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Dessert

Cream Wafers

A thin, crisp wafer made from whole wheat flour, Graham flour, cornmeal, sugar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Wafers

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Mix the whole wheat flour, Graham flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Add enough cream to hold the dry ingredients together.

  3. Knead the dough with your hands until combined.

Shape and bake

  1. On a floured surface, roll the dough very thin.

  2. Cut the dough into oblongs, 1½ by 3 inches.

  3. Place the pieces on an ungreased baking pan.

  4. Prick the surface with a fork or grater.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10-12 minutes until light brown.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Wheat + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together681 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole wheat flour
Provides the main structure of the dough, with gluten helping hold the wafers together.
Graham flour
Adds a coarse, nutty texture and helps give the wafers structure.
Cornmeal
Adds a crisp, slightly gritty texture to the wafers.
Cream
Supplies moisture so the dry ingredients bind into a dough.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough very thin. Thin dough dries and crisps during baking, while thick dough stays soft and doughy in the centre. Even thickness also helps the wafers bake at the same rate.

“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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