Sad news. Nabisco's Famous Chocolate Wafers were discontinued so we've had to say goodbye to one of our old favorite desserts, the Original Famous Chocolate Wafer Refrigerator Roll. I am surprised they discontinued the wafers seeing as how popular the icebox dessert was, but that's what happened. They've gone the way of Brown Edge Wafers. The good news is there are homemade Nabisco chocolate wafers recipes you can use instead.
Best Homemade Chocolate Wafers Recipe
The Nabisco wafers were so convenient for pie crusts and such, but they were expensive. Luckily there there were decent homemade versions including one originally from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. I used that for a while, then switched to a new one from King Arthur which is in the recipe card. It's the best in my opinion because the cookies taste great and they soften in whipped cream. The catch is you have to make sure you get them thin enough. Mine tend to come out a little thicker.
Weight of Dutch Cocoa Powder and Dryness
A reader mentioned her dough made with the old version of the recipe was very dry. This could be for a number of reasons, but I am guessing it had something to do with the cocoa powder. Some brands are denser and weigh more than others. Natural cocoa powder such as Hershey's weighs 5 tablespoons per gram while most Dutch processed cocoa powder weighs 6 grams per tablespoon. And to make things more complicated, some brands say they weigh 6 grams per tablespoon, but actually weigh 7 grams. This can cause a lot of problems in a recipe with ¾ cup cocoa powder. If a recipe doesn't give you a weight for cocoa powder and/or you don't have a scale, put it through a sieve or sift it, then measure with a very light hand rather than scooping it directly from the container. And if a recipe calls for ¼ cup, use the actual measuring cup rather than individual tablespoons to measure.
Black Cocoa
Another thing to consider when making chocolate wafers is whether or not you want to use black cocoa powder. Black cocoa powder is dark Dutch process cocoa powder with a flavor similar to the cocoa in Nabisco Oreos. In my experience, it's a cocoa that's best mixed in with other Dutch process cocoa rather than used by itself. For these recipes, you can replace 1 or 2 tablespoons of your usual Dutch cocoa with some black if you happen to have some. I am currently making my way through a bag of Modern Mountain, and it's pretty good.
How To Make Famous Wafer Cake Icebox Cake
After writing this I realized some people might not actually know how to make a Famous Wafer Icebox Cake. Just in case all of the recipes for making chocolate wafer icebox cakes disappear, here's a quick rundown on how to do it. This is for a mini cake using 12 of the homemade cookies. You can use alternative store bought cookies like the ones listed below, in which case you might use 18 instead of 12, as they might be smaller. The homemade ones run a little larger.
How To Make a Nabisco Chocolate Wafer Cake
Time needed: 9 hours
How To Make a Small Chocolate Icebox Cake with Famous Wafers
- Bake the cookies or acquire them somehow.
You can use the recipe below or buy an alternative brand. My daughter has successfully used a brand called Dewey's. You can also use Anna's Ginger Thins for a ginger flavored icebox cake.
- Make the sweetened whipped cream.
For a small cake, you'll only need 1 cup of whipping cream, ¼ cup (feel free to use less) of powdered sugar and ½ teaspoon of vanilla. This should give you enough for a cake made with 12 to 18 cookies. Whip the cream until stiff peaks start to form, then sweeten to taste and add vanilla.
- Assemble the cake.
Spoon about a tablespoon of whipped cream onto a cookie. Add a second. Make a stack of 6 cookies layered with whipped cream and lay it on its side. Repeat. Put the stacks, lying on their sides, next to each other. Carefully cover with whipped cream. If your cookies are smaller, just make another stack of 6 and lay it down next to the others.
- Chill until cookies are soft.
Cover and chill overnight or for about 6 hours. Different cookies take take longer to soften. You can also freeze. I sometimes put on a thin layer of whipped cream, freeze it as I would a crumb layer for a regular cake, then add a fresh and pretty layer before serving.
- Decorate!
Before serving, tidy it up and add some sprinkles or decorate with chocolate or any flavor sundae syrup.
- Slice and serve.
Slice along the short side so that every slice has 6 vertical layers of softened cookie.
Recipe
Homemade Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ to 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (180 grams) Best to weigh
- ½ cup Dutch process -- weigh or spoon lightly into a cup and level (42-45 grams)
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (114 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Start by carefully measuring the flour and cocoa powder. If using flour, you need 180 grams. This can range from 1 ⅓ to 1 ½ cups. If you have a scale, just measure 180 grams and you'll be fine. Also, measure the cocoa powder carefully by weighing out 42 grams. Set aside.
- In a separate, larger bowl, preferably a stand mixer bowl, beat the butter until light and creamy Add the sugar and continue beating until it’s well incorporated. Beat in the baking powder and salt, scraping the bowl often, then beat in the egg and vanilla until blended.
- Add the cocoa powder and beat until blended. The batter is going to start feeling pretty thick now.
- Add 1 ⅓ cups or 180 grams flour and beat on low until blended. If you measured by volume and dough seems too wet and sticky, add another tablespoon or two of flour. The consistency should be just a little looser than Play-Doh and still kind of sticky at this point.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Divide dough in half and scrape each half onto a sheet of parchment paper. Press each into a flat disc, then cover with more parchment and chill until firm. Remove from the refrigerator and roll so that the dough is flatter and smoother and about ⅛ of an inch thick. If it gets soft again, put it back in the refrigerator or freezer.
- Use 2-inch round cookie cutters to cut circles. If the dough is cold and firm, you should be able to just cut the circle directly off the parchment and put them onto the parchment lined baking sheet (no flour or cocoa dusted work surface needed).
- Alternatively, you can roll the dough out on a mat dusted with cocoa powder and then cut your circles OR you can just scoop up rounded teaspoons, roll into balls and press into circles. Be sure they are uniform if making ice box cake.
- Bake the cookies at 325 for about 18 minutes. If they aren't crisp enough, turn off the oven and leave them in the oven with the door closed for about 10 minutes.
- Transfer the cookies to a rack and cool them completely.
Anna says
Hi Devorah,
Thanks so much for letting me know you had a problem. My guess is it's the Dutch process cocoa powder. It is a very "drying" ingredient, and if you measured yours with a heavier hand than I did OR if the brands differ or if you used "natural" cocoa powder in its place, it could have dried out the dough. Hopefully the water will help. I'll make these again and put a weight in grams next to the cocoa powder so that we will all be using the same amounts. Volume measurements are just so inaccurate.
Devorah Leah Lederman says
I don’t know why, but my dough is very very dry. I’m going to add a little hot water and see how that turns out. I’m so disappointed! Could it be because my butter was room temperature?
Btw, I’m grateful for the recipe, because I keep kosher and highly doubt that the Nabisco ones are kosher, or at least up to my standards of kosher. So thank you!
Katy says
Ditto on the smittenkitchen recipe.
I use crushed wafers as a "bed" for a scoop of ice cream on a plate next to a chocolate dessert. It keeps the ice cream from sliding and adds a bit of texture. A trick used by many restaurant pastry chefs. You can do the same with graham crackers or animal crackers or crushed toffee to change flavors.
Anna says
PJ, thanks for stopping by! I probably should have made the KA version first.
Katrina, I like math when it's applied to a task I'm trying to accomplish or, um, gambling. LOL.
Susan, that recipe didn't work for me. The wafers seemed to have a bit too much fat and definitely too much butter to be used in the pie crust recipe I was making. In hindsight, it might have worked out had I adjusted the butter in the pie crust. Luckiy, the high-butter wafers worked out beautifully in the little icebox cake I made Todd.
Louise, you read my mind! I'm trying to collect a bunch of uses for chocolate wafers. Bookmarked!
SUSAN says
Did you try Smitten's recipeThis is the one I've been using for several months and LOVE them - you don't have to roll & cut - dough is in a log that you slice. 14 T. of butter but they don't turn out greasy - very crisp. They have baked up perfectly for me every time. I refuse to pay $4.99 to Nabisco!
Katrina says
I hate math, especially fractions. Fun for a baker. Oh well. 😉
PJ Hamel says
Hey, glad our chocolate wafers recipe worked out for you. I like to use these cookies for all kinds of nefarious purposes - e.g., the Famous Chocolate Wafer Cake (where you sandwich them with whipped cream...) Enjoy! PJ Hamel, King Arthur Flour baker/blogger
Pearl says
oh those choco cookies look luscious!
Anna says
A 9 oz pack of cookies sells for $3.99. If we use 7 oz (the recipe calls for 7 oz, not 7.5) then wouldn't that be $3.99/9 oz = 44 cents per oz. and 44 cents x 7 oz = $3.08?
Also, from a cost analysis standpoint, wouldn't you have to include the fact that the $3.00 spent on making the homemade cookies would give you double the cookies?
The point was, I saved $3.99 by using what was on hand rather than run to the store for a new pack of cookies.
Louise says
I don't disagree that Nabisco Wafers shouldn't cost $3.99, but among my many talents, I'm an old cost accountant. Even if you already own something, there is a cost associated with it. 2.5 oz of an 8 oz can of Hershey's Cocoa @ $2.99 per can is $.937. 1.5 sticks of butter @ $2 per pound is $.75. An egg is about $.10. Just those three things, all of which you'd replace, add up to $1.7875 and we haven't included all the ingredients. 7/12 of the Nabisco package @ $3.99 is $2.32. Enough said.
Rina says
Finally someone who understands! I completely agree that $3.99 (they are $4.99 at my local Safeway) is too much to pay for the Nabisco chocolate wafers and it's unfortunate that there are no "store brands" that fit the bill. I made the brownie mosaic cheesecake (from Smitten Kitchen) last weekend and doubled the crust - the crust itself totaled $10!
Thank you for chronicling this topic and potential substitutes!
Anna says
Sue, thanks for the recipe!
Louise, technically I could have saved money. I already had cocoa, butter, flour etc. So if my first batch had worked out, everything would have been perfect. The most expensive thing in the recipe was butter and our store sells butter for $2.00 a pound.
That being said, I wasted more time and money trying to find a good recipe! But at least I have a good one now.
Also, I think $3.99 is too much to pay for those cookies. Nabisco, as much as I love them, dominates the chocolate wafer category and gets away with it. LOL. I usually substitute Oreos because with Oreos, you get enough for a pie crust and some leftover for eating. But in the end, crusts made with chocolate wafers are a tad bit less soggy.
Katrina, I decided to just make icebox cake and serve it with fresh raspberries.
Katrina says
And, so, did you/are you making the pie (it looks good) with the KA wafers?
I wanted to bake today, but it's just too hot! Sigh. Been spending half the afternoon thinking about no-bakes.
Louise says
LOL How much did you think you were going to save by making your own chocolate wafers? A 12 oz. box of Nabisco Famous Wafers is $3.99 at Wegmans. You only need 7 oz. for the raspberry dessert. 🙂
Sue says
It sounds as if you're going to have a lot of cookies to use as cookie crumbs. Maybe you'll have to have your neighbors over for home made ice cream, and use all of those you have in the freezer as mix ins!!
This cookie recipe: http://basicallybaked.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/mint-chocolate-sandwich-cookies/
makes a nice crispy cookie once it's completely cooled. You could skip making them into sandwich cookies. I think they'd be good in a pie crust.