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Dessert

Vanilla Wafers

A crisp, sweet wafer made with butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and pastry flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓

Vanilla 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.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the butter until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar and cream until very light.

  3. Add the vanilla extract, then alternate adding the milk and flour, beating vigorously for one minute.

Bake and shape

  1. Spread the mixture thinly on the inverted bottoms of greased and cooled baking pans using a spatula.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until very delicately browned.

  3. Remove from the oven, cut into squares, and quickly roll into cork-shaped rolls on the tin.

  4. If they become brittle, return to the oven for a moment until soft again.

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. Milk + vanillatop 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vanilla + flourtop 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
Creaming it with sugar traps air and gives the wafers a tender, rich texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dough and, creamed with butter, helps make it light and fine-textured.
Milk
Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and keeps the dough workable.
Pastry flour
Provides the structure that holds the thin wafers together while they bake.

The step that matters

Baking until delicately browned. The wafers are spread very thin, so they can scorch quickly. Pulling them once just delicately browned keeps them crisp but pliable enough to roll while still warm.

“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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