Cake #46: Biscoff Cake Bars

I've been hearing a lot of good things about Biscoff Spread

 all over the place so when I saw it at the grocery store I couldn't resist picking some up. What is it?

To quote Baking Bits, 

"Biscoff spread is a peanut butter-like spread made of speculoos cookies. Speculoos are buttery, brown sugar and spice-flavored cookies that are similar to gingersnaps and are popular in the Netherlands (and elsewhere). They’re traditionally served around the Christmas season. The spread is made of speculoos cookies (Biscoff brand, which are widely available) that are turned into a thick spread with the addition of sugar, vegetable oil and other all natural ingredients. The spread is smooth and creamy, with a deep brown sugar, butter and spice flavor to it. In other words, it is a spreadable cookie and it is delicious."

It was hard for me to imagine a spread made out of airplane cookies but one spoonful and I was hooked. It's smooth as can be and tastes like a cookie in spread form. It's amazing. And dangerous.

Suddenly the internet being awash in Biscoff recipes made perfect sense.

But I didn't feel like making another cupcake so I waited for something more inciting. Cue these

Gooey Biscoff Cake Bars  from over at I Love Pasta - they found the recipe at Plain Chicken... I'm not surprised this recipe gets around. It's a knock out.

On the CONS side of the ledger though you're mixing cookie spread (think nutella) with butter and sugar... it's RICH. And it'll make your house smell so good you'll forget all about swimsuit season. Trust me on this one.

I also liked how easy this was. While I usually don't  favor box cake doctoring, the yellow cake mix+butter+egg was an ideal crust and it set off the filling perfectly.

So let's get baking!

Biscoff Cake Bars

For the Cake:

1 box yellow cake mix

1 egg

1 stick butter, melted

Filling:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup Biscoff Spread

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 stick butter, melted

16 ounces confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, 1 egg, and butter, then mix in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. 

Press the batter into the bottom of a lightly greased 13×9 inch baking dish.

Make the filling next. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and Biscoff Spread until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla and butter, and continue beating. 

Add the confectioners’ sugar and mix well. 

Spread Biscoff mixture over the cake layer

 Bake for about 40 minutes. The center should still be gooey when it comes out of the oven. 

Let cool, then cut into squares

The flavor is out of this world. We immediately decided that it was the sort of recipe to save for something special - like Christmas - which isn't the kind of status I usually give a plain tan colored bar.

The cream cheese was really unrecognizable flavor-wise (so so says my son who hates cream cheese) it is more the base for a silky smooth, gooey, nuanced, brown sugary filling.

I cooked my bars longer then the recipe called for by about ten minutes and they were nicely set. I've since looked up this recipe elsewhere and see that most people's are very wet and gooey - mine have more structure than that and that works for our taste just fine.

These are highly recommended. I can see making them again and again - especially for an event where I can cut them in small pieces and surprise our guests with something so exquisite coming in such a drab and unassuming package.

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Whipperberry