It's evolved from a caramel-flavored cookie served alongside coffee—some bars resist it—to a new flavor found everywhere. Companies of all kinds have turned the lotus cookie into a delicious filling for croissants and cakes, a novel flavor for ice cream, and even a supermarket cream liqueur. The story of this cookie with a hint of cinnamon began in 1932 in a Belgian bakery in Lembeke, where Jan Boone put together a speculoos recipe (a traditional Christmas cookie with spices) and came up with the extraordinary idea of wrapping it individually. This detail, which may seem trivial, was the catalyst for bars to start serving it with coffee, and in this way its special flavor spread throughout the world.
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Since 2021, pastry chef Jon García, who has two JonCake branches in Barcelona (29 Assaonadors Street and 42 Gelabert Street), has been making one of his famous lotus-flavored cheesecakes. “It reminds me of the moment of cutting and the cookie,” he notes, thinking of the very specific taste he had in mind when he started trying a cake with coffee, and his wife not liking it Cheese. . “This flavor is now popular, I've even seen it in hamburgers, but that puts me off,” admits Jon, referring to the many recipe videos circulating on social networks.
The result of their Lotus Cheesecake is a very delicate cake that tastes primarily of cookies – with hints of caramel and cinnamon – and of coffee, which carries the good taste of the beans roasted by Tornado Coffee Roasters. The base is made of the same biscuit and the preparation also includes lotus cream, one of the latest products that the brand has launched, comparable to a peanut or chocolate spread. At the Barcelona location on Gelabert Street with a tasting room, it is always available and pairs very well with hot chocolate or coffee. Their aromatic profiles complement each other as the caramelized biscuit enhances the flavor of the coffee. “I don’t know if it will be as successful as the Oreo, but we are on the way,” believes Jon.
JonCakes cheesecake also has lotus cream.BDF-Alejandra AM
It has also been made a regular variety by Abel Bravo of the Glea Bakery in Murcia (Barrionuevo Street, 4), who explains that “the lotus cookie combines very well with many other ingredients in the bakery.” On his At the counter there are always Abelicos, a type of puff pastry that he invented together with Raúl Bernal from the Lapaca pastry shop in Huesca and which has no shortage of Belgian biscuit flavor. Abelicos – a name in homage to his grandfather, who called him that – are made from puff pastry that is formed into a square using a mold and toasted with butter and sugar before being coated in a bit of flavoring. “They are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside and are a little reminiscent of a waffle,” says Bravo. The Lotus has two creams on top, one with the famous biscuit flavor and one with caramel, all topped with a lotus.
“Fat, sugar and spices go very well with caramel and puff pastry,” explains Bravo, who also makes other products with this flavor, such as muffins, cookies and brownies. “We have taken advantage of the strong marketing of the sector to integrate it into our 100% artisanal pastry shop,” he concludes, recalling that Abelicos is spreading in other Spanish pastry shops “and even in Japan, London or Portugal”. have. In addition to Lapaca, there is also Sukar in Valencia or Cabo Busto in Asturias, where this trendy flavor is also produced.
Lotus cookie fever has also arrived in Galicia. In Amaquia, with three bakeries in O Porriño and Mos in the province of Pontevedra, they started stuffing croissants with lotus flavor a few years ago, in a piece that was presented with the cookie on top, says Luís Miguel Iglesia, owner with his wife Montse Fernandez. Since the flavor was successful, they also tried the NY roll when this piece of pastry, imported from the Lafayette cafeteria in New York, began to expand. In addition, they bake a cake with the same lotus cream that serves as a filling for an artisan sponge cake covered in milk chocolate.
To make the cream, crush the lotus biscuit and mix it with butter and chocolate. “Cookie flavor is trendy,” says Iglesia, who has been making artisan bread and pastries for 20 years. Their motto is: “We make everything we sell.” He believes that the success of this flavor can be found on social networks, where homemade and professional recipes using lotus cookies as a cream or filling have grown exponentially. “Some of them start and the rest of us carry on, there is no further explanation,” he says. Trends force us to work as needed.
With three branches and almost fifty employees, he assures us that he does not want to grow any further, but rather continues to produce high-quality dough. In fact, he himself notes the paradox of boasting about being an artisan bakery but then resorting to a taste that is more industrial. But “the customer is responsible and asks for these flavors.” Oreos are still the most consumed pastries or cakes in his stores, especially for children's and birthday parties, he says.
The person who receives bags of more than seven kilos of already broken lotus cookies is Antonio Saffioti of Acaramhelados, a company that produces high-quality ice cream with 100% natural ingredients for restaurants and pastry shops or ice cream parlors (and with an online store). business for private individuals). But the taste of this cookie is nothing new for her, says Antonio. They started making them in 2012, so that's more than ten years of Lotus ice cream.
“We make a very authentic recipe, we think a lot about each flavor and our ice creams contain a very high percentage of the main ingredient,” he says. The base of the ice cream is a cream made from milk, sugar and cream, which is marbled with biscuit pieces in addition to the lotus cream. Consider that this is another trend, like matcha tea or red velvet. But he says this sector is heavily exposed to fashion because industrial ice cream parlors introduce new flavors every year, forcing others to innovate.
These trends also create opportunities. Acaramhelados, which specializes mainly in wholesale, has just released a 150 gram jar for the end consumer. Currently with three flavors, Tiramisu, Blackberry and Yuzu, and Toasted Butter, these ice creams are available in select stores in some stores, such as El Corte Inglés Gourmet Club.
In fact, the Lotus cookie boom is no stranger to large chains. Several have already used the vein to make products with the sweet cookie. This is the case of McDonald's, which serves the Lotus McFlurry, or of Mercadona, which produces a creamy liqueur with this flavor. Lotus Bakery is still a family business based in Lembeke, but its expansion has not stopped. On their website they report that they produce 6 billion cookies every year that are eaten on six continents.
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