Tuesday, October 14, 2014

STROOPWAFEL

I did try to hide it but I failed. Last week Tim was in Amsterdam and found it.
A stroopwafel (English translation: syrup waffle, treacle waffle, or caramel waffle; lit "syrup waffle") is a waffle made from two thin layers of baked dough with a caramel-like syrup filling in the middle. They were first made in Gouda in the Netherlands. Large versions are sold in the streets as a snack.

Ingredients and baking
The stiff dough for the waffles is made from flour, butter, brown sugar, yeast, milk, and eggs. Medium sized balls of dough are put into a heated waffle iron and pressed into the required uniformly thin, round shape. 

After the waffle has been baked, and while it's still warm, it is split into thin layered halves. The warm filling, made from syrup, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon, is spread between the waffle halves, gluing them together.

History
The stroopwafel originates from Gouda in the Netherlands. It was first made during the late 18th century or early 19th century by a baker using leftovers from the bakery, such as breadcrumbs, which were sweetened with syrup. One story ascribes the invention of the stroopwafel to the baker Gerard Kamphuisen, which would date the first stroopwafels somewhere between 1810, the year when he opened his bakery, and 1840, the year of the oldest known recipe for syrup waffles. In the 19th century, there were around 100 syrup waffle bakers in Gouda, which was the only city in which they were made until 1870. After 1870 they were also made at parties and in markets outside the city of Gouda. In the 20th century, factories started to make stroopwafels. In 1960, there were 17 factories in Gouda alone, of which four are currently still open.

Amazing Stroopwafels
The Amazing Stroopwafels is a Dutch band originating from Rotterdam. They started as a duo in 1979, performing as street musicians. The group now consists of Wim Kerkhof (vocals, double bass and piano), Arie van der Graaf (electric guitar) and Rien de Bruin (acoustic guitar and accordion). They're one of the busiest-performing groups in the Netherlands with more than 6000 concerts in thirty years. The predominantly Dutch-language group also toured widely in Denmark.
Although the band never had a hit-record, their 1981 song Oude Maasweg (based on Leon Russell's Manhattan Island Serenade, from the album Carney) is a classic in Dutch pop music history. The song starts in English, the second verse continues in Dutch as an impressionist story of heartbreak in the dreary industrial area of Rotterdam. In 2007 the song charted number 16 in the Top 2000, an all-times chart compiled by the listeners of Dutch Radio 2.

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