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Dessert

Chocolate Wafers

Chocolate wafers are thin cakes made with chocolate, flour, spices, eggs, and lemon, topped with currant jelly and vanilla icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chocolate 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 batter

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

  2. In a bowl, mix the grated chocolate, flour, cinnamon, cloves, and baking powder.

  3. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the powdered sugar until light.

  4. Add the lemon zest and juice, and beat for 5 more minutes.

  5. Gently fold in the dry mixture and the beaten egg whites until combined.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the mixture into greased shallow pans, about ½ inch thick.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes or until set.

  3. Once cool, spread a thin layer of currant jelly on one sheet and top with the other.

Ice and serve

  1. Ice with vanilla icing and let it harden before cutting into squares.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Egg whites are folded in to lighten the batter and give the wafers their airy structure.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and dark colour of the wafers.
Flour
Gives the batter body so the baked layers hold their shape.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks beat to a light, smooth texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to help the wafers rise and stay tender.
Currant jelly
Adds a fruity sweetness and a sticky layer that joins the two wafer sheets.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air from beating; stirring them vigorously deflates the foam and makes the wafers dense. Fold gently, just until combined, so the batter stays light and rises well in the oven.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chocolate, flour, cinnamon, clove, egg, sugar, lemon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chocolate, flour, cinnamon, clove, egg, sugar, lemon. 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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