It’s been several weeks since I participated in Baked Sunday Mornings, but I couldn’t pass this one up.
I’ve baked thousands of Christmas cookies and experimented with various candies of a December, but have but have never attempted buckeyes despite how much I like them. I have some friends who make buckeyes every Christmas, and when I had some of theirs last year, I sort of bullied them into giving me more than my share because I loved them so much. That said, they are so rich and sweet that I can’t ever eat more than two before I’m pretty well satisfied.
This was one of the recipes I flagged when I first purchased this book a little over a year ago, but this is my first crack at them. And because I have been feeling extra ambitious and creative this year, I decided to do something a little different and use speculoos (well, okay, I used Biscoff, which is a knockoff, but whatever) instead of peanut butter in these bad boys. I thought maybe using the ginger-caramel spread might cut down on the intense sweetness of the traditional buckeye, but these are still pretty sweet.
I followed the Baked Explorations recipe pretty closely; in addition to the speculoos substitution, I also used cinnamon graham crackers and a 50-50 mixture of dark and semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of the chopped dark chocolate.
And I know that speculoos is popular among The Vegans, so here’s a veganized version of buckeyes.
My Rubberbandball 
Elaine
/ December 18, 2011It must have given these a different flavor, but it sounds really good with the speculoos. I didn’t really care for the taste of the graham crackers in this recipe, but I still ate quite a few!
Rebecca
/ December 18, 2011Love that idea! Cinnamon graham crackers are my favorite. Thinking they might also be good with chocolate graham crackers, but it would really change the color.
Bourbonnatrix
/ December 18, 2011cinnamon graham crackers sound pretty interesting! i’ve never have biscoff… i’ll have to make an effort to look for the stuff 🙂 great job on the buckeyes!
A Tablespoon of Liz
/ December 18, 2011These look amazing! I love love love speculoos cookies, and the butter they make from it.
Chelly
/ December 18, 2011Very creative! Sounds very interesting! They look wonderful!
mike
/ December 18, 2011How wonderful – I have cinnamon and chocolate crackers… that’s a great idea and I might have to try these again using those. They look beautiful – love your adaptation!
Candy
/ December 18, 2011Oooohhh – I wish I had thought to use Biscoff spread here. Fantastic idea!
Laura H.
/ December 20, 2011These. Were. Awesome.
I’m so glad we’re friends and neighbors. I’m so glad you share your baked goods. I’m so glad there are still plenty left in my fridge so that I can treat myself to one of these beauties when I get home from work!
Anna
/ January 1, 2012Did you know there was a crunchy version of BIscoff? My daughter entered a contest sponsored by the company. She didn’t win, but one of the consolation prizes was a fancy jar of cookies and a couple of jars of Biscoff, one of which was crunchy. It’s like regular Biscoff, but with a sandy, crunchy texture. Anyway, I’m about to try making brownies with a crust of Biscoff cookies, butter and sugar. Hopefully they won’t be too sweet.