A waffle is a dish made from usually leavened batter or dough that is cooked between two plates that are patterned to give a characteristic size, shape, and surface impression. There are many variations based on the type of waffle iron and recipe used. Waffles are eaten throughout the world, particularly in Belgium, which has over a dozen regional varieties."Les Gaufres Belges" . Gaufresbelges.com. Retrieved on 2013-04-07. Waffles may be made fresh or simply heated after having been commercially baked and packaged fresh or frozen.
Etymology The word waffle first appears in the English language in 1725: "Waffles. Take flower, cream...." It is directly derived from the Dutch , which itself derives from the Middle Dutch ."Waffle" , The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary
While the Middle Dutch is first attested at the end of the 13th century, it is preceded by the French in 1185. Both are from the Frankish word ("honeycomb" or "cake").
Other spellings throughout modern and medieval Europe include waffe, wafre, wafer, wâfel, waufre, iauffe, gaufre, goffre, gauffre, wafe, waffel, wåfe, wāfel, wafe, vaffel, and våffla.:fr:Gaufre (cuisine)
History Medieval origins In ancient times, the Greeks cooked flat cakes, called , between hot metal plates. As they spread throughout medieval Europe, the cakes—made from a mixture of flour, water or milk, and often eggs—became known as wafers and were also cooked over an open fire between iron plates with long handles.
Waffles are preceded, in the early Middle Ages, around the period of the 9th–10th centuries, with the simultaneous emergence of / (communion wafer irons) and (wafer irons)."Les Moules à Oublies" , Gilles Soubigou, Conservateur du Patrimoine, Monuments Historiques – Lorraine"De historie van wafels en wafelijzers" , Nederlands Bakkerijmuseum While the communion wafer irons typically depicted imagery of Jesus and his crucifixion, the featured more trivial Biblical scenes or simple, emblematic designs. The format of the iron itself was almost always round and considerably larger than those used for communion."fer à oublies ", Gourmet Museum and Library, Hermalle-sous-Huy, Belgium
The oublie was, in its basic form, composed only of grain flour and water—just as the communion wafer was. It took until the 11th century, when the Crusades brought new culinary ingredients to Western Europe, for flavorings such as orange blossom water to be added to oublies; however, locally sourced honey and other flavorings may have already been in use before that time.Jean Liebault, La maison rustique, 1582, cité dans Raymond Lecoq, Les Objets de la vie domestique. Ustensiles en fer de la cuisine et du foyer des origines au XIX siècle, Berger-Levrault, 1979, p. 180.
Oublies (which formally received this name ) spread throughout northwestern continental Europe. Their spread eventually led to the formation of the guild in 1270."Oublie" , Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales Oublieurs/obloyers were responsible for producing not only oublies but also a number of other contemporaneous and subsequent (light pastries), including the waffles that were soon to arise.
14th–16th centuries In the late 14th century, the first known waffle recipe was penned in an anonymous manuscript, , written by a husband as a set of instructions to his young wife."LE MENAGIER DE PARIS" , Michael Delahoyde, Washington State University While it technically contains four recipes, all are a variation of the first: Beat some eggs in a bowl, season with salt and add wine. Toss in some flour, and mix. Then fill, little by little, two irons at a time with as much of the paste as a slice of cheese is large. Then close the iron and cook both sides. If the dough does not detach easily from the iron, coat it first with a piece of cloth that has been soaked in oil or grease."Gauffres iiii manières" , circa 1392–1394, anonymous author, Paris, B.N.F. fr. 12477, fol. 171 r The other three variations explain how cheese is to be placed between two layers of batter, grated and mixed into the batter, or left out, along with the eggs."Gauffres iiii manières " , translation by Janet Hinson, David D. Friedman However, this was a waffle / in name only, as the recipe contained no leavening.
Though some have speculated that waffle irons first appeared in the 13th–14th centuries, it was not until the 15th century that a true physical distinction between the oublie and the waffle began to evolve. Notably, while a recipe like the fourth in was only flour, salt, and wine—indistinguishable from common oublie recipes of the time—what emerged was a new shape to many of the irons being produced. Not only were the newly fashioned ones rectangular, taking the form of the , but some circular oublie irons were cut down to create rectangles. It was also in this period that the waffle's classic grid motif appeared clearly in a French and a Belgian —albeit in a more shallowly engraved fashion—setting the stage for the more deeply gridded irons that were about to become commonplace throughout Belgium."Wafelijzer, Brugge, 1430" , Gruuthusemuseum / Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage"Gaufrier de Girard le Pâtissier", Un Fer à Gaufres du Quinzieme siècle, H. Henry, Besançon, France
By the 16th century, paintings by and clearly depict the modern waffle form."Gemüseverkäuferin", Pieter Aertsen, 1567, Stiftung preußischer Kulturbesitz – Staatliche Museen, Berlin Bruegel's work, in particular, not only shows waffles being cooked, but fine detail of individual waffles. In those instances, the waffle pattern can be counted as a large 12x7 grid, with cleanly squared sides, suggesting the use of a fairly thin batter, akin to contemporary Brussels waffles ()."Het gevecht tussen Carnaval en Vasten", Pieter Bruegel (the elder), 1569
The earliest of the 16th century waffle recipes, —from the Dutch KANTL 15 manuscript ()—is only the second-known waffle recipe after the four variants described in ." Gent KANTL 15, volume 1" , Christianne Muusers (translator), Coquinaria For the first time, partial measurements were given, sugar was used, and spices were added directly to the batter: Take grated white bread. Take with that the yolk of an egg and a spoonful of pot sugar or powdered sugar. Take with that half water and half wine, and ginger and cinnamon. "Om ghode waffellen te backen" , Christianne Muusers (translator), Coquinaria
Alternately attributed to the 16th and 17th centuries, from the Belgian was published as the first recipe to use leavening (beer yeast): Take white flour, warm cream, fresh melted butter, yeast, and mix together until the flour is no longer visible. Then add ten or twelve egg yolks. Those who do not want them to be too expensive may also add the egg white and just milk. Put the resulting dough at the fireplace for four hours to let it rise better before baking it. Until this time, no recipes contained leavening, and dough could therefore be easily cooked in the thin . , in its use of leavening, was the genesis of contemporary waffles and validates the use of deeper irons () depicted in the and paintings of the time.
By the mid-16th century, there were signs of waffles' mounting French popularity. I, king from 1494 to 1547, who, it was said, (loved them a lot), had a set of waffle irons cast in pure silver. His successor, enacted the first waffle legislation in 1560 in response to a series of quarrels and fights that had been breaking out between oublieurs. As a result of the legislation, oublieurs were required "" (to be no less than four yards from one to the other).
17th–18th centuries By the 17th century, unsweetened or honey-sweetened waffles and oublies—often made of non-wheat grains—were the type generally accessible to the average citizen. The wheat-based and particularly the sugar-sweetened varieties, while present throughout Europe, were prohibitively expensive for all but the monarchy and bourgeoisie. Even for the Dutch, who controlled much of the mid-century sugar trade, a kilogram of sugar was worth half an ounce of silver (the equivalent of ~$7 for a 5 lb. bag, 01/2016 spot silver prices), while, elsewhere in Europe, it fetched twice the price of opium."The Price of Sugar in the Atlantic, 1550–1787" , Figure I, Klas Rönnbäck, Europ. Rev. Econ. Hist., 2009"Recipes | In Season" , July: Rhubarb, Gourmet Magazine, Gourmet Traveller, Adelaide Lucas Wealthier families' waffles, often known as , were "smaller, thinner and above all more delicate, being composed of egg yolks, sugar, and the finest of the finest flour, mixed in white wine" and were served "like dessert pastry."
By the dawn of the 18th century, expansion of Caribbean plantations had cut sugar prices in half. Waffle recipes abounded and became decadent in their use of sugar and other rare ingredients. For instance, Menon's from included a livre of sugar for a demi-livre of flour.
Germany became a leader in the development and publication of waffle recipes during the 18th century, introducing coffee waffles, the specific use of beer yeast, cardamom, nutmeg, and a number of (sugar waffles). At the same time, the French introduced whipped egg whites to waffles, along with lemon zests, Spanish wine, and cloves."Gaufres" , Les Dons de Comus, T. 3, p. 131, 1758 Joseph Gillier even published the first chocolate waffle recipe, featuring three ounces of chocolate grated and mixed into the batter, before cooking."Gauffre" , Le Cannameliste français, p. 111, 1751.
A number of 18th-century waffle recipes took on names to designate their country or region/city of origin—, and, most famous of all the 18th century varieties, , which were first recorded in 1740. These (Flemish waffles / ) were the first French recipe to use beer yeast, but unlike the Dutch and German yeasted recipes that preceded them, use only egg whites and over a pound of butter in each batch. They are also the oldest named recipe that survives in popular use to the present day, produced regionally and commercially by Meert."Meert, Depuis 1761" . Meert.fr. Retrieved on 2013-04-07.
The 18th century is also when the word waffle first appeared in the English language, in a 1725 printing of Court Cookery by Robert Smith. Recipes had begun to spread throughout England and America, though essentially all were patterned after established Dutch, Belgian, German, and French versions. Waffle parties, known as "wafel frolics", were documented as early as 1744 in New Jersey, and the Dutch had earlier established waffles in New Amsterdam (New York City).M.J. Stephey (23 November 2009) "Waffles" , TIME Magazine.
waffles, the most popular contemporary Belgian waffle variety, are supposed to have been invented during the 18th century as well, by the chef to the prince-bishop of .Bart Biesemans (16 July 2011) "Luikse wafel verdringt Brusselse wafel" , De Standaard."Waffles" , visitBelgium.com However, there are no German, French, Dutch, or Belgian cookbooks that contain references to them in this period by any name, nor are there any waffle recipes that mention the waffle's distinctive ingredients, brioche-based dough and pearl sugar."The history of the "Gaufre de Liège"" , gofre.eu It is not until 1814 that publishes a recipe in where brioche dough is introduced as the base of the waffle and (crushed block sugar) is used as a garnish for the waffles, though not worked into the dough. , the famous Parisian pastry chef, is the first to incorporate into several waffle variations named in his 1822 work, . Then, in 1834, Leblanc publishes a complete recipe for (hail waffles), where is mixed in. A full recipe does not appear until 1921.
19th–21st centuries