1. Day of December - Speculaas Waffle Rolls (Spekulatius Eiserkuchen)

Today marks the first day of December – Advent season is special. That´s why I decided to post a virtual Advent Calendar on my blog this year, meaning that I will try to post 24 Christmas surprises and recipes (sweet and savory) and much more during the upcoming 24 days before Christmas. Make sure to visit often from now until Christmas.

That said, for the first post, I’ve had a go at a traditional German recipe, the crunchy waffle roll. The history of these traditional crispy waffles dates back to the 16. century when they were first made by monks in their convent kitchens. The traditional way to make these seems to be just with water, sugar, butter, eggs and flour. However, I remember that my beloved grand-mother always made these rolls at Christams time with dissolved rock sugar to make the waffles even crunchier. I tried the recipe both with brown rock sugar and white rock sugar – the taste was almost the same but if you are looking for darker wafflle rools, you are well advised to use the brown variety.

The dissolved rock sugar lends en incredible crunchiness to these waffles that keeps for weeks if stored in cookies tins. If you cannot get your hands on rock sugar, by all means use regular sugar instead – just replace the rock sugar in the recipe with the same amout of regular sugar (white or brown).

As I was prepraing to make these waffles on the weekend, I happened to glance at the jar of my fabulous Speculaas Spice Mix (recipe here) as I was rummaging in the baking cupboard, and thought it might be nice to add some of it to the waffle batter for some extra flavor. I think it is worth doing. It certainly adds a little extra something festive and utterly delicious to the final result – not to mention the lovely smell in the house while you bake these!

Speculaas Waffle Rolls

Ingredients for the Waffle Rolls

• 1/4 l water
• 250 grams rock sugar (white rock candy for a lighter colored waffle, brown rock candy for a darker colored waffle) or regular sugar (white or brown)
• 200 grams unsalted butter
• 2 eggs (L), organic or free-range whenever possible
• 1 pinch of fine sea salt
• 1 ½ tsps Speculaas Spice Mix (for the recipe, please visit my post here)
• ¼  tsp ground cinnamon (from Ceylon if possible)
• 1 package pure vanilla sugar (2 tsps) or homemade vanilla sugar.
• 250 grams AP (plain) flour
• NOTE: this recipe makes about 24 waffle rolls, depending on the size of your waffle maker

Preparation of the Waffle Rolls

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a boil, take the saucepan off the heat, add the rock sugar and stir carefully until it is completely dissolved.
2. Then add the butter to the sugar mixture and continue to stir until the butter has melted.
3. Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool completely.
4. When ready to bake your waffle rolls, preheat your waffle maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
5. Transfer the cooled butter mixture to a mixing bowl.
6. To the butter mixture, add the eggs, salt, speculaas spice mix, cinnamon, vanilla sugar, and flour. Whisk the mixture until there are no lumps left.
7. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of batter in the center of your pre-heated waffle maker.
8. Bake for about a minute or two, then check for proper color.
9. Quickly remove the waffle from the waffle maker. Transfer onto a rack. Quickly make a roll or a cone. If the waffle is too hot to handle with your bare hands, use a cloth to help lift and roll the waffle.
10. Hold the waffle roll a few seconds to set its shape then place on the wire rack to cool completely.
11. Serve immediately (plain or with whipped cream) and store any leftover waffle rools in large cookie tins for up to a two weeks.

I´ve got a few tips for making these:

• The batter is meant to be thick but still runny, you are looking for a honey-like consistency here.
• Do not be tempted to add milk to the batter, as that will result in soft, not crispy waffles.
• The waffle rolls are meant to be really crispy.
• Should you have any leftover waffles, make sure to keep them in a cookie tin in a cool place, so that they stay crispy.
• Around here, you can find a really good specialty waffle roll maker from Cloer . In the US and Canada, you can find a similar waffle cone maker from Chef´s Choice (available through Williams Sonoma here).

My waffle recipe is wonderful even without the added speculaas spices, however, the real Christmas magic here comes from adding them, they will taste amazing!

Please make sure to drop by again tomorrow when we will open our second special surprise in my virtual Advent Calendar!