Data on the first pans date back to the 9th century and were found in monasteries in France and Belgium.
Such pans were very expensive because iron was expensive. The cost of a pan was around 3 monthly salaries and therefore, if a family had a pan, it was a symbol of prosperity.
In France in the 13th century there was a separate guild of waffle bakers.
Around the 15th century, waffles were widespread in Northern Germany, Southern France, the Netherlands and Austria. Waffles were not an everyday food for the common people, but were intended for a sophisticated gentlemen’s kitchen.
Do you know how long the history of waffles is?
It goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks, who baked doughy pancakes in ‘obleios’ between two metal plates over a fire.
Modern-looking waffles only appeared in the 13th century, when, drawing inspiration from honeycombs, “checkered” waffle pans were invented. Waffles gained their status as a cult food in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, when the waffle recipe was cultivated and waffles were baked in every home.
Pans of divine bread (pans with carved designs) were mostly used on Sunday in church, monasteries, weddings and baptisms. In the pans associated with religion, the drawings usually depicted scenes related to the Bible.
Floral patterns depicting various animals were often used for weddings and baptisms. Family pans had carved coats of arms.
There is little information about the history of waffle pans in Latvia. More commonly known as “hunger pancakes”. Perhaps the name comes from the recipes where flour and water were used, because there was nothing else.. Although it has nothing in common with the recipes of the beginning of waffles, where neither milk, nor eggs, nor red wine were missing in church pancake recipes.
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