GBBO 2017 Week 4 - Stroopwafels

On Week 4 of GBBO, the bakers were challenged with baking stroopwafels - a kind of wafer filled with a deep caramel sauce (they sell them in Starbucks). I've wanted to make these for years, ever since my brother brought me some back from the Netherlands. I had to buy a waffle pan, which was why I didn't make these straight after the show. The one I bought, in case you are interested, is from Lakeland in the UK.

The Waffle maker

When I read Prue's recipe, I was a bit unhappy with her term "pancake syrup", as I had no idea what that was! Therefore I did some digging and read more about the traditional stroopwafel. Although the caramel is a secret recipe, they do say that black treacle is a prime ingredient. Therefore I used this in place of the syrup, and the result was heavenly. If you love parkin or treacle toffee, you will love this caramel.

However, if you want to be more like the Starbucks variety, use golden syrup in place of the treacle.

Unlike when the bakers made this caramel, my caramel didn't turn grainy, which I think was due to using treacle (and golden syrup should have a similar effect to the treacle as well).

These are beautiful, but you will get very warm making them, as you need to hold the lid down. You also need to work quickly when slicing and filling the biscuit/wafer, as it gets hard quickly. Don't worry if you get some leakage, it will still taste fabulous!

Makes 12

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 300g (2 & 2/5 cup) plain flour
• 65g (1/3 cup)unsalted butter
• 5g (1 tsp) dried fast action yeast
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 65g (1/4 cup & 1 tbsp) caster sugar
• 65ml (1/4 cup) warm water
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt
• oil, for greasing (I used a spray bottle)

For the caramel:

• 200g (3/4 cup + 2 tbsp) soft light brown sugar
• 100g (2/5 cup) unsalted butter
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 5 tbsp black treacle or golden syrup
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Make the dough, by pouring the flour into a large bowl. Chop the butter into cubes and rub into the flour with your fingertips, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the yeast to one side of the bowl, and the cinnamon, salt and sugar to the other side and briefly mix to distribute.

2. Add the egg and slowly pour in the warm water, and use your hands to bring the dough together (you may not need all of the water). Knead lightly for 1 -2 minutes, until it forms a ball.

3. Place the dough in a bowl, cover and and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes.

4. To make the caramel, melt the sugar and the butter together in a saucepan over a very low heat, stirring often, until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cinnamon and treacle and continue to heat and stir until the caramel reduces and becomes sticky enough to be able to spread (don't touch it though as it will be incredibly hot!) Stir in the vanilla extract, then keep warm. If the caramel becomes too cold, simply heat gently to loosen it up and become spreadable again.

5. Weigh out 40g of the dough and roll into a ball. Repeat with the remaining dough (this will make 12 stroopwafels). each. Cover with a damp cloth to prevent them drying out.

6. Heat the wafer/waffle cone machine. Grease the top and bottom plate with a little oil (having oil in a spray bottle makes this very easy). Place one dough ball in the middle of the pan, then set a timer for around 80-90 seconds. Press down the top lid, and bake for 80-90 seconds. Remove from the machine. You want the stroopwafel to be a light golden all over. If it is too brown, for the next biscuit, cook it for 10 seconds less. If too light, cook for 10 seconds more (this is very dependent on your machine, so requires optimization).  

7. Carefully remove the biscuit from the machine (I found this easiest using a spatula). Place on a chopping board, and while the waffle is hot, place a 10cm metal cutter on the dough. Cut around the cutter (or if unlike me, you have a sharp cutter, press down on the cutter to get a very even 10cm circle). Slice horizontally in two and split apart.

8. Spoon over a generous tablespoon of the caramel on the bottom half of the stroopwafel, then top with the top half. Gently press down so that the caramel reaches the edges of the waffle. Place on a wire rack to cool and continue with the rest of the dough.

9. Once cool, Smakelijk!