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Dessert

Ginger Wafers

A sweet, buttery ginger wafer made by baking a thin paste of butter, sugar, milk, flour, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Ginger Wafers

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ginger Wafers

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the paste

  1. Warm the butter and sugar slightly, then cream them together.

  2. Add the milk, ginger, and flour to make a creamy paste.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

Prepare the pan

  1. Spread a thin layer of melted butter on a baking pan and let it set.

Bake and cut

  1. Spread the paste on the pan as thin as a visiting card.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

  3. When done, cut quickly 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 for tenderness and richness, and greases the pan to prevent sticking.
Light-brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and its molasses flavour deepens the taste.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the thin paste together once baked.
Milk
Adds moisture to the dough so it forms a smooth, spreadable paste.
Ground ginger
Supplies the warm, spicy aroma that defines the wafer.

The step that matters

Spreading the paste thinly. A paste spread too thick will bake soft and uneven rather than crisping. Spreading it as thin as a visiting card lets moisture escape quickly so the wafers come out crisp.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, 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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