We have become a household of the “eat it while you can because it won’t be around long, hurry they’re almost gone already” sort. That’s definitely how it was the day I first made homemade vanilla wafers. Now I double the recipe when I make these.
Homemade Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ½ cup sucanat or brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (this is a great recipe to use with your homemade vanilla extract!!)
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground whole wheat flour made from hard white wheat)
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- Cream butter and sucanat together. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scrape the dough into a pastry bag with a large, plain piping tip.
- Pipe nickel sized amounts of dough onto the parchment paper. (If you don't have the tools you need to "pipe" these onto your cookie sheet...I think just plopping tiny plops down with a spoon will work okay too.)
- If, after you are done piping dough, you have a big pan full of ugly, weird shaped blobs, you have done very, very well.
- Bake at 325° for five to fifteen minutes. (This is a broad range of time, but each oven is different. Check them after five minutes to see how they're doing!)
- Turn off the oven and let the cookies sit inside for a half hour or so to crisp up.
See? The ugly blobs spread out while they bake and make nice circle shaped Vanilla Wafers that your children will devour before their daddy comes home.
And two days later when their daddy hears about the homemade vanilla wafers he will say to you, “What? Vanilla wafers? You made vanilla wafers? I never saw any vanilla wafers.”
Or something like that.
I have got to remember to set some of these aside next time.
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Other snacks you might be interested in making: Homemade Graham Crackers; Crispy Cheese Crackers; Chewy Granola Bars
Oh these look good. Although I would definitely be the plop them down with a spoon girl! I am going to copy your recipe and link back here. I hope you don’t mind. Otherwise I will never remember where I saw this lovely recipe.
Definitely gonna try these!!! I love your homemade graham crackers. We always have some in the house now. And I just made another batch of your soft pretzels. Yum!!! Can’t wait for vanilla wafers. I used to live on them…but have stopped buying them because of what’s in them.
Love your blog :)
When I read the title to your post I thought it said “Waffles” instead of “Wafers”. As I looked through the pics I was incredibly curious how those little blobs would bake into the waffle shape! Maybe I should have my eyes checked… :)
I thought the same thing at first. Don’t feel too bad!
Oh these look yummy!
I’ve wanted a good recipe for these! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, thank you. I wanted to ask you if you had come up with a recipe for vanilla wafers. I am definitely going to be trying these!
Very creative…merry christmas to you!
sandy toe
Wow! These are disappearing like a June frost!!!
I will have to double next time, too. These were made because I am planning on making banana pudding, but they are almost gone already.
What I did differently:
I didn’t turn off the oven after because I didn’t have room to have them all in at once and they turned out fine.
I used a cake decorating bag and a decorative tip because that’s what I had.
I made the first batch way too small- guess I forgot what a nickel looks like!
Thanks for another great recipe!
Yummy!! I made these wafers yesterday. My family loved them. Thank you so much for sharing.
These were great! We used a Ziploc bag with the corner cut off for the piping. I can’t wait to bake up the rest of the batter.
Oh, dear. Mine spread over the whole pan. Any ideas what I did wrong. They just flattened out….flatter than any pancakes I’ve ever made. :)
Oh boy…I don’t know. The dough will respond differently in different climates. I’m guessing you might just need to add a little extra flour next time?
Try weighing your flour–a cup of whole wheat flour should weigh 120 grams, but because of humidity if you measure in a scoop it could be anywhere from one tablespoon to eight off.
Just finished making these and they turned out wonderfully! They are the perfect finger food for my 11 month old,(she currently has one in each hand) my 5 year old is snacking happily on these and some fresh fruit, and my husband has big plans for banana pudding and ‘nilla wafers. :)
Thanks again for all of your recipes and ideas!!
I just made these yesterday for the first time and my son said they were the best cookies ever! We also made the strawberry shortcake minus the whip cream and loved it! I’m excited to try many more of your recipes!
I’ve been wanting to replace all our store bought crackers so I can make sure my kids are getting healthier snacks so this recipe is exactly what I was looking for. My kids love Nilla Wafers so, I’m looking forward to making these for them!
I just linked to your recipe on my Friday Favorite. These are wonderful!!!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve been wanting to make some to cut that out of our shopping trip! YAY!!!
Do you have to use whole wheat flour? What would happen if you use white flour?
I’ve never made them with white flour, so I’m not sure…my guess is that they’d be fine!
I made them with white flour and they turned out fine. Taste almost exactly like the store bought kind. I cant say if they react different than the whole wheat because i havent made the whole wheat ones but i liked them
Awesome! Just made them (with brown sugar b/c I was out of sucunat) and they turned out terrific. I think next time I’ll try using 1/4 c. butter and 1/4 c. applesauce to see how that works. Thanks!
I was thinking about substituting applesauce for some of the butter as well. I think we will be eating these often and I hate to use so much butter in a recipe. They are tasty though!
Hmmm…mine burnt. Are you sure it’s supposed to be fifteen minutes? Maybe I made mine too small, too…but they spread out the size of store bought ones. I’m going now to make the next batch…I guess I will sit and watch them to see when I think they should come out…maybe 5 minutes…mine burned after 10. :(
Shucks, every oven is different…I’m sorry yours burned!
the rest turned out great! :) I just had to tweak the time a little…have no clue why, but half the time worked for me. :D
OK, 8 minutes worked great for mine! :) They were delicious! (and yes, they disappeared QUICK! and would have disappeared even quicker if I hadn’t guarded them! lol) THANKS!!! (oh, and I didn’t leave them in the oven, either…they got crispy without that step. Yay!)
I made them using graham flour–delicous! I didn’t have parchment paper, though and they really stuck to the pan. I bought some parchment paper yesterday and I’m going to make a batch before I go to bed tonight!
Awesome! I can’t wait to make these.
Just made these with my daughter after school, I did not have any whole wheat flour so I used white and they turned out great. I am currently trying to keep the kids from eating the whole batch at once. My husband said they were good and I think they would be good with afternoon tea or breakfast tea or after supper tea I do believe you get the point. The time was perfect for my wafers maybe the elevation is a factor for those folks who said theirs burned.I love your recipes keep it up
These are delicious!!! Thanks for the recipe. We all love them!!!!
I just joined your newsletter, and I am so happy I did. These cookies are delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
judy
I know these don’t last long at your house, but only my husband and I can eat them now (my 10 month old is on a gluten free diet for a while). Can I freeze these? Ziploc baggie okay?
Yes, these can definitely be frozen and will be fine in a ziploc freezer bag.
Wonderful!! Thank you. My husband will be thrilled, and I have an order of white wheat kernels coming on Thursday…:D
just made these and they turned out great!! about to mix up some banana pudding to go with them. also made the banana nut muffins and they are fabulous! can you guess what is ripe at our house?
I can’t wait to make these for camping this weekend. I love your recipes! I was looking at your snack list that you recently posted and I think I’ve made 3/4 of them in that last 2 weeks even. I was sick for 5 weeks and did little baking now I’m making up for it! My kids love love your poptarts too! Thanks for your blog!
May I post these on FB, with the credit going to you, of course??
Please do feel free to share the link to the recipe on your FB, thanks!
These where so so good and easy!
hi beautiful,cud u pl suggest how to replace the 1 egg here?i love vanilla as do my kids n what with using whole wheat flour,i can stuff myself n family ,with this delighful looking treat,guiltfree!thanks in advance, n regards,geet.
hi again laura,sorry to bother u but cud u pl suggest a suitable egg replacer for this grest recipe,i cant wait to get started!thanks,
I’m sorry that as I mentioned before, I am not familiar with egg replacers. I did an online search and came up with this which might help: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianvegan101/f/eggsubstitute.htm
I was wondering if you would know how to soak these? In the butter maybe? Any thoughts. I’m trying to make all my grains soaked.
I’ve not tried soaking these so I’m not completely sure, but yes, you could maybe add something cultured (like yogurt or buttermilk) with the butter and soak that way.
We just tried these for the first time and we LOVE them. My 7 year old said, “These are much better than the ones from the store”…so I KNOW we will be making these in BULK. Oh, I didn’t leave them in the oven after the 7 minutes of baking…just pulled them right out, took them off the cookie sheet and added the next set. VERY quick!!
Could coconut oil be substituted for butter? All these recipes look so good, but we have to avoid casein for most of us and gluten in addition for the littlest one.
Yep, I think that would work great!
I tried these and substituted sprouted wheat flour, coconut oil, and coconut sugar and they still came out great! I did have to flatten them before baking because they didn’t spread as much as the ones with butter would have but they taste so good! THANK YOU for your awesome blog!!! Oh, and I baked them for 10 minutes and it yielded 45 – teaspoon sized cookies. I used a level teaspoon per cookie.
These are fabulous! These vanilla wafers, your vanilla pudding recipe, several spotted bananas, and a little whipped cream are going to make my husband a very happy man. We haven’t had banana pudding in such a long time!!
Has anyone tried adding carob powder to make chocolate wafers? If so, how much should I add? Thanks.
I was wonderng the same thng about unsweetened cocoa powder…may just have to be trial & error. ; )
Thanks for another amazing fake out recipe! I actually used the recipe to make a crust for my favorite rhubarb dessert that I make once a year during rhubarb season. The crust recipe calls for crushed vanilla wafers and butter. But, I simply patted the vanilla wafer dough into the pan and baked. Voila instant crust without the added butter or work!
I don’t know what I did wrong, but my batter was too firm. I couldn’t get it out of the pipping bag, at all. :( I’m going to try this one again. I just need to figure out what went wrong, first.
I was buying a box of store bought nearly every week (& not very happy about it). These are MUCH tastier, healthier, & definitely more affordable! All my kids (11, 8, & 2) LOVE them…as well as the adults! I added some cinnamon, nutmeg, & ginger to the 2nd batch I made & am thinking about some cocoa powder this time. Thanks for such a versatile, yummy recipe! : D
I just made these, and they are delicious! I used 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup applesauce, and also subbed honey for the sucanat (just under 1/2 cup). They are so good, thanks for the fabulous recipe!
These just came out of the oven and the kids (2 and 5) are enjoying them immensely!! I used rapadura for my sugar! So yummy.
Thank you for the great recipe!!
I have them in the oven as I write- I went the uber lazy route and just spread the batter in a jelly roll pan. I plan on crumbling them to use as the base for mini cheesecake so may as well save time with the piping. I was amazed at how easy the batter was to make. I am definately bookmarking your blog. Thanks
I just made these for the first time. I even followed your recipe exactly, which is rare for me! I did use brown sugar, not sucanat. But mine didn’t flatten out at all. They remained in the “ugly blob shape” that formed when I “plopped” them down on the cookie sheet, since I didn’t bother with the piping. Any ideas what might keep them from spreading out? I noticed the dough did seem a little stiff/dry. Is that how it’s supposed to be? They do taste great, though. Thanks so much for the recipe, and in advance for your helping me not mess it up again next time! :-/
Maybe next time add less than a cup of flour – just stirring it in little by little until a nice dough forms. :)
Laura, these are wonderful! My 9 year old daughter, (VERY PICKY) who always wants me to buy Nilla Wafers (and I won’t), LOVES these, as do the rest of us! Thank you for making it possible to make her favorite cookie without me feeling terrible about what is in them! :)
This is definitely a keeper! Hubby kept going on & on about how ‘good these vanilla wafers are!’ He had a hard time not eating them. This comes from someone who likes his white flour, white sugar type cookies. Thanks!!! But thanks from all 6 of my children, too.
Can I use an egg substitute?
I’ve never tried an egg substitute in this recipe but I imagine it would work!