People have been telling me how delicious stroopwafels are all week. I don’t have a stroopwaffle maker or a pizelle maker or a waffle cone maker, so I decided to make some stroopkoeken instead to see what all the fuss is about. They are indeed delicious…and now I want to go to the Netherlands. Maybe someday!
This is the recipe I used:
List of ingredients
For the dough
400 grams all purpose flour
250 grams butter, at room temperature
180 grams sugar (just normal white sugar)
1 egg, at room temperature
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
For the syrup filling
80 grams butter
120 grams brown sugar
200 grams syrup (stroop would have been ideal, you can substitute maple syrup like I did, or golden syrup, or honey, depending on the flavor you want)
½ tsp cinnamon
Using a stand mixer, mix the dough’s butter, sugar, salt and egg until creamy light and fluffy. Add the dough’s flour and baking powder and knead into a cohesive dough. Don’t over mix, if it forms a ball it is done. Cover in plastic wrap and let the dough rest in the fridge for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 355 ° F
Roll out the chilled dough on a floured work surface to about 3mm thick and cut out circles about 8 cm in diameter (I used biscuit cutters and made some bite sized cookies as well). Place these on a cookie sheet that has been covered with parchment paper.
Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes at 355 ° F until light golden brown. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack.
To make the filling:
Put all the ingredients in a heavy saucepan, cook on medium stirring constantly. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until the caramel reaches soft ball stage (I use a cup of ice water to test if it has reached the correct stage). Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool until warm and thick. Put a heaping teaspoon of caramel on half the cookies and place another cookie on top.
I know about stroopwafels but not about stroopkoeken.
Haven’t seen them like that before!
You could always swap with someone from the Netherlands for real stroopwafels
Mmmm. Love stroopwafels! (We need to swap @Immaculata). I’ve never had stroopkoeken but looks like I need to fix that. The oozing filing has me drooling!
The filling is a caramel made with maple syrup (because I didn’t have any stroop and it isn’t available around here), brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon.
We will have to swap someday! I was trying to find a good place online to order some stroopwafels for the Tompten to bring the kids this year (we have a family tradition of the tompten leaving a scavenger hunt clue for the kids in one of their shoes on Christmas morning if they leave out a bowl of milk and a bowl of porridge on Christmas eve. At the end of the scavenger hunt there is a sweet treat and a tompten related small gift of some sort.) We had a kind person in Norway send us some Tompten gifts and sweets in the past, but I didn’t ask this year due to covid. I could order Daelmans stroopwafels online, but some people have told me they aren’t the best so I am undecided if I should.
That’s a nice tradition! In the Netherlands children find their gifts in their shoes (although not at Christmas). I love how all those old traditions are intertwined but also a bit different everywhere. Tomten are a bit similar like our kabouters but we don’t associate them with Christmas.
The best stroopwafels are those made fresh at a market stall. They are massive and you eat them hot. Nothing compares to that! I don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with Daelmans, but we can’t buy them in the grocery store as far as I know. You get them with your coffee/tea in a cafe. I usually send Kanjers because it’s the only brand that comes in a flat pack instead of a roll. But honestly I haven’t come across a stroopwafel I didn’t like yet!!
I think maple syrup is probably a very good alternative to stroop. Or maybe golden syrup if you can get that where you live. I know Americans make apple butter with similar ingredients as stroop but in pictures it doesn’t look the same. When cold, stroop is much thicker than maple syrup, but it’s definitely syrup and doesn’t look like jam or peanut butter.
If you want to try other Dutch foods, I posted a recipe for Dutch apple pie a while back! Oma’s Dutch apple pie
Yes, it is definitely a mishmash of traditions from my parents heritage, lumped into Christmas to keep us kids occupied with a scavenger hunt for a good part of the day I think. I looked up Kabouters, they are indeed very similar to tompten.
I got golden syrup for a recipe at a specialty market once, it was very expensive and didn’t seem to alter the taste much, so I usually use either honey or maple syrup now ( I also always have those on hand).
I will definitely be trying your pie recipe! So far we have loved every dutch recipe we’ve tried. Pannekoek are a particular favorite and are often a birthday treat in our house.
Our typical dinners may be a bit boring but we have a massive sweet tooth. I will try to remember to post some recipes of things I’m baking for the holidays! We eat pannenkoeken a lot, we bake fluffy American pancakes a special treat. Pre-pandemic, we’d invite friends over for pannenkoeken brunch quite often. We’ve had that tradition since we were broke students + the recipe is easily adaptable for people with allergies.
At kids’ birthday parties, pannenkoekentaart is a thing! It’s a stack of pancakes with a layer of stroop, cream, jam or whatever you prefer between each pancake, and then it’s cut in slices like a cake.
). I’ve never had stroopkoeken but looks like I need to fix that. The oozing filing has me drooling!
This awesome project is a Featured Project this week!