In countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, it is a common alternative to nut butter and chocolate spreads.

Two people presented a competing recipe to make a spreadable product out of Speculoos cookies: chef Danny De Maeyer who already filed a patent at that time, and Els Scheppers.

On January 20, 2011, a court of commerce in Ghent, Belgium, denied the patent because the recipe had already been published on a Dutch website prior to its production.

The buttery paste is flavoured with cocoa and punsch, wrapped in a thin sheet of marzipan and dipped in dark chocolate.

[citation needed] In Denmark, cookie butter is known as trøffelmasse and is used for many traditional confectionery cakes such as studenterbrød, romkugler (known as trøfler in some parts of the country) and træstammer (a bit similar to the Swedish dammsugare) on sale in most bakeries.