Cultures can be represented in all kinds of ways, even with food. One traditional Dutch food is “stroopwafels”. Stroopwafels are thin waffle cookies very commonly eaten in the Netherlands. These cookies consist of two layers made out of sweet baked dough, with deliciously sweet caramel filling in between. 

The stroopwafel was made to be more resourceful with spare ingredients. It would utilize extra bread crumbs by making a sweet dough from them and adding syrup. The popularity of this cookie increased quickly as it was cheap and easy to make. Now, it’s one of the most well known treats in the Netherlands, and even some U.S. stores like Costco or New Seasons Market sell them.

Important Info:

• Prep time: 1.5 hour

• Cook time: 2 minutes

• Makes 15-20 stroopwafels

• For baking this, you need a stroopwafel iron or a skillet pan

List of Ingredients 

For the dough:

• 30 ml milk

• 10 g dried yeast

• 300 g flour

• 150 g butter (room temperature)

• 90 g white caster sugar

• 1 egg (room temperature)

• ¼ tsp salt

For the syrup filling:

• 200 g syrup

• 100 g light brown sugar

• 75 g butter

• ½ tsp cinnamon powder (optional)

Fun Fact: Stroopwafel in English means syrup waffle. 

Making the stroopwafels:

1. The first step is to mix the milk with the dried yeast. 

2. Then, place the flour, butter, caster sugar, egg and salt in a bowl and mix together until it makes a smooth dough. 

3. Finally, use plastic wrap to cover the bowl and let it rise in a warm spot for an hour. 

Filling: 

1. The first thing you want to do is place the kitchen syrup in a saucepan and stir it while heating it over medium heat. 

2. Your next step is to add the light brown sugar and the butter and bring the mixture to the boil, while stirring. 

3. Keep stirring until all of the sugar crystals have dissolved and let the syrup boil for 1-2 minutes. 

4. Now, remove the pan from the heat to use cinnamon for seasoning the syrup if you want to. 

Baking:

• Preheat the stroopwafel iron as hot as possible, and don’t forget to grease it with butter or oil!

• Make balls of the dough of 30-40 grams each. 

• Bake them in the iron, ball by ball

• If you use a skillet pan, bake them like you’d bake pancakes

• Bake them for 1-3 minutes until they’re golden brown

• After baking, cut off the edges with a round cutter (9-10 cm in diameter)

• Cut the waffles in half with a sharp knife

• Use a palette knife to cover one half with syrup and place the other half on top

• Let them cool on a wire rack

Tip: Placing the stroopwafel on top of a cup with a hot drink will heat the waffle and soften the syrup, making it even more delicious!