delicious little biscotti cookies on a delta flight? Well Speculoos is basically those cookies, ground up into a butter. It. Is. DIVINE!

You can eat speculoos or cookie butter on everything. Toast, bananas, you can spread it on anything. Quite frankly I just eat it straight out of the jar. It’s that good. I hear you can also find the Biscoff brand (creamy or crunchy!) at Walmart and other stores…near the Nutella.

So after I spread it on everything edible in my kitchen, I had an idea. What if I turned the cookie butter back into a cookie? Wrap your little mind around that, my friend. Well I did it, and it was 1,000 times better than I could’ve even hoped and dreamed for. Really. It was THAT good! That’s why you HAVE to make these! They’re really easy to make!

Cookie Butter Cookies

1/2 c. cookie butter, or speculoos
1/2 c. butter
1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla
*extra cookie butter for drizzling at the end

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a mixing bowl beat butter and speculoos with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup of the flour, the sugars, egg, baking suda, baking powder, and vanilla. Beat till thoroughly combined. Beat in remaining flour.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8-9 minutes or till bottoms are lightly browned.

Cool cookies on a wire rack. After the cookies cool for at least 20 minutes, melt about 1/4 c. speculoos in microwave and drizzle over cookies with a spoon.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.