Wafer (cooking)

Wafer

Ice cream sandwiches prepared with wafers
Alternative names	Waffer
Type	Wafer

In gastronomy, a wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, and dry cookie, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring sandwiched between them. They frequently have a waffle surface pattern but may also be patterned with insignia of the food's manufacturer or may be patternless. Some supposed chocolate bars, such as Kit Kat and Coffee Crisp, are actually wafers with chocolate in and around them.

The word also refers to the special small round, often starchy flatbreads made for Western Rite celebrations of the Eucharist, including Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and some of the more liturgical Protestant churches. The word "host" is used to describe the larger wafer used by the clergy, while the term "communion wafer" refers to the smaller pieces used to distribute Holy Communion to the people. These holy wafers often have an image of a cross or the crucified Christ imprinted on them.

Special "spa wafers" (Czech: lázeňské oplatky, Slovak: kúpeľné oblátky) are produced in the spa towns of the Czech Republic (e.g. Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně, etc.) and the Slovak Republic (e.g. Piešťany, etc.).