The pastry hybrid that combines croissant dough with a waffle iron is a croffle.
A croffle is made by cooking croissant dough in a preheated waffle iron. The iron compresses the dough into a grid pattern while preserving some of the buttery, layered character associated with a croissant. Sugar is often rolled onto the dough before cooking, helping create a crisp, caramelized exterior.
Irish pastry chef Louise Lennox is sometimes credited with inventing the croffle after presenting it at a 2017 Dublin pop-up. However, an earlier 2015 Food & Wine video demonstrated the technique, so the invention story is not completely settled. The pastry was popularized in South Korea, where Seoul cafés and street-food vendors helped turn it into a social-media favorite from 2018 onward.
The name blends “croissant” and “waffle.” It is often confused with a cronut, which combines croissant dough with a doughnut, or a cruffin, which combines croissant dough with a muffin.