A waffle is a dish made from leavened batter or dough that is cooked between two plates that are patterned to give a characteristic size, shape, and surface impression.

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.

[9][10] 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.

[15][16] Oublieurs/obloyers were responsible for producing not only oublies but also a number of other contemporaneous and subsequent pâtisseries légères (light pastries), including the waffles that were soon to arise.

[16] In the late 14th century, the first known waffle recipe was penned in an anonymous manuscript, Le Ménagier de Paris, written by a husband as a set of instructions to his young wife.

Not only were the newly fashioned ones rectangular, taking the form of the fer à hosties, but some circular oublie irons were cut down to create rectangles.

[24] For the first time, partial measurements were given, sugar was used, and spices were added directly to the batter: Take grated white bread.

[25] Alternately attributed to the 16th and 17th centuries, Groote Wafelen from the Belgian Een Antwerps kookboek 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.

Groote Wafelen, in its use of leavening, was the genesis of contemporary waffles and validates the use of deeper irons (wafelijzers) depicted in the Beuckelaer and Bruegel paintings of the time.

François I, king from 1494 to 1547, who, it was said, les aimait beacoup (loved them a lot), had a set of waffle irons cast in pure silver.

[27][28] His successor, Charles IX enacted the first waffle legislation in 1560 in response to a series of quarrels and fights that had been breaking out between oublieurs.

[16] 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.

[32] For instance, Menon's gaufre from Nouveau Traité de la Cuisine included a livre of sugar for a demi-livre of flour.

[34][35] At the same time, the French introduced whipped egg whites to waffles, along with lemon zests, Spanish wine, and cloves.

[40] Recipes had begun to spread throughout England and America, though essentially all were patterned after established Dutch, Belgian, German, and French versions.

[47] Antonin Carême, the famous Parisian pastry chef, is the first to incorporate gros sucre into several waffle variations named in his 1822 work, Le Maitre d'Hotel Français.

[50] Waffles remained widely popular in Europe for the first half of the 19th century, despite the 1806 British Atlantic naval blockade that greatly inflated the price of sugar.

[51] This coincided with the commercial production of beet sugar in continental Europe, which, in a matter of decades, had brought the price down to historical lows.

[57] By the mid-1930s, dry pancake/waffle mix had been marketed by a number of companies, including Aunt Jemima, Bisquick, and a team of three brothers from San Jose, Calif. – the Dorsas.

Brussels waffles[62] are prepared with an egg-white-leavened or yeast-leavened batter, traditionally an ale yeast;[63] occasionally both types of leavening are used together.

In Belgium, most waffles are served warm by street vendors and dusted with confectioner's sugar, though in tourist areas they might be topped with whipped cream, soft fruit or chocolate spread.

Variants of the Brussels waffles – with whipped and folded egg whites cooked in large rectangular forms – date from the 18th century.

It is the most common type of waffle available in Belgium and prepared in plain, vanilla and cinnamon varieties by street vendors across the nation.

[70] Flemish waffles, or Gaufres à la Flamande, are a specialty of northern France and portions of western Belgium.

[71] The original recipe, published in 1740 by Louis-Auguste de Bourbon in Le Cuisinier Gascon, is as follows: Take "deux litrons" (1.7 liters or 7 cups) of flour and mix it in a bowl with salt and one ounce of brewer's yeast barm.

Generally denser and thinner [citation needed] than the Belgian waffle, they are often made from a batter leavened with baking powder, which is sometimes mixed with pecans, chocolate drops or berries and may be round, square, or rectangular in shape.

Generally made from tapioca flour, its name comes from the cooking process, in which it is grilled between iron molds like a waffle.

[88] Gofri (singular gofre) are waffles in Italy and can be found in the Piedmontese cuisine: they are light and crispy in texture, contain no egg or milk (according to the most ancient recipe)[90] and come both in sweet and savory versions.

[91] Central Italian cuisine also features waffle-like cookies, which are locally known as pizzelle, ferratelle (in Abruzzo) or cancelle (in Molise).

The original version has a distinctive shape, with an oblong middle section (containing the hotdog) surrounded by flattened square edges.