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Dessert

Wafer Biscuits, Almond

Almond wafer biscuits made from Jordan almonds, powdered sugar, egg white, chopped almonds, and sugar, baked and rolled around wood.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Wafer Biscuits, Almond

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the paste

  1. Blanch, peel, and pound the Jordan almonds until smooth.

  2. Mix the Jordan almond paste with powdered sugar and moisten with egg white.

Prepare the sheet

  1. Heat a baking sheet and rub it with pure white wax.

  2. Let the baking sheet cool.

Shape and top the wafers

  1. Place portions of the paste, the size of a penny, four inches apart on the sheet.

  2. Flatten the portions with a knife until they are the size of a tumbler top.

  3. Mix chopped almonds with sugar and egg white.

  4. Sprinkle the almond mixture on the wafers.

Bake and shape

  1. Bake in a gentle oven (300°F / 150°C) until baked.

  2. While warm, roll the wafers around a piece of wood.

  3. Let them cool 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.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Jordan almonds
Form the smooth paste that becomes the thin, crisp wafer base.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the almond paste and helps it bake to a fine texture.
Egg white
Moistens the paste and binds it so the wafers hold their shape.
Chopped almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavor to the topping.

The step that matters

Bake until baked, then roll while warm. Wafers must be removed and rolled while still warm and pliable; once they cool they become brittle and crack. Baking gently avoids scorching the thin almond layer before it sets.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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