Stroopwaffels

My friend Katie brought stroopwaffels to work one day. Sweet, delicate, smooth vanilla and caramel flavors - I was hooked. With the holidays approaching, I asked Katie if she would make me a couple dozen of these cookies. I know, bold to ask someone to bake for me, but I was more than willing to pay her for them. However, we then decided it would be much more fun if we made them together. Agreed!


Off to Katie's way-too-clean apartment I went, vanilla extract and sugars in tow. We plugged in her special stroopwaffel iron and got cookin'.




"Stroops," as Katie calls them, are a confection originally from Holland - thin waffled wafers, sandwiching a layer of homemade caramel. These are definitely more work than your average cookies, but I think it's worth it. I'm not a fan of one-food-specific kitchen appliances, and luckily Katie will let me borrow her iron whenever my stroop craving strikes, but if you really get into these cookies and/or homemade waffle cones, you could justify purchasing the iron.



We used Martha Stewart's stroopwaffel recipe (see it here), adding a tablespoon of cinnamon to the batter. For the caramel, we used Katie's family recipe for microwave caramel. After a previous bad experience burning caramel to a pan on the stovetop (IMPOSSIBLE to remove), I'm sticking with the microwave from now on.

Katie's Microwave Caramels

1 cup butter
2 and 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 - 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients except vanilla in 2-quart dish. Microwave on high 3-4 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes and at the end. With no further stirring, continue to microwave on high 10-14 minutes or until 245 degrees (firm ball stage). Remove from microwave and stir in vanilla. Allow to stand 10 minutes, stirring several times. Pour into buttered 9 x 13 pan and cool. Score into individual caramels and wrap each in waxed paper.

If using caramel sauce for cookies, use it before cooling.