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Dessert

Rolled Almond Wafers

A sweet wafer made from butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, milk, and almonds, baked thin and rolled.

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 slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Cream the butter in a mixing bowl.

  2. Gradually add the sugar.

  3. Slowly mix in the milk.

  4. Add the flour and vanilla, then mix thoroughly.

Shape and bake

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

  2. Mark the mixture into 3-inch squares.

  3. Sprinkle with chopped almonds.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until lightly browned.

  5. Remove the baking sheet from the oven.

Finish

  1. Separate the squares.

  2. Turn them over.

  3. Roll 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. Vanilla + milktop 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
Provides fat for richness and a tender, crisp texture.
Bread flour
Gives the mixture structure so it holds together when spread thin.
Fruit sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the wafers brown and crisp as they bake.
Milk
Adds moisture that blends the butter and sugar into a smooth mixture.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and a crunchy texture on the surface.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma that rounds out the buttery, sweet flavour.

The step that matters

Roll quickly. Once baked, the butter and sugar mixture begins to set as it cools, so the wafers become brittle and hard to shape. They must be rolled while still warm and pliable.

Swap the almond

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

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

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