Now a gourmet treat, the stroopwafel was originally a poor man’s cookie, made from old crumbs and syrup. If you have a waffle iron, click here for the recipe to bake your own. Read our review of Dutch Moon Cookies, gourmet mini stroopwafels.

SURNOLI or SURNALI

Surnali are South Indian griddle cakes, made from rice and coconut. There are no eggs or flour. They are cooked on one side only and emerge spongy and dimpled. cottony soft, dimpled dosas with a texture similar to pancakes. They are smaller in size, like “silver dollar” pancakes. Sometimes jaggery—a butterscotch-like sugar made from date palms or sugar cane—is added to the batter. They are traditionally served with butter or ghee and honey. Here’s a recipe.

SWEDISH PANCAKE
A pancake made with flour, sugar, milk, egg, and butter, which cooks up very flat—not as thin as a crêpe, but much more crêpe-like than a fluffy American-style pancake. It is typically served with lingonberry sauce. The pancakes can be served folded, as in the photo, or rolled into a tube shape. In the latter presentation, the pancake is rolled around a filling.

Swedish pancakes (photo courtesy Your Home Based Mom).

TORTILLA
A tortilla is not a pancake but a kind of unleavened bread made from maize corn or wheat flour. It is a staple of Mexican and Central American cuisine. The unrelated Spanish tortilla is a type of omelet.

URAD FLOUR or URID FLOUR

A flour made from black gram, a bean ground into a powder (black lentil powder can be substituted). Native to India, this flour is used for making various Indian dishes, such as dosa crêpes and idi cakes.

WAFFLE
A batter cake made from flour, milk, oil, sugar, eggs, and baking powder. The batter is poured into a waffle iron—two hot metal plates with a honeycomb pattern—and cooked until golden brown and slightly crispy. In the U.S., waffles are typically served for breakfast with toppings such as butter, syrup, and fruit. There are two main types of waffles: Belgian waffles (sometimes called Belgium waffles) and American or Western waffles.

• A Belgian waffle uses yeast in the batter, which yields a thicker, crisper, and fluffier waffle. Belgian waffles rise higher, creating deeper wells to absorb syrup or dessert sauce.
• An American waffle uses baking powder and baking soda—a faster cooking technique.

The waffle evolved from the wafer, a light, thin, crisp cake popular during the Middle Ages. Wafer irons were two metal plates connected by a hinge, connected to an arm with a wooden handle. Some had honeycomb patterns, like today’s waffles, others had coats-of-arms, landscapes or other designs. Before electricity, the iron was placed over a fire and flipped using the handle, to cook both sides. Dutch immigrants brought these waffle irons to America in the 1620s; when Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron back from France in the 1790s, waffle parties became a popular entertainment. In the 20th century, waffles became common breakfast food when electric waffle irons made their preparation easy. Belgian waffles, a dessert waffle, were introduced at the Belgian Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair.
 

A waffle served with Equinox maple flakes instead of regular maple syrup (photo © Equinox Maple Flakes).

Waffles can be served at any meal of the day. Add ice cream and raspberry sauce for a dessert, or serve Chicken & Waffles, with fried chicken—popular at every meal of the day (photo © Sweet Chick).

WAFFLE IRON
An appliance used for making waffles. Though available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, most every waffle iron consists of two iron plates, each with a honeycomb pattern, hinged together to form a unit. To make a waffle, the batter is poured into the bottom half of the heated waffle iron, the top is closed over it, and it cooks until golden brown and slightly crispy around the edges.

The original waffle irons were manual, held over the stove top to cook; the newer versions are electric.  Waffle irons are now made in a variety of shapes, including square, rectangular, round, and novelty patterns from snowflakes to heart shapes to children’s characters like Mickey Mouse.

The first waffle iron in America was patented in 1869 by Cornelius Swarthout. It sat atop a wood or gas stove. The first fully-electric waffle iron was made by General Electric in 1911, with a thermostat to prevent overheating.

Waffle irons are made in round or square shapes, as well as novelty shapes like hearts, flowers and Mickey Mouse (photo © All-Clad).

Heart-shaped waffles (photo © Ginny’s Brand).