Aldi Butter Spekulatius Cookies (Benton’s) Review
Author’s Note: Not a paid review. Not sponsored. These are my own buttery opinions. I have no affiliation with Aldi what-so-ever.
Don’t drown the cookies.
If you’ve been reading my reviews, you already know I get all excited about stuff made with butter. Butter is just better. So, I was already pretty hopeful that these Aldi Butter Spekulatius would be yummier than the spiced version I reviewed last year.
I’m pleased to report that these cookies are delish.
The best part is the strong, aromatic butter flavor. It’s super rich. In fact, it’s such a strong butter taste, I had to double-check the ingredients to make sure it wasn’t something artificial.
But, nope. Just butter. Literally nothing else here, flavor-wise. Not even vanilla. Just the dang butter. Must be gobs of it, to taste this rich. I was expecting some unholy abomination of weird stuff, but it is entirely natural. Huzzah.
These cookies even have a deep, buttery smell. It hits you as soon as you open the bag. I mean. I think it is THEE most pervasive butter smell I’ve ever smelt with my smeller.
Ok, enough of that. Onwards.
These are thin, delicate cookies. They are not as crunchy as I expected (no where near as crunchy as the Aldi Spiced Spekulatius Cookies — you can read my salty review here), but a bit more tender. The buttery texture gives them a fine (but crisp) crumb.
I personally found them a tad too sweet, but nothing offensive. They’re sweeter than average shortbread cookies, if that helps.
There aren’t any spices in these cookies. Alas. I do love spices. But, at the same time, I can see how strong spice flavors would drown the delicate butteriness. Maybe.
Aldi’s Butter Spekulatius come neatly packed in a plastic tray. Not a single one of my cookies was broken or damaged. Which is nothing short of a miracle. I mean. This flimsy tray is just shoved into a wobbly cellophane bag and shipped half-way across the world. Kind of amazing these survived so well. Must be the Christmas magic.
The Secret Saga of the Cookie Couple
Unfortunately, you get just two cookie patterns in the entire package. At least, I did. There’s a man and a woman. The dude looks like he just finished eating Thanksgiving dinner, and now he needs to lie down for the rest of the day. Maybe tomorrow, too.
Not sure about the lady — probably his wife. She looks like she’s been hitting the cheap wine before dinner. Or maybe she recently won the lottery and isn’t going to tell anyone. She’s simply going to smile, and tip-toe away. She says, “keep your butter-fingers away from my dough!”
My friend Ansley says she likes to dunk these poor cookie-souls souls in milk before consuming them. I mean. Are you a monster, or what? This dude’s clearly got a wife. How can you do that to him? Look deep into his cookie-eyes, and tell him he deserves to drown in milk! Gah.
Plus, he didn’t win the lottery. You know. Have a heart.
(I really want some cookie-children to go with this family. I hope Aldi can make this happen next year. Cookie-children! And maybe a cookie-dog and cookie-cat. A cookie-hamster? Come on. We really need this to happen. I will pay more for this. I’m invested in this story now.)
Serving the Butter Spekulatius
These are elegant party cookies. The crisp designs and thin, delicate shapes make them a great addition to a party tray or char-cookie-rie board.
I opted to serve mine with contrasting colors and shapes by arranging them with Aldi’s Fudge Covered Peppermint Cremes (read my silly review here) and some Strawberry Pretzels (from Costco).
What the heck are Spekulatius?
Spekulatius (pronounced “shpeck-you-lat-ee-us”) are a type of crisp German shortcrust cookie. Typically, they include a variety of spices — like cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamon, and nutmeg — although this Aldi “butter” version obviously does not. Traditionally, Spekulatius cookies were shaped in wood molds to give them distinctive (and festive) designs. The most common patterns were windmills and people. In fact, sometimes these are simply called “Windmill Cookies.“
Ingredients in Aldi Butter Spekulatius Cookies
Here are the ingredients, from the label:
- Unbleached Wheat Flour
- Sugar
- Butterfat
- Egg
- Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate
- Sodium Bicarbonate
- Nonfat Dry Milk
This is a pretty good ingredient list. No weird stuff. Butter! Yaaas. No additional flavorings, just buttery goodness. I’m in love.
These cookies are imported from Germany.
Nutrition Facts in Butter Spekulatius Cookies from Aldi
A serving is 3 cookies and contains a slim 160 calories. There are 6 grams of fat per serving, and 2 grams of protein. I am impressed that there are only 10 grams of sugar, of which 9 grams are “added sugar.” Zero milligrams of sodium is kind of shocking — I hope the Salt Police is happy! Yikes.
Price and Servings
This 8.82 ounce package costs a frugal $2.69 at my local Aldi. Now, granted, this isn’t a very big package — there are only 24 thin cookies inside. But, still. For the quality ingredients (butter!), this is a great price.
Since there are 8 servings per package, each serving costs just 34 cents. Per cookie, that is only 11 cents. Not as amazing as the 5 cent Doppelino cookies (read my awe-struck review here), but pretty dang good.
Per ounce, these cookies cost about 30 cents.
Shelf Life
My package had a “best-by” date roughly 5.5 months from when I purchased these. That’s not a very long shelf-life, but since these aren’t stuffed with preservatives or weirdness, I’ll take it.
This is a seasonal product, so I found these Butter Spekulatius at my local Aldi between November and December.
Dramatic Conclusion
I liked these Butter Spekulatius a lot, and they are a great value (even for an Aldi product). Although they are just a touch sweeter than I prefer, the butter flavor is phenomenal!
So, yes, I would buy them again. That is, if my friend Ansley leaves any on the shelves for me! Hmmph. I would have loved to have more than two cookie patterns, as this is a big part of the molded Spekulatius cookie charm. But, cookie beggars cannot be cookie choosers.
The End.
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