Homemade High Altitude Famous Chocolate Wafers (and an Icebox Cake)
These homemade Nabisco's "famous chocolate wafers" are thin and buttery with a dark chocolate flavor that tastes like Oreos. Use them to make a classic icebox cake, with chocolate wafers and whipped cream.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor or Pastry Cutter
- Rolling Pin and Cookie Cutters
- Stand Mixer with Paddle and Whisk Attachments
Ingredients
Chocolate Wafers
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup unsweetened, Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- ¼ cup black cocoa powder
- 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup whole milk
Icebox Cake
- 24 chocolate wafers
- ¼ cup milk
- 3x Stabilized Whipped Cream
Instructions
Make the Chocolate Dough
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, both cocoa powders, powdered sugar and salt until combined.
- With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.
- Add the vanilla and the milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray dry ingredients. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Prepare two or three large baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
Roll the Dough and Cut the Cookies
- Work with half the dough at a time when rolling it out, keeping the rest refrigerated until needed. On a clean work surface lightly dusted with flour, place the dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness of 1/8 inch thick, using more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the counter or the rolling pin.
- Use a 3-inch square cookie cutter to cut as many cookies as you can, placing them one inch apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. If you don't have a square cookie cutter, you can also just cut the dough into 3-inch squares by using a ruler and a rolling pastry wheel cutter or pizza cutter.
- Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can. You should be able to cut about 45-50 cookies.
Bake the Cookies
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator to chill while you preheat the oven to 350 F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the cookies for 11 minutes. With chocolate cookies, it's impossible for their color to be an indicator of doneness. But you shouldn't see any appearance of raw or wet dough, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. These cookies are delicate since they're so thin, especially while warm so handle them carefully.
Icebox Cake Assembly
- With the square shape of the cookies, it's easy to assemble your icebox cake, even if you don't have the same size loaf pan I used. I used the small USA Bakeware Pullman Pan, but you can also build your cake directly onto a serving plate. With the pullman pan, I was able to shape my cake using three rows of eight cookies layered with whipped cream.
- Turn the cookies over, so the bottoms are facing up, and use a pastry brush to brush them with the 1/4 cup milk.
- If using a loaf pan, line the pan with plastic wrap, so it hangs over all four sides. Use a spatula to spread a layer of the whipped cream around the sides and bottom of the pan.
- Spread a layer of whipped cream onto one side of the cookies, then arrange them side by side as shown in the photos. You want to be pretty generous with the whipped cream; without enough moisture, the cookies won't get soft enough.
- Once all the cookies are layered with cream and arranged in rows to shape your cake, spread a thin layer of whipped cream on top of the cookies, then wrap the plastic wrap over the top. Set the pan in the refrigerator to chill at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight. Refrigerate the leftover whipped cream in an airtight container.You can also freeze your icebox cake and serve it frozen, if preferred.
- When ready to serve, lift the cake out of the pan by the plastic wrap, and carefully set it on a serving plate. When you stir up the leftover whipped cream, it may deflate a little, so you can re-whip it for several minutes, if needed. Frost the cake all over with the remaining whipped cream, and sprinkle with crumbled cookies for decoration.
Notes
- Making the Dough without a Food Processor: If you don't have a food processor, you'll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter. In the bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Scatter with the cold butter pieces and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter in until very finely cut and evenly distributed. Drizzle with the vanilla and milk, then use your hands to work the liquid into the dry ingredients until it forms into a soft dough.
- Storing the Baked Cookies: The baked cookies should be cooled completely then stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you won't be using them immediately, freeze the cookies in an airtight container for 3-6 months.
- Freezing the Dough: To make the dough in advance, wrap the disks of dough in plastic wrap, label them, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months. Frozen dough should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator. Then take the dough out of the fridge about 1 hour before you're ready to roll out the dough. It should still be cool to the touch when you roll it out, but pliable enough to roll without too much difficulty.
- Storage: Store the leftover icebox cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.
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