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Dessert

Baked on Wafer Paper

A chocolate and almond meringue spread on wafer paper, cut into strips and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Baked on Wafer Paper

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meringue

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gradually mix in the sugar to create a meringue.

Make the bars

  1. Melt the chocolate and add it to the meringue along with the crushed almonds and cinnamon.

  2. Spread the mixture on wafer paper.

  3. Cut the spread mixture into strips, each 2.5 inches long and ⅔ inch wide.

  4. Place the strips on baking pans and bake until set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cinnamon + chocolatetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks, they form the airy meringue structure that holds the bars together.
Sugar
Mixed into the whipped whites to stabilize the meringue and add sweetness.
Almonds
Crushed fine, they add body, nutty flavor and texture to the meringue.
Chocolate
Melted into the meringue, it adds richness, flavor and fat to the bars.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Egg whites must be whipped to stiff peaks so they trap air, which gives the meringue its lift. Under-whipped or greasy whites will not hold their structure once the sugar, chocolate and almonds are folded in.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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