SC - Known World Cooks Collegium querie

[Martina Grasse]

H B wrote:
> 
> Back to the wafers file.  Since I had a half-pint of heavy cream, I
> decided to make a half-recipe of Adamantius’s version of the recipe
> from Markham.  They came out okay, but not like the first recipe (not
> that they HAD to, but...) ; they didn’t stiffen up much, and are still
> a bit limp (though of course I made them on a humid day), and they
> didn’t brown as well.  There are a few differences in the recipes,
> both below, which might cause the differences.
> 
<snip>
> Markham Wafers [1/2 recipe]
> 
> 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
> 1/2 pint heavy cream
> 3 large egg yolks, beaten
> 2 to 4 Tblsp. rosewater
> 1/2 cup sugar
> 1/16 tsp. ground cinnamon
> (1/2) pinch salt
> 
> Sift flour, cinnamon and salt together; set aside.  Beat the egg yolks
> and sugar together until light and bright yellow.  Add the cream and 2
> Tblsp. rosewater, mix thoroughly.  Fold the dry ingredients into the
> liquid.  If the batter is too thick, you can thin it with more
> rosewater until it is clearly a soft batter but too thick to easily
> pour. [I did add 1 more Tblsp.; actually about half that would have
> made the batters equivalent textures.]  [Made almost as many as the
> other recipe -- now how do I get rid of all of these?  Oh, yeah, give a
> bunch to the friend who gave me the iron.... ]
> 
> So right off, the second recipe has no baking powder, but generates
> PLENTY of leavening effect from steam so that’s okay.  It has a HIGHER
> sugar/flour ratio, so should be crisp, right?  But doesn’t have any
> egg whites, which set them and bind them, right?  The Markham says
> “eggs,” is there any particular reason you used only the yolks in your
> redaction, Adamantius?  I think I may try it with whole eggs
> sometime, but not until these first two batches are gone. :-)

I think adding whites (Markham says, "the yolks of eggs") would make the
final product even less brown and crisp. There may be some medical
theory involved for using only the yolks (whites are moist and cooling,
yolks are warming, that sort of thing) but I suspect that Markham, or
whoever actually came up with this recipe, just liked it better that way.
 
> I don’t know exactly what difference the fat from butter vs. fat from
> cream makes - though 8 ounces of even heavy cream has a good deal less
> fat than 8 ounces of oleo.  Might this make a difference in browning?
> Or stiffening?  According to _Cookwise: The Hows and Whys of Successful
> Cooking_ (does anyone else know this book?  The science of cooking --
> tons-o-fun!) an acidic batter doesn’t brown as well as an alkaline one,
> but sets better; don’t see anything that particularly makes either
> batter one or the other, since the baking powder contains its own acid
> to offset the soda in it.  Markham wafers didn’t seem to set as well or
> brown as well, so I don’t know that that makes any difference.

Hmmm. All I know is that I had more of a problem with excessive browning
with this recipe than with the type of problem you describe. The major
difference that I can see is that I used one of those hand-held devices
you heat over a flame or electric element, and not an electric wafer
iron, and you also added more liquid, I think, which I suspect might
have been an issue in stiffness and browning as well. This is
interesting because as I recall, when the Madrone Culinary Guild tried
this adaptation, they felt it was _too_ liquid, and they had to add more
flour. So now we've had all three possible contingencies, a la
Goldilocks, with the same recipe. Does your electric iron have a timer
and cut-off, i.e. does it decide for you when your wafer is done? I
suspect that with that recipe, they need, as an old chef instructor of
mine used to say, a little more sunshine. 

I'm curious about your decision to add more rosewater. As I say, some
people found this too liquid. Did you thin the stuff down so the batter
would run into all the nooks and crannies like pancake batter? When I
make this, it is too thin to be called a dough, but about as thick as a
thick cake batter. I can't see the stuff being effectively poured from a
pitcher, and I relied on the expansion in the irons to fill the
contours. 
 
> I am very curious, and will let you know how the Saffron wafers go when
> I make them -- they not only call for pastry flour (which should make
> for a tender, light-colored wafer -- thank you, _Cookwise_ !) but
> powdered sugar and even more of it, and egg whites instead of yolks or
> whole eggs.

By all means, give it a shot and see what happens, but my experience
suggests that it probably won't help much. I think they just need to
cook a bit more and/or at a higher temperature.
 
> Q3) Has anyone made these, and what did they turn out like?

Moderately crispy, fairly unevenly brown (not burned, if you're careful,
but slightly blotchy) and with a distinct flavor of fresh cream.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com