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Dessert

Wafers, Ice

A light, sweet wafer cookie made with flour, powdered sugar, eggs, vanilla, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Wafers, Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix flour and powdered sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add beaten eggs and vanilla extract, then beat until smooth.

  3. Melt the butter and work it into the batter, then beat again.

  4. Gradually add the milk while mixing.

  5. Let the batter sit for 1 hour.

Bake

  1. Bake the wafers as usual.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the wafers together as they set.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor in the finished wafers.
Milk
Adds moisture that loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it brown lightly as it bakes.

The step that matters

Working the melted butter into the batter. Butter must be fully blended and not left in clumps. Even distribution of fat keeps the batter smooth and the wafers evenly tender and crisp.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, butter, milk. 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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