Oma’s Stroopwafel Recipe
If you have never had a homemade stroopwafel, boy are you missing out. The storebought ones are great for sitting on top of your teacup, because they need softening to eat. Homemade stroopwafels have a bright, buttery, molasses like syrup and a crumbly, buttery cookie that borders on cake like, but not quite.
Here’s a recipe that has been in my family for 3 generations now.
What You’ll Need (see notes Below for more Details):
- Time and patience!
- A sharp knife like a paring knife
- Dutch/Friese stroop
- A mini-waffle iron
- The usual: butter, flour, sugar, eggs, etc.
Oma’s Stroopwafels
Equipment
- Mini Waffle Cone Maker see notes below for other options
- Sharp non-serrated knife
Ingredients
- 6-7 cups flour
- 5 sticks butter, salted 1.25 lbs; softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 eggs lightly beaten
- 3 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. cinnamon plus extra sprinkle for the stroep filling
For Filling
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 stick butter 1/4 lb.
- 1 lb. Dutch Stroep
Instructions
For the dough
- To make dough, combine all ingredients, starting with 6 cups of flour. The dough will be stiff–use a stand mixer or if mix with your hands.
- If needed, add a little more flour until dough is smooth and not sticky. You should be able to roll it into balls without it sticking to your hands.
- Roll the dough into small balls, a little smaller than the size of a ping pong ball. Let chill for at least a few hours or up to overnight.
For the filling
- Add all filling ingredients to a saucepan and heat on low heat until all butter and sugar has melted into the syrup. Remove from heat when ready to begin cooking the stroepwafels. If the syrup starts to get too thick to work with, return it to low heat for a few minutes
Cooking & Assembling
- Pre-heat your waffle on medium heat. Place the dough ball in the iron and squish it down until it is about 6 mm thick or about 1/4 inch.
- Let cook until the cookie is a light golden color.
- Remove the cookie from the iron and immediately slice it in half horizontally (like slicing a cake into layers). Use a sharp paring knife for this. You can protect your fingers from the heat of the cookie with a paper towel.
- Add about 1-2 tsp. of stroep mixture to the center of one half of the cookie and then replace the top. This should cause the stroep to spread out to the edges of the cookie without coming out the sides.
- Continue with the next cookie until all dough is used up. You will likely have leftover syrup.
Notes
Notes:
1. Time and Patience
This is a project to undertake when you have a few hours to make these. You will also need to allow time for the dough to chill. My mom always let her dough chill overnight, but I find that makes the dough too cold and stiff (all that butter!). If you do chill the dough overnight, be sure to take it out of the fridge an hour or so before you are ready to begin cooking these.
I recommend rolling the dough into small balls (about the size of a meatball or just a little smaller than a ping pong ball) before chilling. It can be difficult to break off dough when it’s completely chilled (again, all that butter).
Having a partner help you is a bonus. One person can man the iron, while the other slices and fills.
Using a waffle iron that can make two at a time speeds up the process a lot.
2. A sharp knife (and asbestos fingers)
The key to making these is to slice them in half when they are hot out of the iron. Work on a cutting board and hold your paring knife parallel to the surface. Use a paper towel to protect your hands and turn the cookie around like you are cutting a cake in half.
A sharp knife like a paring knife is necessary so that you don’t end up with broken cookie bits everywhere.
Cutting while hot and using a sharp knife are the two keys to successfully splitting these in half.
3. Dutch or Friese Stroop
I know people who have made this with maple syrup and it just isn’t the same. I am lucky enough to have multiple Dutch stores within driving distance.
This is the stroop I always use. It is thick and molasses like, and a bit bitter on it’s own. It is definitely worth seeking this out since maple syrup will be very runny in your stroopwafels.
4. A mini-waffle iron
This can be the hardest thing to find and get right. My mom had bought a real one in Holland decades ago. When it stopped working she gave it to a friend who was able to fix it (and keep it). Since then various family members have tried different irons.
Some of them have too big of an indent in the waffle texture (i.e. the checkerboard pattern of the waffle).
For me, this petite waffle cone maker has the correct pattern and depth of indents compared to the authentic Dutch one I remember. If I ever get back to the Netherlands a true stroopwafel iron is on my “to buy” list.
The bonus of this one is you can make two at a time. You will notice technically you can make three, but the spot closest to the hinge ends up creating an uneven cookie that is too thin on one side to properly slice open. If you get this iron, use the front two spaces only.
On the waffle iron above, I adjust the temperature setting between 2 and 3. If you are using a different iron, look for a temperature where your cookie becomes golden in 1-2 minutes.
5. Other tips
Getting the correct cook time takes a bit of experimentation. You want the dough to be cooked through, but barely so that it is soft enough to split open. Look for the cookie to just start to turn golden on top, like in this photo.
Do not overfill the stroopwafels. About a teaspoon per cookie is good, but more than that, just leave a border around the stroop since when you put the two halves back together, the syrup will spread to the edges.
If your stroop gets too thick to handle, gently re-warm it on the stove for a few minutes. You can do this multiple times with no problems.
These freeze nicely, so consider making a full batch like in the recipe above and freezing some for later. Because this is such a time and labor intensive process, it’s easier to make a lot than make half a batch twice.
