We have sent a few of our stroopwafels to some experts in the Netherlands to compare our waffles with the real thing. The response is always: They are delicious, but they are different from Dutch stroopwafels. There are a few key elements in the stroopwafel, that make the stroopwafel taste like a stroopwafel. Flour Butter…

By now, I have made quite some batches of caramel for my stroopwafels. One of the tricks making good caramel is to bring crystallisation under control. There are various suggestions about wiping the pan with a water brush and prevent stirring at critical stage and adding interfering agents to prevent crystallisation. I have applied them…

In the Dutch language, stroopwafels, means syrup waffles, which refers to beetroot syrup, which is sold in the shops, so I never realized that stroopwafels are actually caramel waffles. Once I found out, I started studying about making caramel, which apparently is another challenge. Making good caramel is a whole different art   With caramel,…

  Up to now, I have been writing about the dough, but it actually took me quite a bit of experimenting to find the right stroop recipe for the stroopwafels . Stroop in Dutch means syrup, in English. So, obviously, I thought that I would need to make use of stroop, which is readily available…

My last experiment of turning the left over waffle crumbs into new stroopwafels was not much of a success. The resulting stoopwafels tasted alright, but the dough was too crumby to process and make decent stroopwafels. I usually have between 6% and 10% cookie crumbs in weight, which are cut off when I use the…

Friday, May 8th, 2009 We bought some stroopwafels here in the supermarket. The price is ¥567 for 8 stroopwafels. I opened the package and smelled the stroopwafels, but it smells very artificial, compare to our own stoopwafels. One of the reasons for buying the stroopwafels is to look at the ingredients slip. Commercially produced stroopwafels…

In order to find a suitable replacement for yeast in our dough we had a look at rice flour. Rice flour may be made from either white rice or brown rice. To make the flour, the husk of rice or paddy is removed and raw rice is obtained. The raw rice is then ground to…

Friday, May 8th, 2009 Since butter is so extremely expensive in Japan, I was looking around to find a replacement. I was looking at margarine, shortening, olive oil, etc. Margarine can be bought for almost half the price of butter in Japan, which is still outrageously expensive compared to Europe. Replacing 50% of the butter…

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 The original stroopwafel, which was invented in Gouda around 1784 was actually made of cookie crumbs that were left over from the daily baking of cookies by a bakery in Gouda. The stroopwafel was supposed to be a poor man’s treat. With the growing popularity of the stroopwafel, the flour dough…

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 The stroopwafel recipe we are using successfully at the moment uses dry yeast. The result is a smoothly baked stroopwafel, which is easy to split. It sometimes even puffs up when it comes out of the waffle maker and we have to flatten it with a filling knife. Apparently commercial recipes…