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What are chocolate wafer cookies?

Chocolate Wafer Cookies
Chocolate wafer cookies are very thin, crispy chocolate cookies that are commonly called for when making chocolate crumb crusts and icebox cakes. They have a bittersweet cocoa flavor to them and a very dark , nearly black, color. They’re an unusual cookie these days, although they have been around since the 1930s, because these are their two primary uses and you rarely see them in other applications. As a result, they can be difficult to find and not every grocery store will carry them.

The drawback to using these cookies in a recipe is that they tend to be fairly expensive for a small box of cookies, mostly because they’re not used for all that much. You will need them in some recipes – such as some icebox cakes that rely on their particular size and shape – but when it comes to chocolate crumb crusts, you will often be better off opting for different chocolate cookies to make a crust that ends up being less expensive to produce and just as tasty. Chocolate graham crackers are one option for chocolate crumb crusts, and Oreo wafer cookies (with the cream filling removed) can also be crushed into excellent chocolate crumbs.

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13 Comments
  • Marianne
    August 31, 2012

    I couldn’t find these at my grocery store for the longest time. Then I discovered they’d been stocking them all along by the ice cream cones and ice cream toppings.

  • louise
    August 31, 2012

    There are smaller chocolate heart-shaped cookies too.
    Often found in the bakery section of grocery stores, they are a chocolate version of gingerbread heart- shaped cookies. I find them in Costco (Toronto, Canada).

  • Cath
    August 31, 2012

    And don’t forget chocolate Teddy Grahams as an option for crumbs.

  • FrugalMom
    September 1, 2012

    Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace cookies are a great substitute for these wafers, and are delicious.

  • BakingTray
    September 1, 2012

    In Australia, we call these chocolate ripple biscuits and we mainly use them to make chocolate ripple cake (biscuits sandwiched with whipped cream and left in fridge overnight – im assuming thats the same as icebox cakes..?)

  • Sondra
    September 3, 2012

    I’ve used Oreos without removing the creme filling. Put them in the food processor and they work great.

  • Fortunata
    September 12, 2012

    Only two uses? You’re kidding me, right? Those may be the most common uses, but that’s like saying Oreos only have two uses: Eating whole, or eating split. You can do anything with this cookie that you’d do with every single cookie on the grocery store shelf. Eat it. Crumble it. Dunk it. Use it in a cake, pie, pudding, as a topping, as part of a streusal, or whatever else you want a crumbled chocolate crumb for. You’re correct they are a little pricier, but my Grandfather, who worked for Nabisco his entire life, said this is because of the higher level of cocoa and because this particular cookie required a different manufacturing process and baking process. The assembly lines for the most popular eating cookies were always available, whereas, this one was not. But any way to slice this cookie, it has more than two uses, as all cookies do.

  • Julie
    October 17, 2012

    A recipe I just found made me wonder about the difference between chocolate wafer cookies and oreos so I googled it. This was a great answer — thanks!

  • JILL SIGMAN
    March 10, 2013

    DOES ANYONE KNOW OF A COMPARABLE PASSOVER VERSION OF THIS? NOT CRUMNLING IT; NEED THE WAFER THIN…

  • Joan Planthaber
    December 20, 2013

    Anyone know of store in Raleigh NC carry these cookies?

  • Cristy Owen
    August 5, 2015

    Just be aware that in addition to their ridiculously high price, the Nabisco’s Famous Chocolate Wafers contain high fructose corn syrup.

  • Janie Bryan
    October 21, 2015

    Where can these cookies be purchased in Charlotte, NC.

  • Teresa Peiffer
    November 23, 2015

    I’m wanting to make a pumpkin refrigerator cake that calls for the chocolate wafers. Has anyone used any of the listed substitutes for that purpose?

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