Lately there has been no shortage of incredible food at Walt Disney World’s Epcot.
But even with all the stellar food at the International Festival of the Arts, I still craved some of my old favorites from everyone’s go-to caramel spot: Karamell-Küche.
Karamell-Küche has become a perennial favorite since its debut in 2010. And why not? It’s a charming stop in World Showcase’s Germany pavilion, and it serves some of the most crave-able sweets in the World. We love the Caramel Corn (and we love watching it be made), but who can resist their unassuming-but-oh-so-amazing Caramel Apple Cookie? We can’t!
And the Caramel Bacon Square is just crazy enough to work! Plus I can always rely on the Sea Salt Chocolate-Covered Caramel to satisfy my sweet/salty tooth (it’s been my on my must-eat list for, like, seven years, y’all!). Just about anything in their shiny glass display cases is delicious. (Well…maybe not the Caramel-Topped Chocolate Brownie. Too dry. Too boring. Too much else to capture my taste buds and attention.)
The menu is pretty self-explanatory, and since the goodies are all on display, you can study your options before making a selection.
Karamell-Küche Display
And there are so, so many things from which to choose! You will have trouble making a decision, we promise.
Karamell-Küche Stroopwafel
On this visit, I wanted to try an old favorite and some new treats!
Karamell-Küche Treats
Let’s start with my old favorite: the Chewy Caramel Bar. This gooey goody has a been my pick for a few years, and it’s pretty easy to see why. From top to bottom, this one satisfies my sweet tooth.
Karamell-Küche Chewy Caramel Bar
The base is a soft shortbread, and that’s topped with a generous layer of caramel. For a little textural contrast, the talented chefs at Karamell-Küche add walnuts and a touch of streusel to the top. This one is sort of sweet on sweet on sweet, and that’s why I love it so much!
Karamell-Küche Chewy Caramel Bar
BUT…I MIGHT have a new favorite here at the KK… .
For those who crave a caramel bar but maybe want some balance to all the sweetness, this one could be right up your alley! Honestly, I chose the Pecan Caramel Bar because I had never tried it. I did not expect to like as much as I did!
Karamell-Küche Pecan Caramel Bar
So the best thing about this bar is balance of all that caramel-y sweetness with subtle bits of salt. I found this in the crust, which is a little more dense than the shortbread of the Chewy Caramel Bar. I suspect there are bits of the lightly salted pecans in the crust itself.
Its darker color might mean there’s a bit of brown sugar in there too, although it wasn’t overly sweet. (Maybe our talented chef readers can figure this one out?)
Karamell-Küche Crust Comparison
At any rate, whatever they do to that crust is pretty freaking awesome! Besides the subtle saltiness of the crust, the caramel was topped with a generous smattering of pecans. If you look really closely, you can see they are lightly salted — and that makes all the difference with this one!
Karamel Küche Pecan Bar
Love, love, love! I was so surprised by this one, folks! It’s my new favorite Karamell-Küche treat!
Now, I know I rave about Karamell-Küche — and with good reason! Almost everything is awesome. But I did find one unfortunate exception on this visit. The Stroopwafel was new to me, so I grabbed that to go along with my bars.
Karamel Kuche Stroopwafel
It looks great. Thin waffle cookies, strands of rich caramel over the top, a thick layer of caramel in between. I’ve had this type of treat elsewhere, and loved it. So I was super jazzed to try it here. How can this possibly go wrong?
Um…shards of stale waffle and stick-to-your-teeth caramel, that’s how. It was not the pleasantly chewy treat I expected. Actually, it was more like a battle in my mouth, and that’s never a good thing.
Karamell-Küche Stroopwafel
Maybe I got a bad (old?) batch, but I wouldn’t recommend this one based on this experience. (We’ll try it again in a bit and let you know if it’s improved.)
So not everything is epic at Karamell-Küche, but if you stick with our picks (and, honestly, just about everything is great as long as you avoid that dry brownie and the crazy-crunchy stroopwafel), you’re good to go! And it’s still one of my highly recommended stops in Epcot. You NEED to go to here.
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Do you crave the “Caramel Kitchen” like we do? Confess in the comments!
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Thanks AJ. I always look forward to your articles!! My favorite at Karamel-Kuche is the Chocolate Caramel Pecan Clusters. They’re a must-do on every trip:) Wish I had one right now:)
The Stroopwafel is supposed to be place atop a warm beverage, such as coffee. That’s why they’re round and about the circumference of a coffee mug. The heat from the beverage causes the cookie to soften and the filling to get melty. Try it that way.
Wanda — Thank you! That sheds a whole new light on the treat for sure!
While stroopwaffles can indeed be placed on a hot beverage mug, we eat them without and have never had dry or crunchy wafers. I’m afraid you may have hit on some that were old. They usually ate really very good like most everything in KK!
I’m willing to bet the crust on the pecan bar has some sort of saltine crackers in it for the saltiness.
Not that it’s much of a comparison, but I had a Stroopwafel on an international flight, and it was exactly as you described. I had to put it in my molars to even get a piece off, and once bitten, it was in my teeth to stay!
I was about to suggest a gentle steam over a cup of coffee for the waffle too. But our favorites at this Epcot snack stop are the dipped fruit (strawberries and pineapple) and for my son, the dipped marshmallows.
Essie — It happens. It’s hard to combat stale baked goods here in Florida, thanks to all of this humidity. 😉 Thanks for weighing in!
Pete — Excellent point!
The chewy caramel bar is one of my favorites. I absolutely adore shortbread, and combined with the caramel the whole thing is amazing.
We spent $50+ on a bunch of random treats from here in January 2016. Pretty much everything we got tasted stale and dry! We were so disappointed. We’d picked treats from here before and didn’t have that problem. I wonder how far in advance they prepare their items.
We LOVE the Karamell corn from Karamell Kuche… so much that my daughter and I bought 3 large bags on our trip last month the night before we flew home; 1 for each of us for our flight and 1 to share right then, lol. I also love the Karamell Apple Oatmeal cookie – yum, yum!!
I treated myself to a chewy caramel bar after my race this weekend. It was a little messy- in fact it was stuck to the wax paper and the bag, but it was oh so good!
Sit the stroopwaffle over a cup of coffee like a lid for a few minutes until it starts to bow in the middle. The hot coffee melts the brittle caramel and gives a beautiful gooey mess of a treat!
They told me this trip, Dec 2018, that the stroopwaffel is no longer offered. Perhaps AJ was not the only one who didn’t enjoy one sharp and pointy without a hot beverage.