Rows of small, thin, round vanilla cookies, pale in the middle and golden brown at the edges, cooling on a black wire rack. — Small vanilla wafers with golden edges cooling on a rack.

Vanilla Wafers (1931)

Name: Vanilla Wafers
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: ⅔ cup butter, softened; ½ cup sugar; 1 large egg; 2 tbsp milk; 1¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour; 1 tsp baking powder; ¼ tsp salt; 2 tsp vanilla extract; 1 tsp butter, for the baking sheets

Jump to recipe

Vanilla wafers from a July dinner menu in Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes Revised, 1931: tiny crisp butter cookies dropped from a half teaspoon and baked until golden at the edges.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Oct 29, 2026

Recipe makes: About 12 dozen small wafers, 24 servings of 6
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 50 min
Total: 1 hr 10 min

Each sheet bakes about 10 minutes. With two sheets taking turns, the whole batch takes about 50 minutes; let the wafers cool on a rack before you store them.

Jump to recipe Read the story

Small vanilla wafers with golden edges cooling on a rack.

The story behind the recipe

Very small, very thin butter cookies flavored with vanilla, each dropped from a half teaspoon and baked about ten minutes until the edge turns golden, sit beside the strawberry ice cream on one of the July dinner menus in Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes Revised.

How small is a half-teaspoon wafer?

Smaller than most cookies today. The book says to drop the batter “by one-half teaspoons” and to allow room to spread. Each drop bakes until its edge is golden brown, and the book’s batch is enough, by our estimate, for about twelve dozen. The page they share, page 119, holds two more crisp cookies: Sand Tarts, rolled in waxed paper and sliced “wafer thin,” and Scotch Wafers of rolled oats, of which the book says, “When cool the wafers should be very crisp.” The Sand Tarts bake in the same moderate oven as the vanilla wafers, 350°F (175°C), and the oatmeal ones in a moderately hot one, 375°F (190°C). Here a wafer is thin and crisp, and the July menu sets these beside the ice cream.

The vanilla wafers went into the green radio cookbook of May 1931, which the Housekeepers’ Chat announced to its listeners that July, as What Did Aunt Sammy Tell Listeners to Cook in July 1931? tells.

Making it today

The batter is the book’s, amount for amount, down to the flour, which its list gives as sifted, so it is measured after sifting. Two baking sheets taking turns keep the oven busy, and a level half-teaspoon measure keeps the drops to the book’s size. Serve them as the menu did, beside a dish of Strawberry Ice Cream (1931).

Cream the butter and sugar, add the well-beaten egg, the milk, and the sifted dry ingredients, then the vanilla. ...

Ruth Van Deman and Fanny Walker YeatmanAunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes Revised (Washington: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Home Economics, May 1931), Vanilla Wafers, p. 119

Read the full story

Ingredients

For about 12 dozen small wafers, 24 servings of 6. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for about 12 dozen small wafers, 24 servings of 6.

Butter, softened2/3 cup
Sugar1/2 cup
Large egg1
Milk2 tbsp
Sifted all-purpose flour1 1/4 cups
Baking powder1 tsp
Salt1/4 tsp
Vanilla extract2 tsp
Butter, for the baking sheets1 tsp

Ingredients as written here

⅔ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tbsp milk
1¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp butter, for the baking sheets

Equipment

Two baking sheets
Mixing bowl and wooden spoon or electric mixer
Sifter or fine sieve
Small bowl and fork, for the egg
Half-teaspoon measure
Wire cooling rack
Airtight tin

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease the baking sheets lightly with the butter for the baking sheets.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
Beat the egg well in the small bowl with the fork.
Cream the softened butter and sugar together in the mixing bowl until light. Beat in the egg and the milk, then stir in the sifted dry ingredients until no flour shows. Stir in the vanilla.
Drop the batter by level half teaspoons onto a baking sheet, about 2 inches apart to leave room to spread.
Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack for about 10 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the centers have just set. Fill the second sheet while the first bakes.
Let the wafers stand on the sheet for a minute, then lift them onto the rack to cool and crisp. Let each sheet cool before you drop more batter on it, and grease it again lightly.
Store the cooled wafers in the airtight tin.

Nutrition

90calories per serving

Recipe makes: About 12 dozen small wafers, 24 servings of 6
Servings: 24

Estimated per serving of 6 wafers (24 servings) from USDA FoodData Central values for butter, sugar, egg, milk and flour.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

For half the batch, beat the egg and use half of it by measure.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

The ingredients and amounts, the 350°F (175°C) oven, the half-teaspoon drops and the golden edges are the book’s. Beating the egg separately (the book says “well-beaten”), the 2-inch spacing, baking one sheet at a time and the airtight tin are our choices; the yield is our estimate. Don’t taste the raw batter: it holds raw egg and flour. Contains dairy, egg and gluten.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.