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Dessert

Ginger Wafers

A sweet, spiced wafer made with molasses, butter, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger Wafers

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Wafers

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the molasses

  1. Boil the molasses in a saucepan, then cool it down.

  2. Add the baking soda and water to the cooled molasses and mix well.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

  2. Beat in the eggs, then add the molasses mixture.

  3. Stir in the ginger, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg.

  4. Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough very thin and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until crisp.

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.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, dark color and a rich, slightly bitter flavor to the dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lighten the dough and help the wafers spread and crisp.
Butter
Provides fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the wafers turn crisp when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps it brown and crisp during baking.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the wafers.
Flour
Provides structure, so the dough can be stiffened and rolled thin.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough very thin. Thin dough dries out and crisps through during baking; thick pieces stay soft in the centre and may brown before they are set.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour. 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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