“A moment of joy and pleasure in a cookie,” is what Erin Heringer, co-owner of Caramel Cookie Waffles, hopes one experiences when one bites into a Caramel Cookie Waffle, especially during the holiday season. For 40 years, caramel cookie waffles, or stroopwafels, have been baked in Billings. The bakery cafe was opened in 1987 by Jan and Judy Boogman.
The original oven, with eight cast-iron waffle skillets came from Gouda, Holland. To get it into the shop, the front windows had to be removed. Over the years, until two years ago, cookies were baked in the early morning to avoid interfering with the bakery cafe's operations.
When the Boogmans decided to retire, COVID created what Jan called a “speed bumps,” delaying their departure from the bakery cafe. Finally, two years ago, they could hang their aprons after selling their business to Lilly Corning Thompson, Erin Heringer, and Katie Edwards. The Boogmans no longer had to get up early and work long hours, especially during the holiday season when “business quadrupled.”
Right after they left the business, they did some traveling to visit their daughter in the Netherlands, but after all these years, Jan became an American citizen. “We never came around to it, so I kept myself busy for almost a year,” Jan shares of studying for the naturalization exam. In February, the ceremony took place in Missoula, followed by a family celebration.
Right after leaving their business, “I mentally was still pretty much involved. That took at least almost half a year for those feelings to go away. But I still feel responsible, and I think about them a lot on different holidays,” Jan says.
These days Judy visits about once a month while Jan has stayed mostly away, and he says, “but it doesn’t mean that I don’t like them. I would feel I have to jump over the counter and do something,” he admits.
The oven that Jan has always called “Jimbo” is no longer operating. The new oven is now called “Sweet Pete.” It earned its name from Peter Yeagen’s help in refurbishing an old, damaged oven that had been stored for years. The new space allows a team of nine to work all day, without needing to stop production as they did in the bakery cafe.
Production manager, Sam Biesheuvel says, “We have three units up here that we can go in between.”“We’re really expanding as far as business, as far as having our cookies everywhere.”
In the midtown shop, General Manager Sarah Rehn says, “We got a big walk-in cooler now that helps with extra space for storage. We did a little rearranging out front, and there is a better flow of traffic. We rearranged the dessert coolers so when you order your lunch, you can walk through the line, and you can see all the desserts before you get to the register.”
Mostly, there is more space behind the counter, but Sarah shares, “I do not miss the heat walking in at 6:00 a.m. and it being a hundred degrees in here. I will say we’ve had the best two summers now. Without that, I do miss the nostalgia of it, the clicking of the machine.”
Even without the machine's beat, the bakery continues its rhythm of executing the same recipes Judy established. “We are fortunate enough to keep all the original recipes, and we haven’t changed anything in them,” Sarah says. However, she does try to improvise and use up ingredients that might be available in the house.
Soup is still made first thing in the morning, with the chicken boiling in a large soup pot on the burner to the right behind the counter. The Tomato Basil soup continues to be a customer favorite, while the chicken curry salad is still made with a delicate touch of curry.
“I do have all of Judy’s original quiche recipes, which I made quite frequently. I have added a few new ones of my own,” Sarah shares. “Sometimes I just make them up on the fly if I have some leftover ingredients from our panini.”
Paninis were added to the menu five years ago. “They found an old panini grill in the back and decided to bring it out and put it to use after all these years.” On Fridays, “we do the Dutch toasty, which I call the glorified grilled cheese with Gouda and Swiss and tomato and mustard and spinach, and you dip that in your tomato soup, and you’ve got it made.”
These days, baker Makiko Yamshita Hunt continues baking pastries, cookies, cakes, and pies. Joining the team just before Boogman’s retirement, she has learned all of Judy’s recipes. “I just follow the recipe and don’t do any changes at all, and just make it, making the recipes and following the instructions,” Makiko says. “Baking is like math. You follow the formula, and there is only one answer.”
The one answer has led to sunflower bread, Dutch butter almond cake, lunch pastries, cheesecakes, Haystack cookies, and so much more, alongside the stroopwafels. For nearly 40 years, Caramel Cookie Waffles has continued to bring moments of joy and pleasure especially during the holiday season.
