SC - Help with wafers needed! (long)

[Mark.S Harris]

Well, last night I made my first attempt at making some wafers. It was
at best a mixed success. While the resulting product was fairly tasty,
it did not result in wafers, but rather crumbs. When I opened the
wafer iron, I ended up with pieces of wafer on the top grill and pieces
of wafer on the bottom grill. There seemed to be a lack of cohesion
to the wafer itself.

As I said, the wafers tasted good, although next time I will decrease
the amount of saffron to decrease the saffron taste some. I suspect
that the rich, very red saffron that I had from the Pepperer's Guild 
that I bought last year at Pennsic was stronger than the saffron that
the redactor felt his readers would have available. I've also never
seen saffron give such a golden glow to a food before. Maybe it was
the fact that since this was a batter the saffron could more easily
color it than than the other dishes I've used it in. 

I am hoping to serve these wafers at our event on Oct.24, so I
only have a little time to experiment and figure out what is
wrong. These are to be the dessert course, along with Hypocras,
dried fruits and nuts and maybe some comfits. I would be interested
in hearing of any Hypocras recipes and redactions that anyone
might have or recommend.

I was using my new electric pizzele iron with non-stick surfaces.
I started out with some almond oil sprinkled on the bottom surfaces.
I'm not sure this was needed and I managed to splatter some of the
hot (naturally :-( ) oil down by bare leg when I tried to move the
iron before pouring in the batter. I'm wondering if one of those
little spritzing bottles for oil might be a good way to get an oil
film on the iron. The iron has a light that comes on when you
plug it in and goes out at the right temperature. It then goes on
when you pour in batter and is supposed to go out when the wafer
is done. I believe this is simply a tempature sensor.

I am wondering if I needed to beat the eggs more? Or perhaps less?
I beat the eggs until they were frothy and then kept beating until
when I stirred the eggs and spooned them up, I could leave hills
and valleys in the surface of the eggs. I've never beat eggs
before. I was using a wisk and it took a bit longer than I originally
expected it would.

Perhaps I need to add more flour? Should the wafer be more like
a dough than a batter when you put it on the iron? I spooned this
onto the iron. It didn't run, and stayed in a blob, but I think
it could have been made thicker and still be spoonable.

The recipe I was using was this one from the "Food and Drink in
Medieval Poland". It is also give in the wafers-msg file in my
Florilegium. I notice that this recipe is considerably sweeter
than others such as Admantius', which I didn't think would be
in the savory category, either. I believe his had about a 1:3 ratio 
of flour to sugar whereas this one is closer to 1:1. Since these
wafers are for a dessert course, this was the reason I decided
to start with this redaction. I will try others later.

> 1 cup (250 g) double sifted pastry flour
> 
> 1 cup (250 g) superfine sugar (white sugar ground to a fine
> powder, called bar sugar in the United States)
> 
> 1/4 teaspoon finely ground saffron
> 
> 4 egg whites
> 
> 2 to 3 tablespoons (30 to 45 ml) rosewater
> 
> poppy seed oil
> 
> Yield: About 30 wafers, depending on the size of the iron
> 
> Before assembling the ingredients, which should be at room
> temperature, light a charcoal grill or old-style charcoal
> stove so that the coals have a good 30 minutes to heat and
> reduce to embers. Do not use self-lighting charcoal, since
> this will give the wafers a burned petroleum flavor.
> 
> Sift together the flour, sugar and saffron three
> times. Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff and form
> peaks, then fold them into the dry ingredients. Moisten
> with rose water so that it forms a thick batter.
> 
> Heat both sides of the wafer iron (or a pizzelle
> iron) over the charcoal stove or grill. When evenly hot on
> both sides, open the iron and grease it liberally. Put some
> of the batter on one side and let it spread. Slowly close
> up the iron but do not press hard, just enough to force the
> batter out to the edges. Turn the iron over the coals often
> until the batter begins to bubble around the edges, then
> press tightly and hold it firmly together, turning the iron
> several times (this will caramelize the sugar and cause the
> wafer to stiffen). Batter that has run out of the edges can
> now be trimmed off neatly with a very sharp knife. Once the
> wafer tests done, the iron can be opened and the wafer
> removed with the help of a knife. Repeat until all the
> batter is used. Perfectly made wafers will bake paper-thin
> and turn out a golden fawn color. Once cool, they can be
> stored several months in airtight containers.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.
   Stefan li Rous
   stefan at texas.net
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