Need a recipe for a waffle maker or just for something divine? Check out this Waffle recipe that will bring around many smiles!

Waffle is a dish made of leavened batter or dough that is baked between two patterned plates. The size and shape of the waffle maker can vary from the now traditional square to more intricate shapes like triangles, circles, or hearts, among others.

Its name comes from the 5^th century Frankish (People with Germanic origin who over the centuries became to form France) word, where “wafla” means “honeycomb” or “cake”.

Alternative spellings of the word spread during the years which explains why some strange looking words like “gaufre” in France and its recent derivates in other languages gofre, gofri or gofr is used today to describe the same thing.

The dish itself though has deeper roots that reaches back to ancient Greek times where people cooked flat cakes, called obelios between hot metal plates. Thanks to the simultaneous emerge of communion waffles which were made of the same ingredients, only smaller by size, obelios cakes became so popular that the Oblieurs guild was established in 1270.

Obloyers didn’t just make bigger water and flour mixed communion waffles but experimented with other ingredients too. Eggs, milk or wine along with other flavorings soon found their way into the batter and in the 16^th century the waffle has found its modern shape along with its leavening agent in the form of beer yeast.

Nothing has changed much since then, only we’ve been using baking powder instead of yeast, or at least in the US. Our tools to make waffles have got better so we don’t need a chimney and cast-iron plates to make them anymore but a purpose-built waffle maker suffice to do the job.

The industry standard of making waffles is between 110 – 180 second between 284 – 356°F / 140 – 180°C hot sheets but since most of us use a waffle maker, we can judge it by its color too. Once the waffles reach a consistent golden-brown color, we can get them ready to be topped with a myriad of ingredients, ranging from sweet to sour and sometimes including meat too.

The only thing, we have to watch out for (when making waffles), is to mind not to mix the batter too long as it can cause excessive gluten development. Although gluten is our friend when making leavened goodies, it can ruin the texture of our fluffy waffles by withholding water that creates denser waffles. So, mind not to overdo it because we can end up having things that we could ever chew and not everything can be thrown into the bin or soaked in hot chocolate.

Ingredients

2½ cup / 300g Plain flour
1 teaspoon / 5g Fresh yeast (substitute with 1 teaspoon / 4g Baking powder)
1⅔ cup / 400ml Milk
3 medium / 150g Eggs
4 tablespoons / 60g Butter
1 teaspoon / 5ml Vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon / 3g Salt
½ piece / 5g Lemon’s zest(optional)
½ piece / 10g Orange’s zest (optional)

How to make Waffle

Mix flour, yeast, milk, eggs, melted butter, vanilla extract, salt and optional lemon peel with orange peel. If yeast is used, let it sit in a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C corner of the kitchen until a couple of bubbles start to appear, about 10 – 15 minutes. If baking powder is used just carry on.
Heat the waffle maker up then ladle in the batter and smooth it out somewhat. Mind not to pour in too much as it will drip out as it expands.
Close the lid and wait for our favorite shade of brown to appear which should happen anywhere in the next 5 minutes depending on our waffle maker. Take the waffles out, repeat with the remaining batter or put it in the fridge for another day.