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Wafers
There are many ways of making wafers, but however made, they must be baked in the same way--that is, in irons made for the purpose, and called wafer-irons. These irons should be used as follows. Heat an iron on both sides over a moderate fire. Rub it inside with a little butter, put a tea-spoonful of the wafer batter into it, close the iron upon this almost immediately, and put it on the fire. When cooked upon one side, turn it upon the other. Cut away the superfluous paste round the edges, and roll the wafer on a stick while it is still warm. Put in another spoonful of batter, and repeat until all the batter is used. Keep the wafers in a tin box in a dry place till wanted. They are generally served with the sweets.
This is the method rather than a formula: Cassell's gives the baking technique and leaves the batter to the individual wafer recipes elsewhere in the book. Everything here still applies to a modern electric or stovetop wafer iron.
- The ironA Victorian wafer-iron is a pair of long-handled hinged plates heated directly on the fire or range. The nearest current equivalents are a pizzelle press, a Scandinavian krumkake iron or a thin Norwegian goro iron; a Belgian waffle maker has plates far too deep and will not give a wafer you can roll.
- Heat both sidesHeating the iron on both sides before the first wafer is the hinge of the whole operation. An unevenly heated iron sticks, and the first two or three wafers will tear when you try to lift them. On an electric press, let it come fully up to heat and sacrifice the first wafer as a test.
- "A moderate fire"For a cast-iron stovetop iron this means medium heat, roughly the setting that browns a pancake in a minute or so. Too fierce and the outside colours before the batter sets; too gentle and the wafer stays pale and leathery instead of crisp.
- TimingThe book gives none because irons varied enormously. Expect 30 to 60 seconds a side on the stovetop, and 30 to 45 seconds total in an electric press. Go by colour: pale gold, not brown.
- GreasingButter the plates lightly for the first wafer only. Re-buttering between every wafer builds up a scorched film that will make later wafers stick rather than release.
- Rolling on a stickThe wafer stays pliable only for a few seconds after it leaves the iron and then sets hard. Have a wooden dowel, cannoli tube or the handle of a wooden spoon ready before you open the iron, and trim the ragged edge with scissors while the wafer is still flat and hot.
- StorageA tin box in a dry place is sound advice and not merely period colour: thin, sugary wafers soften quickly in a humid kitchen. An airtight tin, never a plastic bag with residual steam in it, and they should keep several days.
- Serving"Served with the sweets" means alongside the dessert course. Modern equivalent: an accompaniment to ice cream, syllabub or poached fruit, or filled with whipped cream just before serving so they do not soften.
Wafers are among the oldest confections in Europe, related to the medieval oublie baked between long-handled hinged irons; in France the makers of oublies were organised as a recognised trade. Surviving wafer irons, church and secular alike, are often engraved with coats of arms, initials or religious devices that printed themselves on the batter. The same tool travelled across the continent under different names and survives today as the Italian pizzelle iron, the Norwegian krumkake and goro irons, and the Dutch stroopwafel plate. Cassell's gives the baking method apart from the individual wafer recipes: the iron was the constant and the batter the variable, so once a cook knew how to manage the iron she could work through any number of wafer formulas in the book. That a general dictionary of cookery assumed a wafer-iron in the kitchen at all says something about how routine the equipment then was.