Southern · Lowcountry · snack

Benne Wafers

Name: Benne Wafers
Prep time: 21 min
Total time: 1 h 6 min
Cuisine: Southern · Lowcountry
Ingredients: sesame seeds — 150 g; light-brown sugar — 170 g; unsalted butter — 85 g; egg — 55 g; all-purpose flour — 90 g; baking powder — 3 g; salt — 3 g; vanilla extract — 5 g; lemon juice — 15 g

Benne Wafers reads citrus 5.9, sourness 5.3 and richness 5.1 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Southern · Lowcountry snack, about 1 hr 6 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 3.9 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 4.7 / 10
Sour & Bright — 7.5 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 1.1 / 10
Rich & Fat — 6.2 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 3.6 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Citrus 5.9 · Sourness 5.3 · Richness 5.1 · Sweetness 4.3 · Salinity 3.6 · Floral 3.6 · Nutty 3.5 · Umami 2.7 · Fruity 1.3 · Earthy 1.1 · Herbaceous 0.6

What's in it (9)

sesame seeds — 150 g
light-brown sugar — 170 g
unsalted butter — 85 g
egg — 55 g
all-purpose flour — 90 g
baking powder — 3 g
salt — 3 g
vanilla extract — 5 g
lemon juice — 15 g

Time & effort: about 1 hr 6 min (21 min active) · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 336.9 kcal, 7.6 g protein, 26.2 g fat, 47.8 g carbs

Dietary: Vegetarian · Contains dairy · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

Benne is not sesame, or rather it is an older and different sesame. It is the West African landrace Sesamum indicum brought into Carolina on slave ships and grown in the Sea Islands for its oil, and it has a higher oil content and a deeper, more bitter, almost coffee-like roast than the modern commodity sesame sold in supermarkets. Anson Mills grows the restored Carolina landrace and ships it; ordinary sesame gives you a pleasant cookie that tastes of nothing in particular.
Wafers this thin are a Charleston party food — a whole tin of them sits out at a wedding — and the batter is a caramel more than a dough. Expect them to spread a great deal.
Toast the benne seed in a dry heavy skillet over medium, shaking constantly, 6 minutes, until it is the colour of caramel and pops audibly and smells strongly nutty. Watch it — the last 30 seconds are where it burns, and burnt benne is bitter all the way through. Tip it straight onto a cold plate and cool 10 minutes.
Cream the brown sugar and softened butter together until pale and light, 4 minutes. Beat in the egg.
Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt, then the vanilla and lemon juice, and finally the cooled benne. The batter will be soft and slack.
Chill 30 minutes so it firms enough to portion.
Drop half-teaspoons onto parchment-lined trays, spacing them 8 cm apart because they will spread to three times their size. Bake at 160 C (325 F) for 8 minutes, until the whole wafer is an even light caramel with a slightly darker rim.
Let them set on the tray 5 minutes before lifting them off, or they will tear. They keep two weeks in a tin and go soft in humidity, which in Charleston is most of the year.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Stewed Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella Salad — Other
Knafeh — Lebanese
Papanași (Fried Curd Doughnuts with Sour Cream and Bilberry Jam) — Romanian
Cucumber Peanut Salad — Thai
Panellets de Pinyons — Spanish · Catalonia

Keep reading: what citrus, sourness, richness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.