Food in the form of wafers is not something that you see every day. It definitely projects a sense of elegance, finesse and lightness. And it can cover all aspects of food, from starters to main dishes to deserts.
Wafer starters
As per the customs, first for the starters. I saw paper thin wafers made from leftover bread at a high end restaurant. Super thin, translucent and sooo classy! Naturally I wanted to recreate them. Searching the internet did not result in anything useful – probably this is too niche to be easily found. I guess some bread crumbs and bread powder are mashed in water with salt and herbs. The mix is then dried and voila! The resulting wafers should be super thin and almost translucent at places.
So I decided to test this theory. Soaking the bread crumbs in water was easy. Boiling it a couple of times and drying it in the oven was not difficult either. And the result looked really promising. The only problem was that the next three attempts were a total failure. So I set down, did a little thinking and on the fifth try it worked like a charm. Just look at the pictures!
The trick is to use the right proportions – about 1:10 ratio of bread crumbs and water is the right one. Just heat it up in a microwave oven and you should end up with a thick, pudding-like paste – that is the consistency that you want, not anything more fluid. Add spices like salt, herbs, garlic, chili or whatever comes to your mind. Mix well and spread on a baking paper about 1-2 mm thin. It looks thick, but if you consider that around 90% of the paste is water, you can imagine the final thickness. Dry in an oven at around 85 °C until dry – usually 1-2 hours. Finished – serve as an appetizer with a nice cocktail or a cold beer.
Pumpkin wafers
Super sweet, a little sour and pumpkin tasting. A perfect snack for the autumn. All you need is a Hokkaido pumpkin and some powdered sugar. Peel, clean and dice the pumpkin. Cook it for 30 minutes, drain the water and squash it to a pulp. If the pulp is still fairly liquid, cook it some more to get a nice thick paste. Spread the paste on baking paper as thinly as possible, 1 millimeter thick is ideal. Dry the paste, preferably in the oven at 50 C for 3 hours. Let it cool down and cut it into pieces. Generously powder with powdered sugar and you are ready to go. You can also use other pumpkins, like Japanese chestnut pumpkin – perfect.
Zucchini paper
It is not exactly wafer, but the idea is just too good to pass. It is still thin, bendy and above all deliciously versatile. I saw the recipe on Instagram and instantly knewI have to try it out. The recipe is simple, just cut the zuchini, lay them out on a pan, cover with salt, a drop of olive oil and grated cheese and parmigiano. Bake at 250 °C for 15 minutes. Watch out for the thin edges or thin slices in the middle parts, since there the zucchini can easily burn before the cheese is gratinated. If something does burn, you can easily just cut it off. The zucchini paper is ideal for making sandwiches with ricotta, as seen on the instagram post, but it is also perfect as a topping for bread or a base for fresh vegetables like tomatoes or peppers.
Apple chips
Actually this is just dried apple, but thinly sliced and super crispy. Probably you saw something similar in stores, but surprisingly it is super easy to make at home. The only hard part is to evenly cut the apple slices. There are three options for slicing. Firstly, the simplest one – just use a good knife and cut away. This is relatively simple to execute, but thickness of slices can vary widely and thus it is hard to dry them evenly. The next option is a grater – this ensures even slices, but you need to have one. The third, and in my opinion the most convenient one is a simple potato peeler. Just remove the apple core and slice it with a potato peeler. When you have the slices, just dry them in the oven at around 85°C or in a fruit dryer. The chips are great as a healthy snack or a decoration for sweets like apple cream.
