Walnut Wafers

A meringue-adjacent drop cookie with almost no flour: the brown sugar and eggs do all the binding, so the batter is loose and the wafers spread thin and crisp at the edges. Weigh the sugar and nuts rather than guessing at cups.

• The weights in cupsHalf a pound of brown sugar is about 1 to 1 1/4 cups packed; half a pound of broken walnut meats is roughly 2 cups. The two level tablespoons of flour are correct and not a typo -- this is a nut confection held together by egg and sugar, not a cookie dough.
• Quick ovenThe book gives no temperature; 'quick oven' in this period is generally taken as somewhere around 400-425F. At that heat these wafers need only a few minutes and go from set to burnt very fast; 375F for 10-12 minutes gives more margin and the same crisp result.
• Mixing, which the recipe omitsBeat the eggs well, stir in the sugar until it dissolves and the mixture ribbons, then fold in the flour, baking powder, salt and nuts last.
• Buttered pans are the weak pointSugar-heavy wafers weld themselves to a greased tin. Parchment or a silicone mat is a straight improvement and costs nothing in texture.
• SpacingTeaspoon-sized mounds spread to roughly twice their diameter. Leave two inches between them, and bake one sheet at a time so the edges set evenly.
• Lifting them offLet the wafers stand on the sheet for a minute after they come out. Moved hot they tear; left to go fully cold on a hot pan they stiffen and crack.
• YieldAbout 30 to 36 small wafers. They keep a few days in a tin but soften in humid weather -- crisp them briefly in a low oven if that happens.