Classroom lesson 路 Food馃嚦馃嚤 Netherlands

Stroopwafels - syrup waffle cookies

Two thin waffles glued together with warm syrup

A stack of round stroopwafels with golden syrup oozing between two thin waffle layers

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

A stroopwafel is the Netherlands' most famous sweet snack. It looks like a round biscuit, but inside there is a brilliant secret: two thin waffles glued together with sticky golden syrup. They are sold everywhere in the Netherlands - in shops, train stations, markets and bakeries.

Tell me more

The word stroopwafel means 'syrup-waffle' in Dutch. They were invented in the town of Gouda (the same town as the cheese) around 200 years ago. A baker is said to have used up scraps of waffle dough by pressing them thin and sticking them together with syrup.

Making one is a craft. The baker presses a small ball of dough in a hot waffle iron. While the waffle is still soft and warm, they slice it through the middle with a thin blade, brush warm syrup onto one half, and squish the two halves back together. As it cools, the syrup goes wonderfully sticky.

The classic way to eat a stroopwafel is to balance it on top of a hot cup of tea or hot chocolate for a minute. The steam softens the waffle and melts the syrup inside, so when you bite in, it is gooey and warm. Dutch children grow up doing this from a very young age.

Today, stroopwafels are sent all over the world. NASA astronauts have even eaten them in space - they survive the journey to the International Space Station because they don't make crumbs.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why might 'no crumbs' make a stroopwafel a good snack for space?
  2. 02Lots of foods were invented by accident or from leftovers. Can you think of any?
  3. 03Why might balancing one on a hot drink make a snack feel like a treat?
Try this

Classroom activity

If your school allows it, bring in stroopwafels (or any biscuit) and a cup of warm water. Try balancing one on the cup for one minute - then bite. How does the texture change? Write a sentence describing what it was like, using all five senses.