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Dessert

Almond Wafers

Almond wafers are thin cakes made with butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, almonds, dates, and eggs, baked briefly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Almond Wafers

Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Wafers

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Cream half a cup of butter and one cup of powdered sugar together.

  2. Beat in, very slowly, half a cup of milk.

  3. Add two cups of flour and half a teaspoonful of vanilla.

Bake and shape

  1. Spread very thin on the inverted bottom of a buttered dripping pan.

  2. Mark in squares, sprinkle with blanched almonds chopped fine.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven five to eight minutes.

  4. Lift from the pan with a knife, roll on the hot pan, putting one corner over the other, or one side over the opposite side.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

918Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
139 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Date1 date (24g) medjool66
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Almond + datestop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to give the wafers a tender, rich texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the thin wafer together.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps it cream smoothly with the butter.
Milk
Adds moisture so the dough spreads thinly and evenly.
Blanched almonds
Add nutty flavor and a crisp, toasted topping.

The step that matters

Lifting and rolling while hot. The wafers are pliable only while still warm from the oven. Once they cool they become brittle and crack, so they should be lifted and shaped quickly on the hot pan.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, almond, butter, milk, vanilla, egg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, almond, butter, milk, vanilla, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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