The Great British Bake Off is one my favorite shows, inspiring new bakes, new flavors, and new techniques! Join me on my journey to bake through all the Season 8 Challenges.
Total Cooking Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
The Great British Bake Off is a classic show for bakers and those looking for a friendly competition. All the bakes on the show look delicious and I often want to try baking them myself! I finally got off the couch and into the kitchen to recreate some of the recipes from Bake Off! I chose to start with season eight of Bake Off as it is my favorite season and the one with some of my favorite challenges!
I’m not going to lie. I was very intimated by the idea of making Stroopwafels as a part of the technical challenge. I have been in love with stroopwafels for many years, ever since my brother brought them home after traveling around Europe. They are a thin waffle, almost cookie like in thinness, but waffle like in their size, that have been cut in half a filled with a delicious, spiced caramel filling. But the only way to get over being intimated by something is to face it head on. And technical challenges are all about facing the unknown.
Check out the Season 8 Great British Bake Off Page to see other bakes from the series or the Make section for more recipes!
Ingredients
The ingredients needed to make the waffle portion of stroopwafels includes classics such as flour, butter, sugar, milk, and eggs. One ingredient that I did not expect to see was active-dry yeast. Who puts yeast in their waffles?? But since this wasn’t a true waffle recipe, I guess I should have expected some curveballs.
Process
01
Creating the Batter… er, Dough….
The first step of this process is combining everything in a large could and mixing it like there is no tomorrow. Just like a bread dough, eventually this became too difficult to mix by hand, so I turned it out to give in a knead. I started in the stand mixer, but I wanted to finish it by hand since this is my first experience in making this kind of sweet treat. After all the ingredients have come together, I left the dough to rise. While the dough is rising, this is the perfect chance to make some spiced caramel!
02
Making the Waffles
One thing I don’t like about making Stroopwafels it that is requires a piece of equipment that was not a normal inhabitant of my kitchen. I ended up getting a specialized waffle iron that is generally used to make waffle cones. But I got it, and now I’m here, so let’s make some waffles. I rolled each shape into a 2 to 2 and ½ inch ball which seemed to work best with my waffle iron. I pressed down and cooked them until they were golden brown. Getting the color on the waffles was surprisingly difficult as they can easily be overcooked or undercooked.
03
Adding the Caramel
The last step of making a stroopwafel is adding the caramel to the inside of each waffle. Now, if you’re like me or half the contestants on the show, you’re thinking “how the heck do I cut something so thin in half?”. Well, I don’t really have a good answer for this one. Just do your best! This process is tedious and can be a little painful since I cut the waffles in half while they were still warm (or hot). I find the heat from being cooked helped the cutting process since it kept them nice and soft. Once open, just slather on a layer of caramel and sandwich it between the two halves. And voila! I made Stroopwafels.
Reflections
I think Bake-off is trying to burn off the hands of its contestants. This is the second technical challenge where I felt my fingertips burning off as I tried to work quickly. But once I got used to the heat, I was able to slice the cookies in half pretty consistently. This recipe definitely makes you work quickly but it is a flavorful and delectable treat!
Am I ready for bake-off? I think this recipe turned out pretty well but not very consistent in cookie size and shape. There was a large variety of outcomes, but they all tasted delicious.
Lessons
Working Quickly and Carefully
For this recipe, I had to cut the waffles in half with quite a large knife. While it is important to work quickly to get the cookie cut before anything cools, it is also important to do this safely. And it is very easy to tilt the knife at the wrong angle and slice in the wrong direction. It’s important to always be aware of where the knife is facing!
Stroopwafels
Ingredients
- 4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 ⅛ Cup Butter melted
- ¾ Cups Granulated Sugar
- 1 ½ Tsp Active Dry Yeast
- ¼ Cup Milk warm
- 1 Egg
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, yeast
- In a separate bowl, mix together butter, milk, and egg
- Mix the butter mixture into the flour mixture until the dough becomes stiff to stir
- Turned out onto a flour surface and knead by hand until it comes together
- Set aside to rise for 45 minutes.
- Preheat your iron. Divide dough into 2 inch balls (or a size compatible with your iron).
- Press each ball in the preheated iron and cook until the iron stops releasing steam or until the waffles are golden brown.
- Carefully remove from the iron and split it half horizontally while still warm.
- Spread filling (see Spiced Caramel) on the inside before putting halves back together.
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