Vanilla Wafer Cookies

This Vanilla Wafer Cookies recipe makes delicious, thin and crispy butter cookies that are perfect for family, guests and special occasions.

Homemade vanilla wafers will make your Banana Pudding special while saving you money on the store bought variety.

Your homemade Vanilla Wafer Cookies will taste fresher and buttery, too.

Because they contain butter.

Vanilla Wafer Cookies Recipe

• 2/3 cup butter
  
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  
  
• 1 egg
  
  
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
  
  
• 1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
  
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
  
• Additional sugar for sprinkling
  

Prepare cookie baking sheets and sugar tray.*

A baking sheet with sides works best with these cookies because the sides help to  prevent the cookies from browning too fast and too much.

Set the sheets aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Set it aside.

Cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until it is light.

Stir in the vanilla extract.

Add the egg and milk and beat until it is light and fluffy.

Gently fold in the flour mixture until it is mixed in well.

Do not overbeat when adding the flour.

This will assure your cookies are very tender.

Place a level teaspoon of batter 1 1/2 inch apart onto the cookie baking sheet.

Bake the Vanillas 12 to 15 minutes in a 350F. pre-heated oven until the vanilla wafer cookies are very lightly browned around the edges. 

Remove the cookies from the oven and let the pan set about 5 minutes.


With a metal spatula, gently lift the cookies from the baking sheet and place them on a  prepared sugar tray to finish cooling.

Slightly lift the parchment paper and gently peel the cookies off the paper and place them in the bed of sugar

Sift a light coat of sugar over warm cookies. Let them cool.

Store the cooled cookies in a container that is ventilated to keep them crisp.

Do Not place them in a container with a tight fitting lid unless you want them to be very soft.

Cut parchment paper the size of your cookie sheets and place in the pans.

Place a light coating of butter on top of the parchment paper.

Set aside.

If you use the same cookie sheet to bake subsequent batches of cookies you will not need to butter the paper again.

Prepare a large tray or platter by sifting a layer of fine granulated sugar on it.

You will be placing your cookies on top of this sugar after removing them from your pans.

These cookies are delicious with puddings, ice cream or just a plain glass of milk.

The above Old Fashioned Vanilla Cookie Recipe originated from the Bureau of Home Economics, United States Government Printing Office by Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes Revised.

The cook book was issued in May, 1931.

It is the oldest cook book that I have and I love it!

I added to (edited) the method of preparing the vanilla wafers according to my experience.

However, the recipe formula remains exact.

History Of Vanilla Wafers

In the late 1800s, a German-American confectioner named Gustave A Mayer, created a new vanilla cookie recipe on Staten Island.

Mr. Mayor sold his wafers recipe to Nabisco in 1898 who started selling the cookies by his name.

He called them Nabisco Vanilla Wafers.

By the 1940s, the vanilla wafers had become a major ingredient in banana puddings, so Nabisco made a wise decision and had a banana pudding recipe, using their own Nabisco Vanilla Wafers, printed on the outside of the box.

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