Zuid-Holland! The province where I live, in The Hague to be specific. I have been living here for the past six years now and am planning to stay here, love the city and the fact that is really close to the North Sea and, of course, the beach! Yes, Yes Zuid- Holland has so much more than The Hague I know, just let me rave about the city I love for a sec. Rotterdam for instance is the second biggest city of the Netherlands. Known for having the largest port in Europe. Ok people in Zuid Holland are not really committed to their province. There is no such thing as a Zuid-Hollander. We are more city orientated. So we call ourselves Rotterdammers, Hagenezen, Delftenaren, and so on.

Things you didn’t know about Zuid-Holland:

• Parkpop in The Hague was the largest free music festival in Europe. The last edition was in 2022. The biggest jazz festival in Europe is organized in Rotterdam every year. It’s called North Sea Jazz.
• The only European soy sauce is made in Rotterdam it’s called Tomasu and it’s amazing! In the greenhouses in Het Westland (a region a little south of The Hague) a company called Koppert Kress managed to cultivate the first European Vanilla. I visited the company a few months ago and it was well amazing!
• The 3 October Festival (also known as Leidens Ontzet) is a celebration in the Dutch city of Leiden, which is held annually on 3 October (if this falls on a Sunday, a day later). On that day, they celebrated the victory of the Spanish occupation by the Geuzen in 1574.
• Schiedam is the city of Jenever, for those who don’t know what jenever is. The step from Jenever to Gin is actually very small. Jenever was introduced in England in 1688 by Willem III and that became the predecessor of today’s Gin. The difference: gin must be made with neutral alcohol, jenever with grain alcohol. Neutral alcohol is distilled to 96%, just like vodka.

So stroopwaffles, these are the most iconic cookies in the Netherlands and my favorites. We have entire shops delicate to making stroopwaffles. The best way to eat them is to heat them up over the steam of your teacup so the syrup gets nice and melty. A shallow waffle iron is a necesity for this recipe.

Ingredients:

Cookiedough:

• 500 g flour
• 250 g butter
• 100 g caster sugar
• 15 g instant dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 50 ml milk
• 25 g honey
• 1 egg

Syrup:

• 300 g light brown caster sugar
• 50 g honey
• 50 g glucose syrup or corn syrup
• 85 ml water
• 100 g butter
• 1/2 pinch cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Let’s start with the cookiedough. Combine flour, sugar, yeast, cinnamon, bakingp powder, softenedbutter and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with a dough hook.
2. Pour in milk, honey and egg and knead for 5 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes and then knead another 10 minutes. Cover the bowl and set aside to rest for 1 hour.
3. In the meanwhile lets start the syrup. Combine light brown sugar, honey, glucose/corn syrup, and water. Bring to a boil over low heat until the the mixture reaches 100°C
4. Add cinnamon and continue to boil till 115°C. Take of the heat and set the syrup aside. You can heat it up later
5. After the dough has risen. Weigh 30-40g and make doughballs.
6. Heat the waffle irons. Grease with a small amount of butter. Press one of doughballs flat with the waffle iron, and bake until golden brown, which takes about 2 minutes.
7. While the waffles are still warm split the waffles horizontally with a sharp bread knife.
8. Smear on the syrup and gently press the waffle halves together.
9. Enjoy!!!!