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Cinnamon Wafers
Sift six ounces of finely-powdered white sugar, place it in an earthenware basin with six or eight ounces of flour, half an ounce of powdered cinnamon and six ounces of melted butter and one well beaten egg. Mix all these with a small quantity of milk to a thin paste. Heat an iron plate very hot, rub it over well with butter, put on it a teaspoonful of paste, fry to a good brown, turn it and fry the opposite side brown also; then roll it round a small stick. Proceed in this way, frying the opposite side brown also; then roll it round a small stick. Proceed in this way, frying the paste and rolling it round the stick till all are done. Let the wafers get quite cold before removing the sticks.
A rolled wafer batter of the brandy-snap and krumkake family, written for a hot iron plate rather than a modern pan. The whole thing turns on working fast while each wafer is still pliable.
- The hinge: roll while hotA wafer stiffens within seconds of leaving the heat. Lift it, lay it over the stick and roll immediately; if it cracks, it has cooled too far and can be returned to the pan for a few seconds to soften. Cook one at a time until the rhythm is established.
- Weights in cupsSix ounces of flour is roughly 1 1/3 cups and eight ounces roughly 1 3/4 cups; six ounces of melted butter is 1 1/2 sticks. Six ounces of the sugar falls anywhere between about 3/4 cup and 1 3/4 cups depending on how finely it is ground, so weigh it if you can. The flour range is the cook's latitude for batter thickness, not a misprint.
- That much cinnamonHalf an ounce is close to 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon, which is assertive by modern palates. Half that amount gives a wafer that still reads clearly as cinnamon.
- "Finely-powdered white sugar"In this period the phrase usually means granulated sugar ground fine, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold today. Superfine (caster) sugar is the closest match; confectioners' sugar will work but gives a softer, paler wafer.
- The iron plateA heavy cast-iron griddle or a wide skillet over medium heat. If a thermostat is involved, 350-375F is the working range: hot enough to set the edges quickly, not so hot that the butter in the batter scorches before the center browns.
- ConsistencyAdd milk a spoonful at a time until the batter pours from the spoon in a ribbon and spreads on its own into a thin disc of about three inches. Too thick and the wafer stays cakey and will not roll.
- The stickAny smooth cylinder about 3/4 inch across, a wooden spoon handle or a dowel, lightly buttered. The instruction to cool before withdrawing it is sound; pulling the stick out early collapses the tube.
- Duplicated lineThe sentence about frying the opposite side is repeated in the original setting. It is a printer's error, not a second operation.
- YieldA teaspoon of batter per wafer from this quantity makes a large batch, several dozen at least. They keep several days in a tin but go limp in humid air; a few minutes in a low oven crisps them again.
Rolled wafers of this kind are among the oldest baked sweets in Europe, generally traced to the medieval oublie pressed between long-handled irons and sold at church doors, and surviving in the Norwegian krumkake, the Italian pizzelle and the English brandy snap. Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf's celebrated maitre d'hotel, put his name to a large compendium in 1896 that gathered European household and hotel practice alongside American dishes, and a recipe like this one, with its earthenware basin and its greased iron plate, plainly comes out of that older tradition rather than from a New York hotel range. The rolled tube was decorative, and it could be filled with whipped cream or ice at the last moment.