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Chocolate and Nut Sandwich
Take two tablespoonfuls of sweetened chocolate, mix with a little water and heat to a thick paste; chop fine a half-pint of English walnuts or hickory nuts, stir the chocolate paste when cooling, add the nuts, and spread thinly on narrow wafers. Let harden, then press the two wafers together.
A wafer sandwich rather than a bread one, and it lives or dies on the consistency of the chocolate paste. Work quickly once it starts to set.
- "Sweetened chocolate"This means a sweet eating chocolate, not cocoa powder and not modern unsweetened baking chocolate, which will be harsh here. Two tablespoonfuls is a small amount, on the order of an ounce; a semisweet or mild dark chocolate is the nearest modern stand-in.
- Half-pint of nutsA half-pint is one cup by volume, about 3 1/2 oz of shelled walnut halves. Chopped fine means fine — coarse pieces will keep the wafers from sitting flat against each other.
- Hickory nutsOnce gathered wild across the eastern states and common in period baking, they are now a specialty item. Walnuts are the intended substitute the recipe already offers; pecans, their close relative, taste nearer to hickory.
- The pasteAdd water sparingly over low heat, stirring, and stop as soon as you have a thick, glossy, spreadable paste.
- Stir while coolingThe recipe is specific about stirring as the paste cools; this thickens it so the filling stays put between two wafers rather than running, and it appears to help it set smooth.
- "Narrow wafers"Thin, plain, crisp cookies — a period tea wafer, not an ice-cream cone wafer. Plain vanilla wafers, langues de chat or thin sugar cookies all work; anything soft will go limp against the moist filling.
- Assembly and yieldSpread thinly and let the chocolate firm up before pressing the pairs together, then leave them to set fully. The recipe gives no yield; it will make a small plateful, for tea or coffee.
Sweet sandwiches occupy a whole section of early twentieth-century sandwich books because the sandwich, at that moment, was less a lunch than a form of hospitality: something small, portable and cut to a uniform shape for afternoon tea, card parties and receptions. Once the format was established, compilers extended it to dessert, substituting wafers for bread and confectionery fillings for meat and salad. The pairing of chocolate with walnuts or hickory nuts reflects what an American household might have had on hand -- hickory nuts were still commonly gathered wild in the eastern and midwestern states, and "English walnut" was the standard term distinguishing the imported thin-shelled Persian walnut from the native black walnut.