[Sca-cooks] Re: Wafers was Festival of the Rose: Menu

[johnna holloway]

One of the problems with wafers is that
the amounts are relatively small in terms of
a single recipe so starting to switch around the
types of sugars and flours can lend to various
problems with overbrowning and the texture
not being what is desired in a "classic" wafer.
Type of iron and heat of the iron can cause a wide
variance also in terms of the finished product.
And there is the problem that while the wafer fresh
off the iron may be fine, while warm and taste fine, it
may not taste alright in an hour or in 24 hours. You
have to find a recipe that has keeping qualities, as they say.
I found through the years that substituting brown
sugar for white sugar led to a wafer that more closely
resembled the modern sugar cones sold in ice cream
shops in both taste and color. Honey is more of
a problem to substitute. It's not a clearcut question
of substituting honey for sugar and leaving out 1
tablespoon of water per cup of liquid. Also substituting
whole wheat flours for the regular all purpose flour
creats another set of issues at the same time besides
the questions of sugars and/or honey.
You could start out and make 3, 4, 5 or 6 batches of
course and vary the sugar/flour mixes with each but that
starts getting time intensive for a meal that
requires perhaps a total of 2-3 dozen for an end
product. The desired outcome here is one batch of
wafers, not 1000 for a banquet or 100,000's for a
production line afterall.
Food and Drink in Medieval Poland by Dembinska with
recipes by William Woys Weaver does contain a saffron
wafer suggested by medieval Polish cuisine. Barbara
Wheaton's Savoring the Past contains Bonnefons 17th
century sugar and honey wafers. Neither, however,
perfectly fit the dietary requirements that were listed
here. Both as in the recipe I gave would require further
tweaking to fulfill the dietary restrictions.

Johnnae llyn Lewis  Johnna Holloway

Stefan asked about:
> > However, I'd be interested in hearing about your experiments making
> > wafers with honey or brown sugar.

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> You know, I've been reading this and wondering if anyone else has
> noticed that brown sugar is simply white sugar mixed with a small amount
> of molasses, and is probably more of an emotional palliative than an
> actual, healthier alternative. But then one could say the same thing
> about whole wheat flour (white flour also being wheat flour): it is,
> chemically speaking, more or less white flour with bran added. No, it's
> not made that way, but its composition amounts to it in most respects.
> It _is_, for most people's needs, probably a healthier alternative to
> white flour.> > Adamantius