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Dessert

Chocolate Wafers

A chocolate sponge-style cake baked in shallow pans, layered with currant jelly and iced with vanilla icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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.

  6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the chocolate mixture.

  7. Pour the batter into greased shallow pans, about ½ inch thick.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake for 30 minutes or until set.

  2. Once cool, spread currant jelly on one layer and top with another layer.

  3. 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
Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air, giving the wafers lift and a light, delicate crumb.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and deep color of the wafers.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks become light and thick when beaten.
Flour
Gives the batter enough structure to hold its shape as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven to help the batter rise slightly.
Currant jelly
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture between the two layers.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the batter. Whipped whites hold air that gives the wafers their lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out that air, while gentle folding keeps the batter light and airy.

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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