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Wafer Biscuits
Mix an ounce and a half of finely-sifted sugar with half a pound of flour. Rub in a small slice of fresh butter, and work the mixture into a stiff paste with the well-whisked white of a fresh egg and a little cream. Cover the paste, and leave it in a cool place for a short time. Divide it into small portions of equal size, and roll these into rounds as thin as possible, and about two and a half inches in diameter. Bake on buttered tins in a brisk oven. Time to bake the wafers, three or four minutes.
A thin, barely sweet biscuit of the kind served with cream, ices or wine. The whole thing hinges on rolling the paste thin enough and watching the oven, since three minutes is the difference between pale and burnt.
- Quantities in modern termsAn ounce and a half of sifted sugar is about 3 tablespoons; half a pound of flour is roughly 1¾ cups. A "small slice" of butter is imprecise — 1 to 1½ oz (30–40 g) gives a paste that rolls without cracking.
- The cream is the variableOne egg white and a light hand with butter will not hydrate half a pound of flour on their own. Add cream a teaspoon at a time until the paste just coheres; it should be stiff and slightly dry, not soft.
- "Brisk oven"Around 425°F (220°C). At that heat three or four minutes is accurate, but the biscuits go from pale gold at the edges to scorched within thirty seconds — bake one tray at a time and stand at the oven.
- Roll thinner than feels sensibleThese are wafers, not shortbread. Roll to well under 1/16 inch, on a lightly floured board or between sheets of baking paper, and cut with a 2½-inch cutter. Any thicker and they bake hard rather than crisp.
- Resting the paste"A cool place for a short time" meant a larder rather than a refrigerator. A short chill relaxes the gluten so the rounds do not shrink back, and firms the butter for rolling.
- Buttered tinsButter alone on a hot tin can catch at this temperature. Parchment on a heavy baking sheet is more reliable and the wafers lift off cleanly while still warm.
- Yield and keepingSeveral dozen 2½-inch wafers, depending on how thin they are rolled. Cool flat on a rack and store airtight; they soften quickly in a damp kitchen and can be refreshed for a minute or two in a low oven.
Wafers of this sort share a root with the medieval and early modern gaufre — batter cooked between hinged iron plates, from which the waffle also descends — but by the Victorian period the word had loosened to cover any biscuit rolled or spread paper-thin. The very small proportion of sugar to flour marks this as a plain biscuit meant to accompany something else: ices, fruit fools, cheese, or a glass of wine at the end of dinner.