Waffle, Wafer, and Pizelle Irons

Waffles and wafers were festive delicacies baked on the hearth on flat, hinged, wrought, and cast-iron plates worked with long, scissor-action handles. Originally communion wafers, they were sometimes incised with pictorial references to saints or holidays; they were later secularized. Brought to the American colonies, the waffle and wafer irons produced thin, crisp, and meltingly tender Dutch hard waffels, English wafers, Swedish krumkaga, Italian pizzelle, and French gaufrettes.