If you want to bake your own pepernoten or kruidnoten, choose a recipe with separate ingredients: a ready-made speculoos biscuit is no substitute for dough. For a pre-portioned snack, Lotus Biscoff XL twin-packs serve a different purpose; if you want to crumble biscuits, a standard pack is also worth considering. Always check the ingredients and allergens of the product you choose.
You want to shape and bake dough, not just use the flavour of an existing biscuit. The recipes from Albert Heijn Allerhande and Jumbo use ingredients such as flour or self-raising flour, sugar, spices and butter.
You want to take biscuits with you without opening a large pack. Jumbo lists Lotus Biscoff XL as a pack of 10 bags, each containing 2 biscuits.
You assess the ingredients and allergens in each biscuit and baking ingredient separately. Jumbo also features a gluten-free kruidnoten recipe made with buckwheat flour; that doesn’t mean any biscuit will be suitable for the recipe.
First decide whether you want to bake dough, eat biscuits straight away or crumble them as an extra. Then check the pack format and the ingredients of the specific product.
| What to consider | What to check before buying | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Baking from scratch | Choose a complete pepernoten or kruidnoten recipe and check which dough ingredients it calls for. | If I want to shape and bake kruidnoten myself, I need dough rather than a ready-made biscuit. Around 36% of consumers put this baking result first. |
| Portion packs | Check the number of bags and biscuits per bag; a twin-pack isn’t a measured recipe ingredient. | For a biscuit on the go, I don’t want to open a large pack. A pre-portioned serving is the main priority for around 21% of consumers. |
| Ingredients and allergens | Read the current ingredients list and allergen information for every biscuit and baking ingredient. | If I need to avoid gluten, wheat or soya, I want to be able to assess each ingredient separately. This check comes first for around 29% of consumers. |
| Crumbing | Check whether a standard biscuit pack suits the quantity you want to use, and check the ingredients too. | If I want to crumble biscuits for a topping or dessert, I need several biscuits rather than a single twin-pack. Around 14% of consumers choose this use above all others. |
The recipes from Albert Heijn Allerhande and Jumbo start with dough ingredients. You can use a ready-made speculoos biscuit as an extra, but you can’t shape and bake it as though it were dough.
Before buying, decide whether you want to bake or eat or crumble biscuits. For baking from scratch, choose a complete recipe and use biscuits only as an optional extra.
Jumbo lists wheat and soya in the standard 250 g pack of Lotus Biscoff. The flavour or pack format won’t tell you which allergens a specific product contains.
Read the current ingredients list and allergen information for the exact product. If you adapt a baking recipe, check every ingredient individually and look out for any cross-contamination warnings.
Biscuits to enjoy straight away or use as a culinary extra, available in the standard pack and XL twin-packs described here.
A recipe source for anyone who wants to make kruidnoten or pepernoten dough from scratch.
A recipe source for baking from scratch, as well as product information about the Lotus Biscoff packs mentioned here.
No, not if you want to shape and bake your own pepernoten or kruidnoten. The recipes from Albert Heijn Allerhande and Jumbo use several dough ingredients; you could crumble a ready-made biscuit as an extra.
According to Jumbo, the pack contains 10 bags, each with 2 biscuits. It’s a pre-portioned snack, not an amount that automatically matches what a baking recipe calls for.
Read the current ingredients list and allergen information for every product you plan to use. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority explains the rules for declaring allergens on labels; Jumbo lists wheat and soya in the standard 250 g pack of Lotus Biscoff. If you adapt a recipe, check all the other ingredients individually too.
Yes. Check any warnings on the current packaging as well as the ingredients list. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority states that, since 1 January 2026, rules have applied to how and when possible cross-contamination with allergens must be highlighted.
