Have you ever heard of Stroop Waffles? I hadn't until I was at a Valentine's exchange at a friends house and was gifted fresh stroop waffles. She said that they were addicting. She said I should probably hide them from the rest of the family. She was right. I was so bummed to think that I had to have a special waffle iron in order to make Stroop waffles, but then I thought of our sad little panini press that gets little to no love these days.

After looking at a few recipes, I thought that perhaps I could make stroop waffles even faster if I used Rhodes Rolls. I'm always right about these things (i.e. substituting Rhodes for basically any kind of dough). As soon as these were made, they disappeared. That fast. I would recommend making these when no one is home, so you have plenty of time to hoard and enjoy them before family is onto you. I would also recommend topping these with greek yogurt and even more stroop. At least, we thought it was heavenly!

Stroop Waffles

adapted from My Macedonian Kitchen

• Rhodes dinner rolls, thawed (up to 20)
• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 5 tablespoons molasses (maple syrup or dark karo syrup are ok)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan on medium/high heat, melt butter and brown sugar until melted. Add cinnamon and molasses and watch it boil while stirring regularly. I used a wooden spoon - because it seems to work better with the caramelizing process. KEEP STIRRING. Don't let the sauce burn. Keep stirring until the syrup is smooth and dark. It will start to thicken a bit at this point. Reduce the heat to low and stir a couple minutes more. Keep syrup warm for spreading on the stroop waffles. While the syrup is still warm, heat your panini press to medium/high. Stick your balls of Rodes dinner rolls in the press and squish. cook until ridges are brown. Remove from press and cut down the middle with a knife. It's not as hard as you might think, as the outsides of both sides are crunchy and the inside is still soft. Generously spread stroop over entire inside of your waffle. And serve. This would be a great afternoon snack, just having the rolls and a premade batch of stroop on hand. Just heat up your panini grill, stroop and you're already 80% of the way there. Or just eat these for dinner like we did last night. Add hazelnuts, pecans to the stroop for a little extra crunch.