Liège Waffle

The Liège waffle is a waffle from Liège in eastern Belgium. It is made by mixing large pearl sugar into a thick, brioche-like yeasted dough and baking it. Hard grains of sugar remain inside the soft dough, and the surface bakes to a caramel color.

Unlike the Brussels waffle, for which liquid batter is poured to fill the iron, this waffle is made by pressing portions of dough shaped into balls between the plates of the iron. As a result, the edges do not reach the four corners, and the outline is irregular.

Sugar dissolved into the dough and sugar left as grains

A dough containing eggs and butter is kneaded and leavened with yeast. In the recipe (ingredient proportions and method) shared by La Strème, an association of Liège waffle enthusiasts, the dough is first prepared in stages, then butter and other ingredients are added and the dough is rested again. Finally, pearl sugar is mixed in, the dough is divided according to the size of the iron, and it is left to rise further before baking.

Sugar dissolved into the dough and sugar left as grains play different roles. While the hot upper and lower plates imprint the grid, some of the sugar melts and colors. The remaining grains, meanwhile, add a hard crunch to the soft dough.

Simply adding the same weight of granulated sugar does not give the same crunch of sugar grains. The contrast between the inside and the surface comes not only from the quantity but also from the size of the grains and when they are added.

There are irons with 24 holes and other layouts, but dimensions and weight vary by manufacturer and product. The number of grid squares is not an absolute requirement for the name. Compared with the Brussels waffle, which generally forms a neat rectangle from a light batter, the difference lies less in whether there is a grid than in the firmness of the dough and the sugar grains inside.

The story of a cook responding to a bishop’s request

According to the origin story told by the Liège tourist office, an 18th-century prince-bishop asked his cook for something new, sweet and delicious. The cook is said to have responded by adding pieces of sugar to a brioche-like dough and baking it. The story places today’s characteristics—a rich yeasted dough and grains of sugar—in a scene of invention at court.

The tourist office also explains that the waffle was once flavored with cinnamon, and that pearl sugar made from sugar beets from the nearby Hesbaye region was used later. The ingredients also changed before the waffle became today’s dough with sugar grains.

Rock sugar in 1893 and pearl sugar in the 1920s

According to research by culinary historian Pierre Leclercq comparing recipes and newspapers, an early example attached to a name is a recipe left by the Brussels confectioner Léon Rotty in the late 19th century. It was also reprinted in a French confectionery magazine in January 1893, and it combines cinnamon and rock sugar in a thick dough made with milk, butter and yeast. Adding grains of rock sugar to the dough uses a different form of ingredient from the later pearl sugar.

According to Leclercq, pearl sugar that withstands heat and moisture appeared in the 1920s. A 1932 recipe collection from Verviers calls the brioche-like version with sugar grains a “hunting waffle,” while its “Liège style” uses crystal sugar. Gaston Clément’s almost identical recipe was called a “large waffle” in 1938, and its name was changed to “Liège style” in 1959. The form of the sugar added to a sweet yeasted dough and the name “Liège style” followed separate paths before coming together.

In 19th-century Liège, large waffles were also a sweet for St. Nicholas’s Day and the end of the year. Leclercq points to a connection with the rock-sugar brioche eaten in the same season and interprets this as how a sweet, rich yeasted dough came to be baked on an iron. This interpretation links the sweet bread eaten at the end of the year with the iron-baked sweet.

Workshop production and eating at markets and on street corners

Gofrino has published the history of its production, which is based on a family business dating from around 1928. This is a modern record that follows the continuity of a named workshop and its products. Today it still sells waffles with sugar grains, cinnamon-flavored waffles and others, so there is a range of flavors under the same town’s name.

On the streets of the town, at the October fair and in cafés, the waffles are eaten either warm or cold. Fruit or cream may be served alongside on a plate, but because the dough itself is sweet, the waffle is also sometimes held in the hand and eaten as it is. A single bite offers three textures: the softness of the yeasted dough, the sugar grains left inside, and the sugar on the surface that baked against the plates.

A waffle iron at Brussels-Central Station. Baked waffles and dough waiting behind them are visible. Photo: Romaine, 2019-03-12, Brussels-Central Station, Belgium. Original image / CC0. Reduced-size version from the source, with no further processing.

Waffles in which pearl sugar remains are also made by Manneken in Japan. The company carries out the mixing, fermentation, baking and packaging of its bagged products in its factory, and the factory also makes frozen dough that is supplied to its shops for baking there. Behind the sweets that are baked and handed over on street corners is a production system that prepares dough in bulk.

Glossary