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Dessert

Sugar Wafers

A sweet baked wafer made from sugar, butter, sour cream, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, flour, vanilla, and sprinkled with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sugar 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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the sour cream, eggs, baking soda dissolved in a little cream, cream of tartar, and vanilla. Mix well.

  4. Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough into thin sheets.

  2. Sprinkle with sugar and cut into small cakes.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until lightly golden.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the wafers richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the wafers brown and crisp as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar and sour cream acidity to lift and lighten the dough.
Cream of tartar
Acidic partner to the baking soda, producing gas for rise and a lighter texture.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderizes the dough.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough into thin sheets. Thin sheets are needed so the wafers bake through and turn crisp rather than soft or cakey. Uneven thickness gives uneven browning, so the sheets should be rolled to a consistent, even thinness.

Swap the vanilla

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream, egg, 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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