{"id":8301,"date":"2026-10-19T15:18:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/?post_type=sweetlore&p=8301"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:49:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T09:49:35","slug":"stroopwafel","status":"publish","type":"sweetlore","link":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/en\/sweetlore\/stroopwafel\/","title":{"rendered":"Stroopwafel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A soft syrup is sandwiched between thin, grid-patterned wafers, and the stroopwafel is set on top of a cup holding a hot drink so that it softens slightly. Associated with Gouda, the stroopwafel is a Dutch sweet with a different texture outside and inside. stroop<\/em> means syrup, and wafel<\/em> means waffle. The wafers that hold the syrup are made in one of two ways: a single wafer is sliced horizontally in half while still hot, or two wafers are baked separately. Current manufacturers\u2019 explanations and historical sources use different names for these methods.<\/p>\n

\n\"A\n
A stroopwafel with a layer of syrup visible at the cut edge (October 29, 2013; location unknown). The filling is sandwiched between thin baked wafers with a grid pattern. Photo: Takeaway \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. No content changes or cropping on our part.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Slicing the wafer horizontally in half before it cools<\/h2>\n

A well-known method is to bake the dough thin on an iron, split the still-warm wafer horizontally, spread syrup on it and put the halves back together. The sweet liquid is not poured over the top; it is sandwiched between the two surfaces.<\/p>\n

Wafers that are split horizontally also vary: some use yeast, some use a leavening agent, and some use neither. In one example of a yeasted method, yeast is dissolved in lukewarm milk, then combined with butter, sugar, eggs and flour and kneaded. The dough rises for about an hour, is shaped into balls and rested again briefly, and is then pressed in a thin waffle iron. Instead of ladling and pouring a liquid batter, small balls of dough are pressed flat and baked.<\/p>\n

In Amsterdam, Egstorf prepares its dough every morning, weighs out each piece and rolls it by hand, then bakes it on an iron at about 185\u00b0C. While the dough, cut into a circle, is still warm and pliable, it is split horizontally in half with a small blade and spread with warm caramel. Because this is done before the wafer cools and hardens, a single thin wafer can be divided in two.<\/p>\n

The grid pattern pressed by the iron browns, and splitting the thinly baked wafer horizontally creates surfaces to hold the filling. The syrup is not worked into the whole dough but remains between the wafers as a separate, soft layer, so the outer crust and the filling have different textures. Both grid-patterned faces point outward, and the syrup is sandwiched between the flat cut surfaces.<\/p>\n

A home method: baking two wafers separately and joining them<\/h2>\n

King Arthur\u2019s home recipe (ingredient proportions and method), on the other hand, uses eggs, brown sugar, flour, a leavening agent, cinnamon and melted butter, bakes thin wafers separately on a pizzelle iron and joins two of them together. The filling in this recipe is water, brown sugar, butter and either golden syrup or corn syrup, cooked down. To keep it soft, it is cooked to the soft-ball stage, about 112\u2013116\u00b0C, and cooled slightly before spreading.<\/p>\n

\n\"A\n
The S. v. Duffelen stall, which sells stroopwafels (December 3, 2024; location unknown). The stall has a tent set up on a market street and is selling the sweets. Photo: Andy Li \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. Made available under CC0 by the photographer. No content changes or cropping on our part.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The Gouda origin story and a manufacturing industry that spread to other places<\/h2>\n

Dutch tourism information gives a backstory in which leftover dough was combined with syrup in Gouda around 1810. Duizend jaar Gouda (A Thousand Years of Gouda), a study of Gouda\u2019s history, notes that there are several candidates but regards Gerard Kamphuisen, who opened a shop in 1810, as the likely maker. The year he opened his shop is known, but it is not clear when he began making waffles.<\/p>\n

A local trade directory cited in the same book records about 17 waffle factories around 1960. The town\u2019s specialty did not remain one baker\u2019s secret; it also became an industry tied to syrup production and multiple workshops. Today, Gouda still has workshops where visitors can watch the baking process.<\/p>\n

Makers also grew up outside Gouda. Daelmans began as a small family bakery that Hermanus Daelmans opened in Vlijmen in 1904. It has since grown into a brand that also sells abroad, and the pleasure of eating freshly baked wafers at a workshop now sits alongside products in bags and boxes that are carried far away.<\/p>\n

Commercial formulations are not uniform either. Daelmans\u2019 regular products do not contain egg, while its gluten-free products, made in a separate factory, use egg. The company uses a corn-derived sugar syrup, which differs from the egg-containing dough and syrup choices in home recipes.<\/p>\n

Names for the split-wafer method and the two-wafer method<\/h2>\n

Daelmans distinguishes between the stroopwafel<\/em>, in which a single baked wafer is split and filled, and the siroopwafel<\/em>, in which two thin wafers are baked individually and filled. According to the company, the filling of the latter is a thinner syrup. Duizend jaar Gouda, on the other hand, calls today\u2019s method of splitting a single warm wafer the spouwwafel<\/em>, and describes the old Gouda style as spreading syrup on two wafers that were baked separately and cooled. A manufacturer classifying current products and a historian tracing changes in the town\u2019s methods use different names, even for the same way of baking.<\/p>\n

The history book also explains that mixing trimmings from the baked edges into the dough gives a crisper bite. In this method, the edges of the dough that come off during baking are used as an ingredient in the next batch of dough.<\/p>\n

The home method of baking two wafers separately skips the difficult step of cutting before the wafer cools. In exchange, the result differs in thinness from a single baked wafer split in two. It is a recipe for the same syrup-filled sweet, adapted to the iron that is available.<\/p>\n

The recollections of a baker who obtained an 1854 recipe<\/h2>\n

Joop de Korte is a baker who spent 45 years making and selling sweets in Gouda. He sold his wares around town as a young man and later ran a factory, and he said that he obtained an 1854 siroopwafel recipe from the papers of the Van Vreumingen family. Clues to the history of the town\u2019s confectionery are found not only in shop records but also in documents kept by families.<\/p>\n

He recalls selling from stacked tins of sweets and running the Adeko waffle factory from 1946 to 1990. He names Punselie and Adeko as separate products alongside Gouda siroopwafels, which shows that more than one way of baking survived, even in the same town. The history of the town\u2019s workshops is built from layers of old recipes, bakers\u2019 experience and the products of different companies.<\/p>\n

\n\"A\n
A stroopwafel placed on a cup of hot coffee (March 14, 2013; location unknown). An example of eating it after warming it with the heat of the drink. Photo: Saaleha Bamjee from Johannesburg, South africa \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>. Full-size image obtained. No content changes or cropping on our part.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A sweet filled with anko butter in Saga<\/h2>\n

In Japan, stroopwafels are also made with the filling replaced by anko butter (sweet bean paste with butter). Tsuruya in Saga learned the method from Lanskroon, a bakery in Amsterdam, and launched this sweet in September 2018. Tsuruya keeps the way of eating it by softening the filling over a hot drink, and alongside it also sells kamairi-cha (pan-fired tea) made in collaboration with a Saga tea brand. It is an example of the form of a soft filling between thin baked wafers being combined with Japanese anko and tea.<\/p>\n

Store away from high temperatures and warm before eating<\/h2>\n

Store stroopwafels sealed in a dry, dark place, away from high temperatures that make the syrup run. Just before eating, on the other hand, placing one on top of a cup holding a hot drink warms the thin outer wafers and the sugar syrup inside, so the syrup becomes soft.<\/p>\n

The Belgian waffle, whose dough is baked thick, is a different style enjoyed for the air pockets inside. Even with the same grid pattern, a structure in which the dough is divided and filled and a structure in which toppings are added to a single thick waffle differ both in method and in the texture of each bite.<\/p>\n

Glossary<\/h2>\n

Stroop<\/strong>: Dutch for syrup. In a stroopwafel, it refers to the sweet layer between the two wafers.<\/p>

Gouda<\/strong>: A city in the Netherlands. It is known as a stroopwafel town as well as for its cheese.<\/p>

Pizzelle<\/strong>: A thin, patterned Italian baked sweet. Its dedicated iron is used in a home method.<\/p>

Soft-ball stage<\/strong>: The stage in cooking down sugar syrup at which a drop of syrup forms a soft ball in cold water. The temperature varies with sugar composition and conditions.<\/p>

Golden syrup<\/strong>: An amber sugar syrup containing invert sugar. It is used in British confectionery.<\/p>

Gerard Kamphuisen<\/strong>: A confectioner who opened a shop in Gouda in 1810. He appears in local history as a candidate for the maker of the stroopwafel.<\/p>

Joop de Korte<\/strong>: A Gouda baker and author on the history of confectionery. He recalled managing the Adeko factory and discovering an old recipe.<\/p>

Daelmans<\/strong>: A manufacturer that started as a family bakery in Vlijmen in 1904.<\/p>

Hermanus Daelmans<\/strong>: The founder of the company.<\/p>

Egstorf<\/strong>: A bakery and confectioner in Amsterdam that shows its handmade production to the public.<\/p>

Punselie \/ Adeko<\/strong>: Names of waffle products and makers in Gouda. They also appear in de Korte\u2019s recollections.<\/p>

Lanskroon<\/strong>: A bakery in Amsterdam. Tsuruya names it as the shop where it learned how to make stroopwafels. Original-language name: Lanskroon.<\/p>

References<\/h2>\n

  1. \u2022 Holland.com, \u201cRegional products\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The origin story of around 1810 and leftover dough.\n\u2022 Holland.com, \u201cGouda\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Workshop visits and regional products.\n\u2022 Egstorf, \u201cHow we bake our Stroopwafels\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Weighing out portions, 185 degrees, splitting horizontally while warm.\n\u2022 King Arthur Baking, \u201cStroopwafels\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Two wafers baked separately, ingredients for the dough and sauce, cooking end point.\n\u2022 Gouda local history, Duizend jaar Gouda: Economie<\/a> \u2014 p. 25: the candidate who opened a shop in 1810, factories around 1960, the old two-wafer assembly and today\u2019s spouwwafel, use of the baked edges.\n\u2022 Daelmans official FAQ<\/a> \u2014 Egg and the source of the sugar syrup, the distinction between the two methods, storage and warming.<\/p><\/li>

  2. \u2022 Bonnie van Doorn, \u201cHistorisch recept Goudse siroopwafels,\u201d De Krant van Gouda, June 27, 2013, p. 3<\/a> \u2014 The book\u2019s author describes in his own words the discovery of the 1854 recipe and what followed the 2012 publication, and gives his own recollections of running Adeko and selling.<\/p><\/li>

  3. Publisher\u2019s public preview of De wereld van de stroopwafel, printed p. 29 \/ p. 4 of the preview PDF<\/a> \u2014 Dough of milk, yeast, sugar, butter, eggs and flour; a first rise and a short second rise; horizontal splitting. The publisher\u2019s 10-page preview was retrieved from a public archive. The full text of the 204-page book was not obtained or read in full.<\/li>
  4. Daelmans, \u201cOver Daelmans\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The company\u2019s own history: Hermanus and the family shop in Vlijmen in 1904, and sales around the world.<\/li>

  5. Research notes<\/h3><\/li>

  6. De Korte said in a 2013 local newspaper that he obtained the 1854 recipe after his book was published in 2012. He explained that it could not be included in the book and even described a plan to hand out copies to buyers at an event the following year, but the main text focuses on the baker and the town\u2019s production rather than on the publication history. 1854 is not treated as the year of invention. The year 1784, given in the publisher\u2019s preview as the year of the first recipe, has not been newly adopted because its source has not been verified. Likewise, 1904 in Vlijmen is the company\u2019s founding year and is not equated with the year it began making stroopwafels.<\/p><\/li>

  7. Additional research note: The Dutch Wikipedia statements about ad\u00e9ko\u20141939, oven baking and lower labor costs\u2014were traced back to their original sources. Footnote 10 of the current revision, 72044611, only states that the founder died in 1945 and that his son took over, with no source or page reference for the production method. The Gouds Dagblad article states at the end that it is based on Wikipedia, so it is not independent corroboration. Additional searches using the variant spellings ad\u00e9ko\/adeko\/adeco and Abraham de Korte, combined with wafel\/oven, did not confirm any production records or contemporary equipment or recipes. 1939 and the reduction in labor costs are not adopted as established facts. The development of the technique itself is explained through differences that can be specifically confirmed: the old separate baking and today\u2019s horizontal splitting described in the local history, the publisher\u2019s yeasted type, and the current home recipe with separately baked wafers. Adeko\u2019s individual technical history is kept as an unverified candidate for supplementary information.<\/p><\/li>

  8. Tsuruya, \u201cTsuruya\u2019s Stroopwafel \/ Tsuruya\u2019s Tea\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The company\u2019s own release records 63\u201374 were read directly. 2018-09-01, learned at Lanskroon, anko butter and kamairi-cha. The introduction of marub\u014dro and the exact starting point of the 330 years are separate matters and are not settled here.<\/li>

  9. Editorial notes<\/h2><\/li>

  10. 1810 is the year Kamphuisen\u2019s shop opened and is not established as the year the waffle was invented. The use of baked edges in Duizend jaar Gouda is a description of the method and is not treated as a direct record of the theory that the sweet was invented from leftovers.<\/p><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The stroopwafel is made of two thin waffles joined together, and when you break off the edge, a layer of syrup shows inside. Associated with Gouda in the Netherlands, this sweet combines a fine grid on the surface and a soft sweetness inside in a single piece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6944,"menu_order":56,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_parade_sweetlore_meta":{"en":"Stroopwafel","subtitle":"A Gouda sweet with syrup between two thin waffles","topics":"Thin waffles \/ Syrup \/ Gouda \/ With a drink","country":"Netherlands","show_toc":true,"ingredients":[],"texture":[],"occasion":[],"method":["baked"],"season":[]},"footnotes":""},"sweetlore_category":[151],"class_list":["post-8301","sweetlore","type-sweetlore","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"sweetlore_related_products":null,"sweetlore_related_faqs":null,"sweetlore_related_voices":null,"sweetlore_related_mode":"manual","sweetlore_related_articles":[8302,8248,8249,8250,8251,8254,8255,8257]},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t