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Graham Wafers
Follow the recipe for cream wafers, using half graham flour and half white.
A one-line variation that assumes you have the cream wafer recipe in front of you. Everything hinges on that base formula and on the fact that graham flour does not behave like white flour.
- Find the base recipe firstThis is not a standalone recipe. Locate the cream wafers entry in the same book and follow it exactly, replacing half the white flour with graham flour. Without the parent recipe there are no quantities, no oven, and no time.
- What graham flour isCoarsely ground whole wheat, unsifted, with the bran and germ left in. Modern stone-ground whole wheat flour is the closest match; standard whole wheat pastry flour works but gives a smoother, less nutty wafer.
- Substitute by weight, not by scoopGraham flour is bulkier and thirstier than white flour. If the base recipe measures flour in cups, weigh out half the total flour weight in graham rather than swapping cup for cup, or the batter will come out stiff.
- Expect a slacker or stiffer doughBran absorbs liquid slowly. Let the mixture stand a few minutes after mixing and judge the consistency then; a thin wafer batter should ribbon off the spoon, a rolled wafer dough should just hold together.
- OvenThe base recipe, not this line, sets the oven. If it uses an old heat term, 'quick' is usually read as somewhere around 400-425F and 'moderate' as around 350F, but these are approximations, not fixed equivalents. Whole wheat browns faster, so pull the pan when the rims color and check one wafer for crispness.
- Roll or spread thinA wafer is defined by thinness. Graham flour resists rolling out as fine as white, so work between sheets of parchment and accept a slightly thicker, sturdier result.
- StorageWhole wheat wafers tend to soften sooner than white ones as they take up moisture. Cool completely, store airtight, and re-crisp for a few minutes in a 300F oven if they soften.
- Why it sits under Frozen DessertsIf this sits among the frozen desserts, it is there as an accompaniment rather than as the dessert itself -- wafers to be served alongside ice creams, mousses and sherbets.
Graham flour takes its name from Sylvester Graham (1794-1851), the American Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer who preached that coarse, unsifted wheat meal, plainly baked, was healthier than the fine white flour of commercial bakers. His name attached itself to the flour, and then to the crackers and wafers made from it, long after his own austere regimen fell out of fashion. By the time such cookbooks were in circulation, "graham" had become a straightforward pantry ingredient rather than a moral position, and a graham version of a white-flour original was often offered in exactly this shorthand way: use half and half, change nothing else. Ice cream was commonly, though not invariably, sent to the table with something thin and crisp beside it.