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Dessert

Vanilla Wafers

Vanilla wafers are thin baked cookies made with sugar, butter, milk, vanilla, egg, cream of tartar, flour, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the milk, vanilla extract, and egg, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the cream of tartar, baking soda, and flour.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture until a dough forms.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough very thin and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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
Creams with the sugar to give the wafers tenderness and a rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the wafers and helps them brown as they bake.
Egg
Binds the wet ingredients and adds structure to the dough.
Cream of tartar
Acidic powder that works with baking soda to help the wafers rise and stay light.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the dough.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the wafers together once baked.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough very thin. Thin dough bakes quickly and evenly, becoming crisp rather than cakey. Thick pieces stay soft in the centre and can brown unevenly before they are fully dry.

“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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