My friend Kate recently wrote to me about a little something called "cookie butter".

Seems The Organic Gypsy — who offers amazing food at her truck on the west side of the state — had apparently baked a cake with this amazing substance, but I'd missed the post. Too much chaos going on, of late, to keep up with the Gypsy or anyone else with any regularity, unfortunately.

So thankfully, Kate wrote:

"Living in the sticks as I do, I'd never heard of cookie butter, but the description of it had my brain doing its best Cookie Monster imitation: COOkie butter? COOKIE BUTTER!!! Anyway, what do you know about this delectable sounding substance? Have you ever used it, etc?"

Well, even though I don't live in the sticks, I'd never heard of it.

So I did a little research, and found that this fabulous new product is available at Trader Joe's, a mere mile from where I work! I made it a personal mission to find it, buy it, and try it. Because here's what it is:

"Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter is, in its most simplistic terms, spreadable Speculoos cookies. Speculoos cookies are classic Belgian cookies with great crunch, and a slightly caramelized, almost-but-not-quite-gingerbread flavor."

I love Speculoos cookies. I love ginger and gingerbread. This was too good to be true!

Since cookie butter is spreadable cookies, just as peanut butter is spreadable peanuts, it seemed perfectly logical to adapt a peanut butter cookie recipe for the first round of playing with my new "toy." They look nearly identical, too, and are both of the same consistency; it was an ideal substitution.

What fun I had! How fabulous the house smelled! And what amazing cookies these are! They're sweet and spicy, with the sugary sandiness of snickerdoodles or ginger snaps and the chewiness of molasses cookies.

And fortunately, this recipe makes a lot of cookies, because a couple of cookies and a glass of milk makes an ideal snack, or dessert, or treat, or breakfast, or....

Cookie Butter Cookies

1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening, at room temperature
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup cookie butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup minced candied ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, beat together shortening, 1/2 cup sugar, and brown sugar. Mix in egg, cookie butter, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Stir in flours and candied ginger.

Form 1-inch balls of dough and roll them in the 1/3 cup sugar; place them on the prepared baking sheet. Using the back of a fork, press the dough to flatten it a bit.

Bake for 12 minutes until cookies are golden. Let cool on a rack.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Mary Bilyeu writes for AnnArbor.com on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, telling about her adventures in the kitchen - making dinner, celebrating holidays, entering cooking contests, meeting new friends ... whatever strikes her fancy. She is also on a mission to find great deals for her Frugal Floozie Friday posts, seeking fabulous food at restaurants on the limited budget of only $5 per person. Feel free to email her with questions, comments, or suggestions: yentamary@gmail.com.

Go visit Mary's blog — Food Floozie — where she enthuses and effuses over all things food-related; and look for her monthly articles in the Washtenaw Jewish News. "Like" her on Facebook, or send a tweet on Twitter, too.

The phrase "You Should Only Be Happy" (written in Hebrew on the stone pictured in this post) comes from Deuteronomy 16:15 and is a wish for all her readers - when you come to visit here, may you always be happy.