If you’ve ever flown on Delta Airlines, then there’s a good chance that you’ve been given a complimentary Biscoff cookie before.
Biscoff cookies are delicious, crumbly cookies that are made to taste like Italian biscotti bars. Lately, I’ve seen a number of comments asking, “Are Biscoff cookies vegan?”
For the most part, Biscoff cookies can be considered vegan. They don’t contain any obvious animal ingredients like dairy, gelatin, or butter. However, they do contain white sugar, which many vegans abstain from for ethical reasons.
Below, I’ll give you a full rundown of all of the ingredients used in Biscoff cookies and answer a few pertaining questions that I’ve heard from my fellow vegans. Let’s take a look!
Do Biscoff Cookies Contain Dairy?
If you’ve ever eaten a Biscoff cookie, then you may remember that they have an incredibly smooth texture to them. When it comes to baking, this effect is often achieved by the addition of dairy products such as milk powder or whey.
This creates a smoother, softer texture, which is desirable when it comes to baked goods like cookies.
However, Biscoff cookies are 100% dairy-free! They don’t contain milk, milk solids, powdered milk, whey protein, butter, or even casein.
This, in turn, not only makes them vegan-friendly but also makes them a great choice for lactose-intolerant individuals.
Depending on how lactose-intolerant you may be, even a small amount of dairy by-products can be enough to cause severe stomach inflammation. So, it’s important to find reliable dairy-free cookies that you can enjoy!
In fact, one of the reasons why Biscoff cookies are so popular among airlines is that they don’t contain a lot of the allergens that other cookies may have. They’re nut-free and dairy-free.
The only allergens that you’ll find in Biscoff cookies are soy (from soy flour) and gluten (from wheat flour).
Are Most Cookies Vegan?
Unfortunately, most cookies are NOT vegan, which makes Biscoff cookies a nice exception to the rule. Not only are most cookies made with white sugar (which is a “gray area” for most vegans) but they also contain dairy by-products, butter, and palm oil.
That being said, there are some great vegan-friendly cookies out there. For example, one of my favorite brands of cookies is the Girl Scouts Thin Mints cookies. They’re dairy-free and don’t contain any animal by-products.
What Are Biscoff Cookies Made Of? Ingredients Analyzed
Have you ever been curious about what exactly is in your Biscoff cookie? If so, then you’re reading the right post! Below, I’ll give you the exact recipe used in Biscoff cookies and a full rundown of each ingredient, so you can better understand it.
Before we jump into the lengthy description, though, here’s the shortlist from the packaging:
Now, to make your life simpler, here’s a quick explanation of each ingredient.
1) Wheat Flour
Like many other cookies, Biscoff cookies start off with wheat flour as the main ingredient. Wheat flour is a simple plant-based baking ingredient that’s made by drying the fruits of the wheat plant and grinding the fruits into a fine powder.
There are many different types of wheat flour, each designed for a different purpose. The most basic type of wheat flour is just plain old-fashioned all-purpose wheat flour.
Wheat flour is 100% vegan! Since it doesn’t contain any ingredients other than pure ground wheat fruit, it’s purely plant-based food.
2) Sugar
Of all the ingredients used in Biscoff cookies, I’d say that sugar is the only questionable additive. Although white sugar is technically a plant-based sweetener, it goes through a refining process that isn’t exactly “vegan-friendly.”
You see, to turn raw cane sugar into white sugar, the large brown crystals must first be filtered through animal bone char. This removes the outer layer of mildly sweet malt and the brown color, leaving a more “pure” and concentrated white sugar crystal behind.
Due to the fact that the white sugar industry supports the meat industry by purchasing their bone char, many vegans now choose to abstain from white sugar.
Some vegans, on the other hand, don’t mind consuming a bit of white sugar here and there. Although white sugar is filtered through bone char, none of the bone char actually ends up in the final product. So, some vegans argue that white sugar is still vegan.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not this ingredient is a deal-breaker or not.
3) Vegetable Oil
Traditional homemade cookies are almost always made with butter. I remember that my grandma would always put extra butter in her cookies to make them extra soft. Some people just like the taste of butter.
Thankfully, though, Biscoff cookies are 100% butter-free.
Instead, they’re made with all-natural vegetable oil. The vegetable oil binds to the flour and effectively softens it. It works by preventing the wheat gluten in the dough from forming thick gluten strands that would give the cookies a stronger texture.
According to the label, Biscoff cookies are made with either soybean, sunflower, canola, or palm oil. Sometimes a combination of the oils is also used.
The only potential problem on this list is the palm oil that’s sometimes used in the vegetable oil blend. Palm oil is an unsustainable oil that many vegans boycott due to its role in the destruction of our planet’s most valuable natural resource – the rainforest.
However, it’s almost impossible to tell whether or not palm oil is used in Biscoff cookies due to the fact that it can change with each different batch.
As with the sugar, I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not the potential palm oil in Biscoff cookies is a deal-breaker or not.
4) Brown Sugar Syrup
Brown sugar syrup is the reason why Biscoff cookies have that distinctive toasted flavor. Unlike white sugar, brown sugar has a nutty, malty flavor that’s reminiscent of vanilla and caramel.
Brown sugar syrup does come from white sugar, though. Technically, it’s just white sugar that’s been reintroduced to the malt syrup that was extracted from it during the filtration process.
For this reason, brown sugar syrup is another gray-area additive.
5) Baking Soda
Baking soda is one of the most common baking additives found in cookies, cakes, and other pastries. Baking soda is just sodium bicarbonate, which is a natural compound found within the earth.
It helps baked goods rise in the oven and makes them more fluffy by trapping air bubbles in the dough.
6) Soy Flour
A bit of soy flour is used to coat the outside of all Biscoff cookies. This gives them a smooth, soft texture. Soy flour is 100% vegan, as it’s just a product made from grinding dried soybeans.
7) Salt
Salt is added to almost all cookies and is a vegan-friendly food additive. When added to the dough, salt has a strengthening effect. Essentially, it makes the dough tougher and firmer, which is perfect for cookies!
8) Cinnamon
Last but not least, a bit of cinnamon is added to the mixture to give the Biscoff cookies their iconic flavor.
Are Chocolate Biscoff Cookies Vegan?
While the original Biscoff cookies are vegan, the Chocolate Biscoff cookies are NOT vegan due to the fact that they contain dairy by-products.
Conclusion – Are Biscoff Cookies Vegan-Friendly?
The next time the flight attendant offers you a Biscoff cookie, feel free to accept! Although Biscoff cookies are made with white sugar and brown sugar syrup, the rest of the ingredients used in the cookies are plant-based. Ultimately, it all depends on how strict of a vegan you are.
On the other hand, if you’re a strict vegan and want to avoid any gray area ingredients, then be sure to check out my favorite vegan cookie brands next!
