A stroopwafel is two thin, crisp waffle discs pressed together with a layer of syrup. The waffle dough is made from flour, butter, brown sugar, yeast, milk and eggs and baked in a patterned iron; while still hot each waffle is split horizontally, filled with a warm mixture of syrup, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon, and closed again. As it cools the filling sets to a soft, chewy layer. Modern versions sometimes use a caramel filling instead.
The Gouda origin
The stroopwafel comes from Gouda, in South Holland, and dates from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. The baker Gerard Kamphuisen, who opened a bakery in Gouda around 1810, is often credited with it, and the earliest known recipe dates from 1840 — but the exact origin is not documented. Records are thin for practical reasons: the guilds that once kept such records had been abolished, and local newspaper advertising did not yet exist. Early stroopwafels were described as made from leftover crumbs and syrup, a cheap "poor man's cake".
Production spread beyond Gouda from around 1870. The city remained the centre of the trade: there were seventeen stroopwafel factories in Gouda in 1960, and only a handful remain today.
How to eat one
A stroopwafel can be eaten straight from the pack, but the classic way is to lay it on top of a cup of hot coffee or tea for a minute or two. The steam warms the waffle and softens the syrup, so the biscuit bends and the filling turns gooey. Fresh stroopwafels — baked on the spot at markets and fairs — are eaten warm and are a different experience from the packaged kind.
How the trade works
The stroopwafel business has three fairly distinct parts. The first is the fresh trade: market stalls and bakeries that bake stroopwafels in front of the customer and sell them warm, where the appeal is freshness and spectacle rather than shelf life. The second is industrial production of packaged stroopwafels for supermarkets, often including supermarket own-label packs, where the dry waffle and sugar-rich filling give the product a long shelf life. The third is export and the souvenir trade — tins, gift packs and branded packs for airports and tourist shops — which is how most people outside the Netherlands first meet the stroopwafel. Long shelf life, simple ingredients and the fact that no explanation is needed have made it the most exportable of Dutch sweets: today stroopwafels are baked outside the Netherlands as well, and some airlines serve them on board.
Variants
Alongside the classic full-size stroopwafel there are mini stroopwafels, honey or caramel fillings, chocolate-dipped versions, and gluten-free or vegan versions. Broken pieces are sold as stroopwafelkruimels or used in ice cream and desserts.