Homemade chocolate wafer cookies: Ditch the store-bought Nabisco wafers and EASILY make your own for pie and cheesecake crusts, sandwich cookies, or icebox cakes.
Since scratch baking is such an important aspect of what I do in my kitchen, it’s really no surprise that I should find and fall head over heels in love with a version of homemade chocolate wafer cookies that perfectly mimics the packaged and hard-to-find Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers (especially if you don’t live in the US!).
You already know my feelings on making graham crackers, Wheat Thins, and Oreos (to name a few) at home so to that end, I knew I would love making chocolate wafers at home too.
What are Chocolate Wafer Cookies?
Chocolate wafer cookies are thin, light, crispy, and intensely chocolatey cookies. They are often crushed up into cookie crumbs to make crusts for cheesecakes and pies, or layered with fillings to make icebox cakes and ice cream sandwiches.
Ingredients for Chocolate Wafer Cookies
The ingredients for these cookies are just about as basic as basic gets for cookies. To make these cookies, you’ll need:
- all-purpose flour
- granulated sugar
- dark unsweetened cocoa powder
- baking soda
- salt
- unsalted butter
- milk
- vanilla
If you have a gluten-free flour you like to use for baking, I’m sure that would work fine here too.
How to Make Chocolate Wafer Cookies
To make these delicious little cookies, you’re going to need a food processor. Here’s what you’ll do:
- Whir the dry ingredients around in the food processor until combined.
- Drop pieces of the butter in and pulse until large chunks of dough form.
- Drizzle a mixture of milk and vanilla in through the feed tube while the processor is running. Process until the dough comes together fully.
- Transfer the dough to the counter and knead it together for a few seconds.
- Shape the dough into a log, divide the log in half, and wrap each half in plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 1 week. Freeze for up to 2 months.
- When you’re ready to bake, slice the logs into 1/8-inch thick rounds, line them up on a baking sheet, and bake!
Slice and Bake Chocolate Wafer Cookies
These cookies are surprisingly easy to make into very thin cookies. Just like the slice and bake cookies you can buy in a tube in the grocery store, you will roll your homemade cookie dough into a log and chill it.
After 2 hours, the dough will be cold enough to slice into thin rounds. And it cuts like a dream! You’ll place the rounds on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake them off for just a couple of minutes!
Easy peasy slice and bake chocolate wafer cookies!
What can you make with chocolate wafer cookies?
Ground up in a food processor for a cheesecake’s cookie crust or the base of a peanut butter pie, you won’t be sorry you spent a few extra minutes making these slice and bake chocolate gems. I’ve also used them as a garnish crumbled up on top of a chocolate sheet cake.
Icebox cakes and cupcakes are usually made with chocolate wafer cookies too. And man do I love icebox cakes!
For an icebox cake or icebox cupcake, you layer the chocolate wafers with a filling like whipped cream or pudding. These crispy chocolate cookies soften from the moisture in the filling and turn into thin chocolate cake-like layers.
You need to allow these crunchy wafer cookies to soften so that you can easily cut through the cake without the cookies flopping all over the place around the knife.
You can also use chocolate wafer cookies to make ice cream sandwiches! YES!! Simply scoop some softened ice cream on top of one cookie and press another cookie on top of the ice cream.
Place the ice cream sandwiches on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze them for about 12 hours. Same as with the icebox cake, you want to let the cookies soften before you eat these ice cream sandwiches so the cookies don’t crumble all over the place.
What kind of cocoa is best for chocolate wafer cookies?
The best kind of cocoa to make chocolate wafers with is dark unsweetened cocoa. This cocoa helps to make the cookie richly flavored and it gives the cookies a deep and dark chocolate color.
Since there is a fair amount of sugar in this recipe, you want to make sure you use unsweetened cocoa and not sweetened cocoa or the cookies will turn out too sweet.
You can use either regular unsweetened cocoa or Dutch-processed. Either way, you want to use dark cocoa. I have used all of these cocoas and always have good results:
- Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa
- King Arthur Flour Bensdorp Dutch Processed Cocoa
- Valrhona Cocoa Powder
The price points for these types of cocoa vary from lowest to highest on the list but I like them all equally for these cookies.
Freezing Chocolate Wafer Dough
One of the best things about slice and bake cookies is that you can make the dough and store it in the freezer for months and that goes for this chocolate wafer dough, too. Simply roll the dough into a log and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap.
Allow the dough to thaw in the fridge overnight before you slice it.

Yield: about 6 dozen 1 ¼-inch (diameter) by 1/8-inch (thickness) cookies
Active Prep Time: 30 minutes
Dough Chilling Time: 2 hours
Bake Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 42 minutes
Homemade chocolate wafer cookies are THE best cookies for chocolate pie and cheesecake crusts, sandwich cookies, and icebox cakes. Ditch the store-bought, hard-to-find version and EASILY make your own!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (2.4 ounces) dark unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 14 tbsp (1 ¾ sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, add the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Pulse the ingredients a few times to combine thoroughly. Dollop the butter around the dry ingredients and pulse a few more times until the butter starts to incorporate and large chunks begin to form. Mix the milk and vanilla together in a small bowl. With the mixer running, pour the milk mixture into the feeding tube in a slow and even stream until the cookie crumb mixture starts to form together and ball up on the sides of the bowl.
- Transfer the cookie dough to a work surface and knead it a couple of times to fully incorporate all of the ingredients. Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a long and narrow log, about 1 ¼ inches to 1 ¾ inches in diameter. Depending on how large you want your wafer cookies to be will determine how thick to form the log. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to a week.
- Position the oven racks to the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Slice the dough logs into approximately ⅛-inch thick slices and lay the dough rounds on the baking sheets about 1 inch apart. I formed my dough into 1 ¼-inch diameter logs and was able to fit 24 cookies on each of my baking sheets.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating pans from back to front and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. The cookies will be finished baking about 1 ½ minutes after the puffed-up dough deflates so try to keep an eye on them. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes then transfer the cookies to the racks to cool completely – they will crisp up as they cool.
Storage: The cookies will keep for up to a week at room temperature if kept in an airtight container. Supposedly they freeze really well too but I haven’t tried it myself.
Notes
If you plan to use these cookies in place of store-bought chocolate wafer cookies for a chocolate cheesecake or pie crust, cut out 1 to 2 tablespoons of the suggested amount of melted butter in the crust recipe. These chocolate wafer cookies contain a fair amount of butter and too much added butter in the ground up cookies crumbs will yield an absurdly wet mass of crumbs.Trust me.
Nine ounces of these cookies (or about ⅔ of the recipe) will yield as much as 1 package of store-bought wafer cookies contain.
adapted from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich via Smitten Kitchen
Recommended Products
As a member of the Amazon Associate affiliate program, I earn a small percentage from your qualifying Amazon purchases when you click the Amazon links on this page. I'm not informed of who purchases what, just of what products are purchased.
FAQs
Chocolate Wafer Cookies Recipe - Smells Like Home? ›
Nabisco's Famous Chocolate Wafers have been discontinued from Mondelez International's product line to make way for a “new innovation,” according to a Facebook post in the Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers Fan Club group, which has more than 1,500 users.
What happened to Nabisco chocolate wafers? ›Nabisco's Famous Chocolate Wafers have been discontinued from Mondelez International's product line to make way for a “new innovation,” according to a Facebook post in the Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers Fan Club group, which has more than 1,500 users.
What are the ingredients in famous chocolate wafers? ›Ingredients. Unbleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, Folic Acid), Sugar, Canola Oil, Cocoa (Processed With Alkali), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Baking Soda, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Artificial Flavor.
What is a substitute for Nabisco chocolate wafers? ›Store-bought or homemade chocolate wafer cookies can be used interchangeably in recipes. Other thin and crisp cookies such as ginger this, or graham crackers are good substitutes for recipes that call for chocolate wafer cookies.
What's the difference between chocolate chips and chocolate wafers? ›A chip has less cocoa butter than wafers or chunks, which gives it that robust, tall disposition. Chips will stand up when melted (instead of melting into an even puddle), which helps hold the cookie up.
Can I use Ghirardelli melting wafers in cookies? ›We melted a batch of Ghirardelli wafers and used it to dip cookies, pretzels, and strawberries, comparing these with the same items dipped in tempered chocolate. THE VERDICT: The Ghirardelli wafers set up shiny and snappy, but they tasted a bit waxy and lacked the robust flavor of the tempered premium samples.
Are Nabisco famous wafers discontinued? ›Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers Appear to be Discontinued.
Are Nabisco chocolate wafers the same as Oreos? ›Nabisco, the company that makes Oreos, does in fact make plain chocolate wafer cookies not dissimilar to the cookie part of an Oreo, and they've been making them since 1924.
What is the best chocolate wafer? ›- Godiva Milk Chocolate Real Melting Chocolates.
- Ghirardelli Dark Melting Wafers.
- Callebaut Finest Belgian Dark Chocolate.
- Merckens Melting Wafers Milk Chocolate.
- Wilton Chocolate Pro Melting Wafers.
- Lily's No-Sugar Added Baking Chips.
- Sarah's Candy Factory Coating Wafers.
- Dolci Frutta Melting Wafers.
This white film does not mean the chocolate is moldy or has gone bad. It's actually just a scientific process called “chocolate bloom”. There are two types of this bloom: sugar bloom and fat bloom.
What are the ingredients in Ghirardelli chocolate wafers? ›
Ingredients. Sugar, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel and Palm Oils, Nonfat Dry Milk, Cocoa - Processed with Alkali, Cocoa, Glyceryl Lacto Esters, Soy Lecithin - an Emulsifier, Salt.
What is the difference between candy melts and chocolate wafers? ›Candy melts are a type of compound chocolate. These mock chocolates use less expensive ingredients to mimic the real thing. Some may call them confectionary coating, candy coating, candy wafers, or confectionery melts- they are all the same and has the same function.
Are chocolate melting wafers the same as chocolate chips? ›Chocolate Melting Wafers are small disk-like pieces of chocolate that are preferable for melting (over chocolate chips) because they have no stabilizers in them. These are great for dipping truffles and candy or whenever you need to melt chocolate for baking.
Are white chocolate wafers the same as white chocolate chips? ›The explanation for the difference can be found on the ingredient label. True white chocolate, almost always sold in bar form, contains cocoa butter. White baking chips contain no cocoa butter and thus can't be labeled “chocolate,” but they do contain partially hydrogenated oil (usually palm kernel oil).
Can I melt chocolate chips instead of melting wafers? ›Yes. You can use regular chocolate instead of candy melts for cake pops and dipped desserts. However, real chocolate is harder to melt. Depending on the type of chocolate, you may need to use a double boiler method and a low temperature to ensure your chocolate doesn't seize.
Are melting wafers the same as candy melts? ›Candy Melts®, candy wafers, chocolate coating, almond bark—they're all products made for dipping, molding, and coating without needing to temper chocolate. I'll call them candy wafers here, but if you see them sold under another name, don't be alarmed. They'll all work just the same.
Do chocolate wafers need to be tempered? ›All chocolate, including Merckens milk chocolate wafers, must be tempered in order to maintain its smooth texture and glossy appearance. Tempering chocolate is a process of heating and cooling the chocolate so that it will set properly. If chocolate is not tempered, it can appear dull and have a grainy texture.
Do chocolate melting wafers harden? ›Whether it's thinned with EZ Thin or vegetable shortening, Candy Melts will still harden and retain its sheen.
What is the best selling cookie in the US that is made by the Nabisco? ›Oreo Double Stuf Cookies
Nabisco introduced Double Stuf Oreos in 1974 by taking the nation's top cookie brand and offering customers more of it. The idea was straightforward and of course, successful. Indeed, for the second time in this list, Oreo is clearly the best-selling cookie brand in America!
Mondelez has halted production of its lighter Oreo spin-off Thins following months of declining sales. A spokeswoman for Mondelez confirmed the biscuits were no longer available after they disappeared from sale at Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda.
Why did Nabisco stop making marshmallow sandwich cookies? ›
They were two vanilla wafers and sandwiched between them was a yummy marshmallow. No jelly or other stuff. We also contacted Nabisco and they said it was out of production due to poor sales.
What is the fake Oreo called? ›Oreo was created in 1912 as an imitation of Hydrox. Oreo eventually eclipsed Hydrox in popularity, which resulted in the Hydrox cookies being perceived as an Oreo off-brand.
What are Oreos actually called? ›The Oreo Biscuit was renamed in 1921 to "Oreo Sandwich"; in 1948, the name was changed to "Oreo Crème Sandwich"; and in 1974 it became the "Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie", the name that has remained to this day.
What are the real Oreos called? ›The Story of the Vanishing Cookie Hydrox® “The Original Sandwich Cookie,” debuted in 1908 as the signature product of Sunshine Biscuits®. The cookie ruled the category until 1912 when National Biscuit, later Nabisco®, created Oreo® to compete with Hydrox®.
What is the number 1 best chocolate in the world? ›Teuscher. Named the Best Chocolate in the World by National Geographic Magazine, Teuscher delivers a divine chocolate experience resulting from years of chocolate passion and tradition.
What chocolate do professional chefs use? ›Callebaut chocolate enables chefs to create outstanding menus that don't compromise on quality and will satisfy your customers tastebuds. Leave a lasting impression.
Why won t my white chocolate wafers melt? ›Just like with other types of chocolate, if white chocolate comes into contact with water it will seize. Even a small drop of water or a bit of steam touching the chocolate will cause it to become thick and grainy, and it will not melt.
What are the white dots in chocolate? ›This coating is called "chocolate bloom" and appears naturally. Although it can make the product taste a bit different, it's not harmful. There are a few reasons why chocolate bloom can occur: If chocolate is heated to a high temperature, the cocoa butter inside melts and separates from the rest of the ingredients.
Are candy melts the same as chocolate melts? ›What is the difference between candy melts and regular chocolate? The main difference between candy melts and regular chocolate is the use of cocoa butter. Candy melts use palm kernel oil and other vegetable oils in place of cocoa butter. These oils eliminate the need to temper the candy melts.
What makes Ghirardelli different? ›According to their own website, Ghirardelli is one of the few chocolate companies in the United States to control every aspect of its chocolate manufacturing process, rejecting up to 40% of the cocoa seeds shipped in order to select what the company calls the "highest quality" seeds.
Do Ghirardelli chocolate wafers need to be tempered? ›
Once melted, these dark coating wafers become the perfect topping or decoration for bonbons, fruits, pretzels, truffles, and other decadent desserts. Best of all, they're easy to melt, stir, and use with no tempering required!
What makes Ghirardelli chocolate different? ›With Ghirardelli chocolate, higher cacao content means that the chocolate tastes darker, has more intense chocolate flavor, and has less sugar.
What is a good substitute for EZ thin? ›If you don't have EZ Thin on hand, you can also add a small amount of solid white vegetable shortening, using the same technique of starting with a small amount and adding in more as needed. We don't suggest using milk, water, cream, butter or half-and-half to thin your melted candy.
Which melts better semi sweet or milk chocolate chips? ›What Melts Better, Semi-Sweet or Milk Chips? Semi-sweet chocolate has a higher cocoa content which makes it more likely to melt quickly, while milk chocolate has a lower cocoa content that gives it a creamier taste.
Can I use baking chocolate instead of melting wafers? ›Tips for Melting Chocolate
Always make sure the chocolate you are melting is chopped in uniform pieces. You can use chocolate chips, baking chocolate or wafers. NEVER add water when melting chocolate.
The ideal chocolate for melting and dipping is called "couverture" chocolate. (Find it here and here.) Couverture chocolate has a higher ratio of cocoa butter to cocoa, which helps it melt more smoothly.
Can you use regular chocolate chips as melting chocolate? ›Chocolate comes in solid bars or different size chips and discs. If you're using chocolate bars, chop them into uniform pieces so they'll melt evenly. Chocolate chips are already the ideal size for melting.
Can I mix chocolate chips and melting wafers? ›Mixing "real" chocolate with candy melts shouldn't be a problem, in my opinion. I've mixed various chocolates together for dipping purposes and have had no trouble with it. Granted, I haven't tried every possible combo, but I can't imagine a reason it wouldn't work.
Are Nabisco chocolate wafers discontinued? ›Nabisco's Famous Chocolate Wafers have been discontinued from Mondelez International's product line to make way for a “new innovation,” according to a Facebook post in the Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers Fan Club group, which has more than 1,500 users.
How do you thin melted chocolate for coating? ›- Add canola oil to chopped chocolate before you melt it. ...
- Add coconut oil to chocolate pieces before you melt them. ...
- Add paramount crystals to a large amount of chocolate. ...
- Grate solid cocoa butter into the melted chocolate. ...
- Stir vegetable oil into melted chocolate.
Should I use Candy Melts or white chocolate? ›
Candy melts and white chocolate both can be used for coating and dipping. However, candy melts are used for those purposes only, while white chocolate can be used for decorating, flavoring, and other applications.
Do you add anything to chocolate chips when melting? ›I don't add anything else to my chocolate chips when melting, unless I need to thin out my chocolate for drizzling (more on that below). SAM'S TIP: Make sure your bowl is completely clean and dry! Even a tiny bit of water can cause your chocolate to seize (meaning become grainy/unusable).
What to do if chocolate wafers won't melt? ›Fixing Seized Chocolate
Adding the right amount of water (or other liquid) will dissolve the sugar and cocoa in the clumps and make it a fluid consistency again. Using 1 teaspoon of boiling water at a time, add to the seized chocolate and stir vigorously until the mixture is smooth.
Seized Candy Wafers
In this case, some serious moisture has come into contact with your candy. Using water-based colors, alcohol-based flavorings, a wet bowl, or simply a wet utensil for stirring are all known for causing this disaster.
Once your candy is almost completely melted, quickly remove the bowl from the heat and continue stirring until smooth and glossy. If your candy starts to thicken or harden, you can remelt it by placing it back on the pot and stirring over low heat.
What's the difference between melting and tempering? ›When chocolate is melted, the molecules separate. When you temper the chocolate, you bond those molecules back together so your chocolate will harden with a glossy, crisp finish.
What happens when chocolate is melted but not tempered? ›Slowly heating and cooling melted chocolate while stirring puts it into temper. If chocolate is not tempered properly, the cocoa butter crystallization is uncontrolled and uneven, which results in an unattractive chocolate that is dull or has white streaks running through it.
Should you use semi sweet or milk chocolate for chocolate chip cookies? ›One of the best combinations worth trying is semisweet chocolate chips and dark chocolate chunks. You will not only get a more complex flavor of your chocolate chip cookies but also a pleasant mixture of small chocolate pieces that almost disappear into the baked dough, along with chunks of melted chocolate.
Why are my chocolate chip cookies hard and not chewy? ›Why Do Cookies Get Hard? Like all baked treats, cookies are subject to getting stale. Over time, the moisture in the cookies evaporates, leaving them stiff and crumbly. It's the same thing that happens to breads, muffins, and other baked goods.
Do you use melted or softened butter for chocolate chip cookies? ›Melted butter is best suited for drop doughs such as chocolate chip, peanut butter, and sugar cookies, as well as most cookie bars. You can usually adapt recipes that don't originally call for melted butter to use this technique if you're looking for an even fudgier texture.
What is the difference between melting wafers and chocolate chips? ›
Chocolate Melting Wafers are small disk-like pieces of chocolate that are preferable for melting (over chocolate chips) because they have no stabilizers in them. These are great for dipping truffles and candy or whenever you need to melt chocolate for baking.
Is there a difference between chocolate chips in melting wafers? ›The ingredients that go into the two are different. Melting chocolates are made with cocoa butter so it can be melted and reset multiple number of times. On the other hand chocolate chips are made with temperature stable oils so they can be used in baking and other high temperature applications.
What is the difference between candy melts and melting wafers? ›Candy Melts®, candy wafers, chocolate coating, almond bark—they're all products made for dipping, molding, and coating without needing to temper chocolate. I'll call them candy wafers here, but if you see them sold under another name, don't be alarmed. They'll all work just the same.
What is the difference between melting wafers and candy melts? ›Ghirardelli melting wafers are also easy to find. They melt smoothly and have a thinner consistency than Wilton candy melts. They taste better too.
Are there chocolate wafers? ›Introduced in 1924, Famous Chocolate Wafers are crispy and mildly sweet chocolate wafer that make creating desserts easy. Whether you are using as a chocolate crumb crust for cheesecakes or decorative accents for seasonally inspired desserts, the recipe ideas with Famous Chocolate Wafers are endless.
Who makes famous chocolate wafers? ›Delivery | available |
---|---|
Pickup | available |
In 2011, Kraft Foods announced that it was splitting into a grocery company and a snack food company. Nabisco became part of the snack-food business, which took the name Mondelēz International. The first use of the name Nabisco was in a cracker brand produced by National Biscuit Company in 1901.
What are the chocolate wafers called? ›Flatter, larger, meltier shapes that easily stand in for fèves are called chocolate discs (or disks) or wafers. They're usually level and round, ideal for melting but also roughly chopping to fold into batters or doughs.
What company makes the best chocolate in the world? ›Teuscher. Named the Best Chocolate in the World by National Geographic Magazine, Teuscher delivers a divine chocolate experience resulting from years of chocolate passion and tradition.
Who makes the world's best chocolate chip cookies? ›- Levain Bakery. New York City, United States of America. ...
- Diddy Riese Cookies. Los Angeles, United States of America. ...
- Jacques Torres Chocolate. ...
- The Sycamore Kitchen. ...
- JD's Chippery. ...
- Flour Bakery and Cafe. ...
- Clear Flour Bread. ...
- Graze.
Who makes the most expensive chocolate? ›
Answer: To'ak's Art Series Guayasamín chocolate and House of Knipschildt's La Madeline au Truffe are some of the most expensive gourmet chocolates to try. DeLafée of Switzerland also offers a DeLafée Gold Chocolate Box that comes with an actual antique Swiss gold coin making it a royal indulgence.
What cookie did Oreo ripoff? ›Oreo was created in 1912 as an imitation of Hydrox. Oreo eventually eclipsed Hydrox in popularity, which resulted in the Hydrox cookies being perceived as an Oreo off-brand.
What is the Nabisco controversy? ›...
2021 Nabisco strike | |
---|---|
Resulted in | $5,000 bonus Annual pay raises Increased 401(k) contributions |
Parties to the civil conflict |
Oreo boycott (also known as the Nabisco boycott and Mondelez boycott) is a boycott of the Oreo cookie and other Nabisco-manufactured products, including Chips Ahoy! and Cheese Nips. The boycott was prompted by the Mondelez company's decision to close its American factories and move production to Mexico.
What are wafers called in Mexico? ›These wafers, or Obleas as they're called in Mexico, are traditional Mexican snacks and are made only with wheat flour, water, corn oil, and artificial colors. Obleas can be eaten with arequipe, dulce de leche (milk caramel), jam and/or sweetened condensed milk in the middle.
Who made the first wafer cookie? ›The recipe for vanilla wafers was first invented by Gustav A. Mayer in the 19th century, which he sold to Nabisco, who released the cookies as "Vanilla Wafers" in 198, according to a 1999 article from FORTUNE magazine.
What are the little squares of chocolate called? ›Ever wonder what the breakable sections of the HERSHEY'S Milk Chocolate bar are called? Each one is a "pip." Share a pip with your friends today!