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Dessert

Rolled Almond Wafers

Thin wafers made from butter, milk, powdered sugar, flour, vanilla, and topped with almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Rolled Almond Wafers

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar, then mix in the milk little by little.

  3. Stir in the flour and vanilla extract until well combined.

Bake

  1. Spread the mixture very thinly on a buttered baking sheet.

  2. Sprinkle generously with chopped almonds.

  3. Mark the mixture into three-inch squares.

  4. Bake at 300°F (150°C) until light brown.

  5. Remove the baking sheet from the oven.

Shape and roll

  1. Separate the squares.

  2. Turn them upside down.

  3. Roll them quickly.

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 + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to give the wafers richness and a tender texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and dissolves smoothly into the creamed butter.
Bread flour
Provides the structure that holds the thin wafers together as they bake.
Milk
Adds moisture so the batter spreads thinly and evenly.
Chopped almonds
Add nutty flavor and a toasted, browned finish on top.

The step that matters

Roll them quickly. Once removed from the oven the wafers cool and stiffen within moments, becoming brittle and likely to crack. They must be shaped while still warm and pliable.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Cocoafits less well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

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