What Makes a Great Vanilla Wafer?
Having filled our cupboards and lunchboxes for decades, vanilla wafers are a versatile household mainstay that can serve as a sweet treat or afternoon snack. Great for satisfying those in-between meal cravings, or even as an unexpected addition to your banana cream pie recipe, these nostalgic morsels have become a family favorite. The best vanilla wafers have a pleasant golden brown color, ranging anywhere from a light hue to a dark brown. A great vanilla wafer will have a distinct toasted aroma with notes of butter, vanilla, and other classic cookie ingredients like sugar and eggs. Sweetness is the predominant taste in a high-quality vanilla wafer, followed by a subtle saltiness. The sweetness should be identifiable and present without being overpowering, while the salt should be more secondary. There should also be a discernable vanilla flavoring that doesn’t get lost among the combination of smells and textures. We tested the wafers by dunking them in milk for about 3 seconds—just l
