The hometown of wafers known today is Vienna where the first official recipe was created by Joseph Manner in 1898. He laid the foundations for the worldwide success of this sweet by inventing the Neapoliter Wafer, a 5 layer biscuit filled with hazelnut cream.

Neapoliter became popular quickly in the Monarchy, and the first bakehouses offering wafers with different fillings appeared in Hungary after the turn of the century. Hungary’s oldest and biggest, still existing wafer manufactory is Ziegler Trade Ltd, a family business, which has been making wafers since 1953.

In Hungary you can buy unfilled wafer sheets almost in every store, so we usually don’t bother with making the dough if we would like to eat homemade wafers. The following recipe comes from my maternal grandmother who often made these wafers for special occasions. The filling is made of walnut brittle, which is creamed with eggs and butter.

Since these wafers contain perishable ingredients, they have to be stored in the fridge, and for this reason they are soft and melt in your mouth. Don’t expect them to be as crisp and dry as store-bought wafers.