Shopping in France

Doesnt that just sound so lives of the rich and famous? I went shopping in France for the weekend. Well, dont be jealous just yet. I live 40minutes from the French border. We drove over last weekend to check out Cora. Cora is a very popular store amongst the local American population and, what I soon learned, the world! It was packed with Germans, French, Americans and I even heard some Italian. It was awesome. It's like the global equivalence of Walmart with better prices and product.

We didnt buy much; strawberries, bubble wands, house shoes and pizza. It was a nice trip overall. Upon my return a friend clues me in on this cookie butter craze. I just have to try Speculoos. What is this? I dont know, but she knows good eating so I trust her judgment and shell out the 6.50euros. Ouch! For fake nutella? I've never even had nutella, but I sure hope this tastes better than that.

I get home with this seemingly innocent jar and I pop it open. What am I supposed to eat this with? I grab a piece of bread and make a speculoos and jam sandwich. My first bite was fantastically yummy. Unicorns came running through my yard and rainbows appeared in my house. Each rainbow could talk and out if their mouths came tiny little teddy bears with top hats and ballet shoes. The teddy bears danced around my head and sprinkled sparkly dust as I turned around and around in place holding my sandwich. Yea, it was kind of like that. If you've never had any type of cookie butter, RUN dont walk to the store and grab a jar immediately.

What else could I eat with this goodness? Shoveling spoonfuls into my mouth would have to stop. Okay I only had two small spoonfuls, but still it was becoming ridiculous. I quickly called upon my best friend Google. Tons of recipes with speculoos or cookie butter flooded my screen and gave me brain overload. Then I stumbled on how to make my own cookie butter! SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! I read through a few recipes and reviews. I was going to make one that had combined peanut butter with cookie butter, but I'll save that for another time. I wanted to make my own cookie butter to combine with cream cheese for a vanilla cupcake frosting.


The brand in Germany is made from Lotus cookies. I just so happened to find packages of these delectables for 1.39euros. I picked up two packages along with a bag of white chocolate chips. Averie Cooks (an awesome blog of recipes for all food!) recommended using white chocolate chips and so I did.

In my food processor I blended the entire package of Lotus cookies (I think it's over 20 cookies)        
1/2 tbs cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c white chocolate chips
2 tbs coconut oil

And viola! Yumminess! It's thinner than the original, but the flavor is so close Im okay with the consistency. Im storing my in the fridge and it will harden a little, but set it out and it should become softer at room temperature after 5-10minutes. I'll be making my cupcakes in the morning. Check facebook for photo updates :) It's too hot to turn my oven on after 8am here in Germany AKA the land of no air conditioning.

Until then CIAO! or CHOW in this case :)