You can’t visit/live in The Netherlands for long without stumbling across the famous stroopwafel. It sounds fairly medieval, but in reality it is a modern day tasty treat. Stroopwafels are made from two very thin layers of baked batter with a caramel-like filling in the middle. Stroll through any busy Dutch market, and you will smell the delicious confections long before you actually see them being made.
Ever notice how a Dutch person places their stroopwafel so that it sits perfectly balanced on their coffee mug? This is the traditional way to eat one, so that the rising steam from the hot beverage warms the waffle and slightly softens the inside, making it all yummy melty on one side and crispy on the other.
Stoopwafels are said to have originated in the late 18th century in the town of Gouda, made famous for its cheese. Be careful though, as they highly addictive. Take that first bite, at your own risk.
Beware of the pre-packaged types of Stroopwafels found at grocery or tourist stores. They may have sat on the shelves for months. If you enjoy the taste of sweetened cardboard, and are not worried about losing any teeth, then plunge right in! Otherwise, head to your nearest local market to find the real deal!
Even better: stroopwafelkruimels (stroopwaflecrumbs) 🙂
Yes, stroopwafelkruimels are very nice and go perfectly with our cheap/thrifty nature. Why throw away all your old/broken stroopwafels when you can still sell them? And why buy a hot stroopwafel for 2 euros when you can have a whole bag of tasty crumbs for 50 cents?
Nope. The REAL crumbles comes from the process of making them. When they come out of the baking plates, they are not round, so a template-cutter is used to punch out a nice round “stroopwafel” to split and to put the “stroop” in between. The crumbs thus have no “stroop” on them. Which is one of the reasons why they are sold so very cheap.
Around 1:20 you can see them use the cutter, and move the “crumbs” into the container for later use. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmikemJjv2g
Yeah, just love the “stroopwaflecrumbs” (great translation)! Also great as a topping on icecream or in a cup of yogurt. Ofcourse with some extra real Dutch “Stroop” 😉
Stroopwafelcrumbs are also a great way to make a bottom for a cheesecake
Actually, if you go to a busy supermarket the ones on the shelf will be relatively new. Even in a smaller supermarket they will sell about a dozen packets a day.
But the quality differs a lot per brand. For example the “De Lekkerste” stroopwafels that you can buy individually packaged are terrible and contain hardly any stroop.
Stroopwafelkruimels with plain yoghurt is lovely. I introduced my family to stroopwafels (sitting them over a hot beverage of course) and now I have to send them regularly to Turkey to my mum (lucky thing retired there) and to England to the rest of my family. Hmmmm, maybe I should stop and then they will come visit me. A by-product of coming for the stroopwafels of course. 🙂
In England you can buy them at Tesco!
And Lidl and Sainsbury’s. You can even get an improved version covered in chocolate. Which is a handy way of getting all your daily calories in one single treat!
Those chocolate stroopwafels aren’t real stroopwafels… They are a bit similar but don’t taste anything like the real thing.
Schande! Sacrilege! The stroopwafels are perfect all by themselves and do not need to be fancified with chocolate. Then again . . .
An alternative and waaaay more effective method of heating them up is to chuck them in a hot oven for a minute or so. Or say, 10/15 seconds in a microwave. Yumyum! Don’t burn you tongue on the caramel though!
They’re not actually made from two waffles though. A small ball of batter (Or dough. It’s more the thickness of dough in my opinion) is placed in a waffle iron and then baked. The resulting waffle is then sliced open to add the caramel inbetween the two halves.
Great blog you have here! I really enjoy reading it!
Our local McDonalds even does a stroopwafel McFlurry!
I had never heard of ‘placing the stroopwafel on a hot beverage to soften it up’ technique till I heard tourists talking about it. In what part of the country is this the norm?! =) I’m from Noord-Holland and I don’t know anyone who does it.
this explains you are not Dutch (yet) 😉
Just give it a try… In the oven would take some time, i don’t have the patience so i always put them in the microwave or maybe you could also try the toaster, probably even more tasty 😉
I’m a born and raised dutchie, so that can’t be it =’)
I’m just curious where this comes from, as it’s not something my friends, family or myself do. Even though we’re all Dutch.
I live around Rotterdam, but work in Zaandam. I’ll ask my collegues about this… We always have to do this with the Zaandammer (Albert Heijn, north-holland) stroopwafels. 😛
Or as explained above, get and eat them from the local market.
My grandmother from Haarlem put her’s on the coffee and mine on a hot cocoa when I was young.
I agree … I’m a Dutchie too, 37 years of age and heard about this maybe 2 years ago. It must be a regional thing. But definitely a great thing!
I’m from Noord Holland as well, and it is very common around me to put your stroopwafel on top of a warm beverage like coffee or tea. It makes them even more delicious! 🙂
The supermarket stroopwafels are all crap, even when they have just been delivered. They just don’t taste like the real deal 🙂
If you’re a Dutch expat, or just want to try our famous stroopwafels, they can also be ordered online. There is a shop where they make traditional stroopwafels, to be found here: http://degoudsestroopwafel.nl/pages/assortiment.php (Dutch only, sorry)
There also the Association of Stroopwafel Addicts at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Stroopwafel_Addicts 🙂
I looooove stroopwafels but haven’t the patience to let them steam. I dunk them instead :). Stroopkoekjes are good as well.
tip: when you bought the cardboard ones, put the in the microwave for just a few seconds at max Watt.
Man, I tried the weirdest stroopwafel this weekend, besides the stroop it also had bacon and rosemary. Insanely tasty! And there I was thinking the Dutch were incapable of making nice food!
I agree, we dont have the most finest kitchen, but i think it’s all about taste. Haggish is awefull too 😉 and a lot don’t like the ‘English breakfast’ while it is actually my favourite breakfast. Taste isn’t connected to culture i think. But a personal preference.
Hmm, the Dutch have no such thing as a cuisine or ‘kitchen’, just some deserts and stuff to much on whilst drinking a cup of tea/coffee.
The Dutch generally don’t have an eating culture, I always get the impression that a meal for the Dutch is nothing more than a calorie intake. But then when there are those rare moment in which they’ll have “fancy” food (food which is totally normal in other countries), they act as if they’ve become the culinary kings of the world. 😛
I’ve never heard of that kind of stroopwafels. May I take a guess that you are American 😉
Nope, not an American. I was at an art exhibition in Schiedam and some guys there were making fancy stroopwafels. But seriously, try a stroopwafel with bacon and rosemary, it’s divine!
Let me guess, the new store in Gouda that was on the news recently? They do that kind of things.
No, it’s this shop in Rotterdam called ‘Stroop’. 🙂
My Dutch relatives are great cooks…..its basic food to be sure but very tasty, very “Dutch” and I absolutely love it!
Since I don’t live in the Netherlands at the moment, I have to do with the prepackaged stroopwafels that I schlepp with me after a visit or am gifted by Dutch visitors. Put them in the microwave for a few 5 seconds or a bit longer and they’re warm and yummy.
For Americans: You can sometimes find them at Trader Joe’s, or through the sites that sell Dutch food products.
They have them at Fry’s too, and the don’t taste any worse then those you get at Albert Heijn. They are called caramel bites. Fry’s have honey versions as well. Of course, you can’t compare them to what you can get at a kraam in the Netherlands.
I have found mini Stroopwafels at Shoprite in New Jersey. They tasted pretty good though they are the small version. They are made my a Dutch company. They sell them in little packets.
One of my guilty pleasures ;).
Stroopwafels are evil.
Stroopkoeken are eviler. (sic)
DAMN, now I am hungry 🙁
We get our stroopwafels at Vander Veen’s Dutch store in Grand Rapids Michigan!! Heel lekker!!!
Feel free!
OOOOOOHHH Stroopwafels!
Here’s a video of the making process at a stall in Delft:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG7orXwcB4o
Those Stroopwafels are by far the best. Warm, crunchy on the outside, soft and kinda grainy on the inside. The stroop is still runny, sticky, and damn tasty.
These stalls are to be found at pretty much any daymarket, and even (semi-)permanent stalls can be found quite frequently. If you can’t find one, find a good bakery (Ask the locals!). Those are still a lot better than any supermarket-cardboard.
Some band even named themselves “The amazing stroopwafels”.
see: http://www.amazingstroopwafels.nl/
Stroopwafels are also said to be more addictive than crack!
Oh my those things are so good. I was given a package of them by my Dutch coworker, he had a guilt trip for feeding me one of those awful salty drop candies. I was reluctant to these but when I did I was so glad. One of the yummiest things ever.
As someone who lives in Gouda, there are two versions of stroopwafels. There are the normal-sized ones that are eaten along with coffee, and there are the larger ‘super-wafels’, which are eaten as a snack on the streets, bought at a stall. They’re about the size of an adult foot. And of course, as mentioned earlier, there are the crumbs, which are also a very tasty snack.
Good lord… when I was in Amsterdam I got so hooked on Stroopwafles I was eating a pack a day!
hahaha you smoked weed :p
Cool recipe. It will be really tasty.
The Appie also sells stroopkoeken. That is like a stroopwafel on steroids (eat two and you have yourself a “balanced” meal of sugar and sugar).
Whenever I visit I must bring home as many packs of stroopwafels as I can carry. Somehow the best tasting ones come from Gouda – there must be a secret ingredient!
I think the “secret” ingredient is real “Goudse Stroop”.
When I was little my parents and oma (who was from Gouda) used to bake stroopwafels themselves about once a year. With a stroopwafel iron and a pan full of caramel filling they formed a little production line in the kitchen. Happy days, coming home from school and finding the kitchen table full of freshly baked stroopwafels, the whole house smelling of warm caramel :p. Sometimes a bit of the caramel would be left in the pan, and I would get a caramel sandwich to school the next day (see: dutch lunches, spreads).
What you buy in most supermarkets are not real stroopwafels, they’re tiny frisbees that just vaguely resemble the real thing. In Gouda they have the best ones, particularly like those at the bakery in the Groenendaal: http://www.shopgids.nl/winkel/2956/gouda/bakkerij-van-den-berg
Yes, those waffles are sold everywhere, but they have far too much sugar, I don’t like them at all though I am Dutch. Btw. “waffel” in Dutch means “a big mouth.”
So if you offer one just for a sticky big mouth, just say “stroopwaffel?” instead of “stroopwafel?”
They are quite disgusting really.
If you want a good taste of traditional food, take a big smoked eel (gerookte paling) from a good address (in Burgerveen is a good one), not a bad one from the freezer or the supermarket.
Ooh my dutch friend sent me all kinds of yummy cookies in the mail. I found that the kruidnoten and stroopwafels were the most addictive. Especially the stroopwafels.
There’s this Dutch entrepreneur in New York who sells them to bycicle shops. Those shops sell them as a kind of energy bar. Must be right, as the wafels contain a lot of sugar.
I am glad you brought this up, because stroopwafels are heaven-sent and everyone in the world should experience the taste of warm stroopwafels. They’re even tastier when you get them from the market, where they bake them fresh.
Also, we have different kinds of stroopwafels. We have smaller ones which go with coffee, but we also have really big and tiny ones, stroopwafels coated in chocolate and we even have icecream with stroopwafelkruimels (crumbs of stroopwafel).
Damn, now I want a stroopwafel.
We even have stroopwaflecake.
Omnomnomnom :3