Contents
Two paper-thin waffle discs with caramel syrup between them, from Gouda in the Netherlands, where a baker is supposed to have made the first one around 1800 out of crumbs and syrup scraps. They were poor-man's food for a century before they became the thing sold hot from market stalls and set on top of a coffee cup to soften.
Making them at home needs an iron and needs one difficult step done fast.
What makes it work
- The waffle must be split while hot. Bake the disc, take it off the iron, and immediately slice it horizontally with a long serrated knife. You have about twenty seconds before it sets and shatters. This is the whole difficulty of the recipe.
- A yeasted dough, not a batter. Unlike pizzelle, stroopwafel dough is a stiff yeasted dough that rests an hour. That is what gives the bready chew under the crisp.
- The stroop is a proper caramel, cooked to about 110 °C — dark brown sugar, butter, syrup and cinnamon. Undercooked, it runs out; overcooked, it sets hard and the wafel cracks when bitten.
- Fill hot, press cold. Spread the warm syrup on the cut face and press the halves back together while both are still warm.
Ingredients
Makes about 12.
Dough:
- 250 g all-purpose flour
- 125 g unsalted butter, softened
- 60 g light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 5 g instant yeast
- 60 ml warm milk
- 3 g fine salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Stroop:
- 200 g dark brown sugar
- 150 g golden syrup or dark corn syrup
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 g fine salt
Method
Rub the butter into the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk, add it with the egg, and knead briefly to a stiff dough. Cover and rest one hour.
Make the stroop: bring everything to a boil and cook to 110 °C — thread stage, about five minutes. Keep it warm over the lowest heat or it stiffens.
Heat a stroopwafel or pizzelle iron. Press 35 g balls of dough, one at a time, for 45–60 seconds until deep gold.
Take the waffle off, trim to a circle with a cutter if you like, and split it horizontally with a serrated knife immediately. Spread stroop on one cut face and press the halves back together.
Notes
- A pizzelle iron works and gives a thinner, more fragile wafel; a proper stroopwafel iron has a shallower, finer grid.
- Splitting is easier if the waffle is slightly thicker, so err upward on the dough ball.
- Serve on a hot cup. The steam softens the stroop, which is the entire point of the Dutch ritual.
- Keeps a week sealed, and reheats to new on a coffee cup.
Elsewhere on the site
Method and theory: Cookie recipes · cookies · baking equipment · sugar in baking