Waffle

A waffle is a batter-based or dough-based cake cooked in a waffle iron patterned to give a characteristic size, shape and surface impression. There are many variations based on the type of iron and recipe used, with over a dozen regional varieties in Belgium alone. Waffles are eaten throughout the world, particularly in Belgium, France, Netherlands, and the United States. Etymologies The word “waffle” first appears in the English language in 1725: "Waffles. Take flower, cream..." It is directly derived from the Dutch ‘’wafel’’, which itself derives from the Middle Dutch ‘’wafele’’. While the Middle Dutch ‘’wafele’’ is first attested to at the end of the 13th century, it is preceded by the French ‘’walfre’’ in 1185; both are considered to share the same Frankish etymological root ‘’wafla’’. Depending on the context of the use of ‘’wafla’’, it either means honeycomb or cake. Alternate spellings throughout contemporary and medieval Europe include wafre, wafer, wâfel, waufre, gaufre, goffre, gauffre, wafe, waffel, wåfe, wāfel, wafe, vaffel, and våffla. History Medieval origins Waffles are preceded, in the early Middle Ages, around the period of the 9th-10th centuries, with the simultaneous emergence of fer à hosties / hostieijzers (communion wafer irons) and moule à oublies (wafer irons). While the communion wafer irons typically depicted imagery of Jesus and his crucifixion, the moule à oublies 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. The oublie was, in its basic form, composed only of grain flour and water – just as was the communion wafer. It took until the 11th century, as a product of The Crusades bringing new culinary ingredients to Western Europe, for flavorings such as orange blossom water to be added to the oublies; however, locally-sourced honey and other flavorings may have already been in use before that time. Oublies, not formally named as such until ca. 1200, spread throughout northwestern continental Europe, eventually leading to the formation of the oublieurs guild in 1270. These oublieurs/obloyers were responsible for not only producing the oublies but also for a number of other contemporaneous and subsequent pâtisseries légères (light pastries), including the waffles that were soon to arise. 14th-16th Centuries It’s in the late 14th century that the first known waffle recipe is penned in an anonymous manuscript, Le Ménagier de Paris, written by a husband as a set of instructions to his young wife. 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. The other three variations explain how cheese is to be placed in between two layers of batter, grated and mixed in to the batter, or left out, along with the eggs. Though some have speculated that waffle irons first appear in the 13th-14th centuries, it isn’t until 15th century that a true physical distinction between the oublie and the waffle (wafel / gaufre) begins to evolve. Notably, while recipes like the fourth in Le Ménagier de Paris is only flour, salt and wine – indistinguishable from common oublies recipes of the time – what does emerge is a new shape to many of the irons being produced. Not only are the newly-fashioned ones rectangular, taking the form of the fer à hosties, but some circular oublie irons are cut down to create rectangles. It’s also in this period that the waffle’s classic grid motif appears clearly in at least one known fer à oublie – albeit in a more shallowly engraved fashion – setting the stage for the more deeply gridded irons the Dutch were about to introduce. By the 16th century, paintings by Joachim de Beuckelaer, Pieter Aertsen and Pieter Bruegel clearly depict the modern waffle form. Bruegel’s work, in particular, not only shows waffles being cooked, but also features a man wearing three waffles strapped to his head, playing dice for waffles with a black-masked carnival-goer. The detail of this section is so fine that 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 our contemporary Brussels waffles (Brusselse wafels). Earliest of the 16th century waffle recipes, Om ghode waffellen te backen – from the Dutch KANTL 15 manuscript (ca. 1500-1560) – is only the second known waffle recipe after the four variants described in Le Ménagier de Paris. For the first time, partial measurements are given, sugar is used, and we see spices being 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. Alternately attriibuted to the 16th and 17th centuries, Groote Wafelen from the Belgian Een Antwerps kookboek is 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 contain leavening and can therefore be easily cooked in the thin moule à oublies. Groote Wafelen, in its use of leavening, implies the need for the deeper irons (wafelijzers) depicted in the Beuckelaer and Bruegel paintings of the time.