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WAFER BISCUITS (another way)
Mix thoroughly two ounces of sifted sugar with two ounces of fine flour. Add a drop of oil of cinnamon and a drop of oil of cloves, or if preferred a little grated nutmeg, and the well-whisked whites of two eggs. Make the mixture into a thin liquid paste. Butter some tinned baking-sheets; put on these, four inches apart, portions of the batter, the size of a walnut, and with the finger spread them into rounds the size of the top of a tumbler, and almost touching each other. Bake in a brisk oven till they are lightly browned. Take them up when soft, and either roll them upon a round piece of wood or turn them to the shape of buns. Serve with custards or ices. Time to bake the wafers, three or four minutes.
A three-ingredient tuile batter, spread thin and shaped while still hot. The whole recipe hinges on speed at the oven door.
- Work in small batchesThe wafers can only be rolled while limp, and they set within seconds of leaving the oven. Bake four or six at a time; if a batch stiffens before you get to it, return the sheet to the oven for a few seconds to soften them again.
- "Brisk oven"Around 425F. Three to four minutes is accurate at that heat — watch for the edges colouring while the centres are still pale.
- Weights, and why they matter hereTwo ounces of sugar is about 1/4 cup, two ounces of flour about 1/2 cup, and the whites of two eggs run to roughly 1/4 cup. This is a batter that lives or dies by ratio, so weigh rather than scoop.
- Oils of cinnamon and clovesThese are the essential oils, still sold for baking and confectionery, and enormously strong. A single drop of each for the whole batch is not an understatement; measure by touching a toothpick to the bottle rather than tipping it. The grated nutmeg alternative is far more forgiving.
- Spreading"The size of the top of a tumbler" means about three inches across. Use the back of a small offset spatula rather than a finger, and aim for a batter thin enough to see the sheet through at the edges — thick spots stay chewy and refuse to roll.
- Tinned baking-sheetsButtering a modern non-stick or heavy aluminium sheet works, but parchment or a silicone mat is more reliable and lets you lift the wafers cleanly with a wide palette knife.
- ShapingA wooden spoon handle or dowel gives cigarette-style rolls; draping over an inverted cup or into a muffin tin gives the "shape of buns" — cups for holding ice or custard.
- Yield and keepingYield depends on how thinly they are spread; portioned as the recipe directs, in lumps the size of a walnut, this quantity of batter gives roughly a dozen wafers of three inches. They go soft with any humidity, so store airtight the same day and eat within a day or two of baking.
Thin egg-white-and-sugar wafers of this kind descend from the medieval and early modern wafer, baked between hinged iron plates over the fire. The French tuile is so named because it curls like a roof tile, and popular accounts also trace the ice-cream cone back to the wafer, though the lineage is not documented. By the time Cassell's was compiled in the late nineteenth century the wafer had become an accompaniment rather than a dish in its own right: the instruction to "serve with custards or ices" places it firmly in the era when moulded ices and creams were the expected close to a good dinner, and something crisp was wanted alongside. The distilled oils of cinnamon and clove called for here were standard grocer's and druggist's stock for Victorian confectioners.