Not yet named food entry: Sweetzels Spiced Wafers (Philadelphia, PA)

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As fall shines through with its cool weather and vibrant hues ranging from arboreal tan to brilliant orange, from stunning yellow to fiery red, I open up my palate to non-chocolate flavors.  Any other time of year, I will not even consider a dessert if it’s not chocolate.  However the season makes me crave spicy flavors and autumn fruits, sweetened with sugar or honey or molasses to satisfy my sweet tooth.
A box of the spice wafers, image courtesy of PaGeneralStore.com - follow to order some
Since I was a little boy, Sweetzels Spiced Wafers have always played a part in my fall. A local Philadelphia tradition pushing over 100 years now, the Spiced Wafers are the company’s revival of a colonial Spice and Molasses Cookie recipe. My maternal grandmother would have boxes of them for our enjoyment, serving them with milk or, on the rare but fun occasion, apple cider.

The cookies are crisp with a slight hint of chewiness from the molasses that develops after the first bite. The wonderful spicy burn from the ginger yields quickly to the sweet and piquant flavors of cinnamon and cloves.  I would dare to guess that there is nutmeg and allspice as well in these crunchy dark mahogany disks to make these cookies so irresistible in the fall.  They are the paradigm of fall flavors – the time of year when sweet and savory are begging to be seasoned similarly.
Ice cream sandwiches, image courtesy of Let the Feasty Begin blog - follow for more recipes
I do enjoy them plain, right now of the box.  However more often than not, I’ll repeat how my grandmother served them to me and my brother, with milk or more decadently with cider. If I’m feeling gluttonous and industrious, I will get some ice cream that has softened – vanilla (always a good quality pairing) or pumpkin (my other soft spot for the fall) – and make mini ice cream sandwiches.  The best way to make them, if you have the patience, is to make them ahead of time and let the refreeze for a while.  The ice cream permeates into the wafer slightly and makes it more giving when you bite into it, because if you don’t wait (and I know from experience) the wafer shatters and it a bit messier to eat. (Not that that’s a problem!)

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