Speculoos, aka My Kryptonite

The first step is admitting you have a problem. And I have a real problem, folks: I'm addicted to Speculoos paste.

What's that? you ask. Well, it's actually quite strange. Speculoos refers to "a type of shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked for consumption on St. Nicholas' Eve in the Netherlands and Belgium." The thin, cinnamon-y cookies are now often served with coffee at restaurants year-round. You may also know them if you've ever been served one with your coffee on a Delta Airlines flight. The most common brand of Speculoos cookies is Lotus.

You're probably thinking, "A cookie? That's it? You're addicted to a regular old cookie?"

Just wait, dear readers.

Three years ago, a woman on a reality show had a strange, but brilliant idea: to make these cookies into a spread. Now, this would almost seem contrary to the order of nature: for example, we use peanut butter (a paste-like spread) to make peanut butter cookies, not the other way around! But this visionary woman defied the laws of nature and created a heaven in a jar, sparking some legal controversy along the way.

I'll be honest, I don't even really like the cookies that much. They're pretty ho-hum, even when you dip them in coffee. But when you pulverize them with oil into the consistency of Skippy peanut butter, that's when the magic happens.

Confession time: I bought this jar on Wednesday. By the end of the day Wednesday, half the jar was gone. By the end of the day Thursday, the whole jar was gone. There's just something about it that makes it impervious to my "just one spoonful" rule...

Unlike peanut butter (where you can argue a case for protein), Speculoos has no redeeming qualities other than having "good fat" (aka, not trans fat). So no excuses here: I just plain love the stuff, and I'm not ashamed to admit it!

I'm pretty sure a jar or two will stow away in my suitcase when I return to the US...