Waffles

The American waffle — a thick, grid-patterned breakfast bread cooked in a hinged iron until golden and crispy on the outside and tender within — descends from the Belgian waffle introduced at the 1964 New York World's Fair by Maurice Vermersch and his family from Brussels. Before 1964, American waffles were thinner, crispier, and closer to the Dutch *wafel* that colonial settlers had brought. The Belgian waffle — thicker, deeper-pocketed, lighter (often yeast-leavened or egg-white-lightened) — replaced the colonial version and became the American standard. Chicken and waffles (a combination of fried chicken atop a waffle, doused in maple syrup and hot sauce) is the African American expression that connects breakfast to dinner and sweet to savoury.

A thick, rectangular or round breakfast bread with a deep grid pattern (the pockets hold butter and syrup), golden-brown and crispy on the exterior, light and tender interior. The batter: flour, eggs (often separated — yolks into batter, whites beaten stiff and folded in for lightness), milk, butter, sugar, baking powder, vanilla. Some traditions use yeast instead of baking powder, producing a tangier, more complex-flavoured waffle.

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