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.
Homemade Chocolate Wafer Cookies
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
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These look perfect- better than the “real” thing! 😉
Love the simplicity to these. Yum!
Hooray for homemade!
These look great. I love a good chocolate cookie. Have you tried using Scharffen Berger or Valrhona cocoa? You might be surprised at the difference this can make.
I haven’t but only because I’ve had Hershey’s and KAF in the house to use up. I already have an overstocked pantry issue as it is. 🙂
Love the idea of homemade wafer cookies. I love to use them, and sadly they’ve been getting harder and harder for me to find.
I absolutely love that first picture! My stores have stopped carrying chocolate wafers so I have to make them when I need them. It’s not a totally terrible thing 🙂
Thanks Shawnda! No, it’s not a totally terrible thing but a totally dangerous one. lol
Ahhh these look delicious and I love that you can use them instead of store bought! Totally bookmarked and saving this!
i have made these B4 and they are amazing, and ALOT cheaper than the choc wafer ones in the box, you will not be disappointed…
Fantastic! These look so dark and chocolate-y…YUM.
I’m so excited to try these! My favorite cheesecake has a chocolate wafer crust and I just realized that the popular brand of wafers they I’ve always bought at the grocery store uses partially hydrogenated oil. Yuck! I wish I had thought to start making my own chocolate wafers sooner!
I think you’ll love these cookies for a cheesecake crust! I would suggest cutting the melted butter back that you would normally use in a cookie/graham cracker crust recipe since these cookies have a substantial amount of butter in them already. Let me know how they turn out for you! 🙂
I baked these cookies today to get them ready for my chocolate mousse cheesecake. I didn’t try any of them, but my mother ate one or two or three of them haha and declared them yummy! I told her not to eat too many since they are “work” cookies (i.e. their primary fate is to serve as cheesecake crust :)). I used only 12 Tbsp of butter and allowed them to cook a few minutes longer than 15 minutes so that they would be considerably hard, but not burnt. Thanks for posting this recipe!
I stuffed these with homemade whipped cream and froze them. So yummy.
Yay!! I love the photo!! I can only imagine what these cookies would be like as frozen whipped cream sandwiches!
I want to make a cheesecake but don’t feel like running out to the store so this is perfect. I’ll be making these now for a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake.
Actually Chingobingo kind of answered the question I was going to ask. I pinned this recipe in hopes of using them for ice cream sandwiches. Can anybody tell me how they held up in the freezer? They have been called “not sweet” but slap some Moose Tracks between them and I think these will be great. Barb
do you think this dough be used as a crust ( remove some milk perhaps and press into a pie plate) without first baking it into a cookie?I’m in a time crunch here! thanks!
Hi Sam! Absolutely! I did just that with the cappuccino fudge cheesecake I made a few years ago. Here’s the recipe for that (crust recipe included): http://www.smells-like-home.com/2012/12/cappuccino-fudge-cheesecake/ I made the cookie recipe as written but I do recommend cutting back on the butter in the crust when you go to make it since the cookies themselves have a good amount of butter in them already. Please come back and let me know how this works for you and what you’re making!
It worked! I made half a batch (just the right amount for a 9″ pie pan) but with 5 tbl butter not 7, rolled it out between sheets of plastic wrap, patted it down into a greased 9″ pan, poked it thoroughly with a fork before baking, and baked at 350 for about 18 mins (tho my oven is straight from the fires from hell so I can’t give you any accuracy on temp/time) . It looked like it might stick, but did not. It’s a bit more ‘hard’ than Mr. Pie eater likes but I think more attention to rolling it out evenly would solve that as well as more time with the filling in it– we ate it right after filling– not a patient pair 🙂 It was chocolate cream pie. The only thing I’d do differently is be sure to keep the edges thick and maybe cover them so they don’t burn, however it was soft enough when I took it out that I was able to knife-off the burnt bits easily.Thanks much for the recipe, it’s a keeper and you saved a birthday! I’ll do it ‘properly ‘ next time to compare, but knowing me this will be my go-to from now on; no more expensive store bought cookies that frankly, are too crumbly anyway. Thanks again
YAY! I’m thrilled to hear how this went for you! Also, using this dough as a crust for chocolate cream pie sounds AMAZING! Big thanks for coming back to leave a review!
Do you think pressing these between a tortilla press would work also? Looking to make super thin crisp cookies.
Absolutely! This is a GREAT idea! Please let us know how this method turns out for you, Rachel!
Is there any reason it wouldn’t work to have a larger diameter for the log off dough? I’m thinking 2″ to be the base of mini domed raspberry mousses.
You could definitely make a 2″ log. If you need cookies that are bigger than that, I would roll the dough out flat and cut out rounds with a cookie cutter. Larger logs may become difficult to cut into even rounds. The log I made yielded cookies that were close to the size of Nabisco’s wafer cookies but sure, you could go bigger or smaller. You’ll need to adjust your baking time for larger/smaller cookies but not by much unless you’ll be baking really large cookies. And my gosh, I love the idea of raspberry mousses with these chocolate cookies! If you’re on Instagram, I would LOVE to see how they turn out! Please tag me @smellslikehomeblog and/or #smellslikehomeblog so I can see and share with others.
have made these before & they are wonderful, as are Alice Medrich’s recipes. Want to make them at my mom’s place in another country and she doesn’t have any food processor. Do you think it will work too with a stand mixer? Thanks….
Hi Serene! I love that you’re planning to bring this recipe to another country! Yes, I think you can make them without a food processor and with a stand mixer instead. I would follow the instructions as they are written and pour the slowly milk-vanilla mixer into the side of the bowl with the mixer on medium speed at the end of Step 1. You may need to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl during Step 1 to ensure the ingredients are not sticking too much. Please come back and let us know how making this recipe without a food processor worked for you! Happy travels!
I made these cookies after not being able to buy the Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers in East Tennessee. I followed the recipe exactly (using Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa) and they are PERFECT!! Better than Nabisco!! And so much cheaper to make. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!
So great to hear, Deana! I agree – so much cheaper than Nabisco and so much better too! Did you use them in another recipe? If you have a quick second, would you mind leaving a star rating on this recipe? This will help others to quickly know what a great recipe it is! The star ratings show on the blog and in Pinterest and Google, and they’re completely anonymous. Thank you!!
I have used the store bought brand crispy chocolate wafers many times to make a log of the cookies and home made whipped cream…. with whipped cream between each cookie standing up, then the whole thing covered with whipped cream with chopped walnuts sprinkled over the outside. The cookies softened making it a multi-(thin)-layered chocolate cake/log.
Can these cookies be used in the same manner? When arranged as described and in the fridge for a few hours, I’d need to get the same cake-like result.
Hi Janet! Yes, these cookies are a homemade version of the store-bought cookie and they will definitely give you a cake-like texture for your icebox cake, which sounds wonderful by the way! I used these cookies for my peppermint icebox cupcakes (http://www.smells-like-home.com/2012/12/peppermint-icebox-cupcakes/) a few years ago, I left them in the fridge overnight and the result was just as you would expect for an icebox cake. I’d love to hear how your cake turns out – please come back and let me know here! Happy baking!
I can’t wait to make these! How can I substitute melted dark chocolate instead of the powdered dark chocolate? I have an abundance of dark chocolate in the house (not for long, though! LOL) and would like to use it up (before we eat it up!).
Hi Denise, I’m sorry but I don’t have any idea how to swap melted chocolate for cocoa powder in this recipe. I’d suggest that you pick up a small container of cocoa (Hershey’s Dark works great here) and use the melted dark chocolate for drizzling over whatever you’re going to make with these cookies (cheesecake, icebox cake, etc.)! Happy baking and happy holidays!!
I don’t have a food processor or a mixer, so I used the same process that I would use for making pastry. Thoroughly mix the dry ingredients in a wide, flat bottomed bowl, cut in the butter till the mixture resembles coarse sand, then sprinkle on the liquid and mix until the mixture comes together. Takes a bit of muscle and time, but gets it done, and unlike pastry, I didn’t need to worry about over mixing!
Great tips, Evelyn!
Hi, can i use for pie crust?
Yes! If you pie crust recipe has melted butter in it, reduce the butter by 2 tablespoons. These cookies are very buttery on their own. Happy baking!
I haven’t had butter in the house for a long time. If I wanted to substitute vegetable oil how much would I use? Or would that be a disaster?
Hi Ruth, I’m leaning towards this being a disaster but I can’t be certain. I’d say give it a shot, maybe halving the cookie recipe the first time so you don’t waste a bunch of extra ingredients if the swap doesn’t work. Please let me know if you try it with vegetable oil!
Did I read the recipe right? 14 tbsp butter? Thank you
Yes, that’s correct!
These were a nightmare to make. I made than a couple times and each time was worse then the last. They kept getting squished when I tried to cut them from the log and stuck to my cutting board when I used cookie cutters. When I finally got them cut out and in the oven they started to kinda separate. And the edges were so crispy and crumbled. I only wish I hadn’t already purchased heavy cream. I’m gonna have to keep searching for the Nabisco ones.
I’m sorry to hear you’ve had trouble with this recipe. It sounds like maybe the dough log needed to be refrigerated for some extra time. I don’t think the dough is designed to be rolled and cut out with cookie cutters though, so that’s why they stuck to your board.
Hello. I am making these cookies for the first time today because I can’t find the ones I usually use at the store. I’m using them for an icebox torta for a 3″ x 6″ pan size, so I’m thinking, I could just roll out the dough and cut the five 6″ disks that I need. Now I’m wondering how much they will expand so I can make them the appropriate size. I’m making the dessert this afternoon and i would sincerely appreciate it if someone could give me feedback on this questions. Thank you so much. Linda
i made the recipe today, making the cookies instead of disks, and I was totally happy with the results. The flavor and texture of the cookies far exceeded what I wasn’t able to get at the store today. That was my good fortune, because now I know I can have a better product for just a little bit more effort. Thank you so much for sharing this outstanding recipe.
So great to hear how much you loved these cookies!! Thank you so much for coming back to leave a review, Linda!!
I am ADDICTED to these cookies! They are absolutely delicious, with a rich, deep dark chocolate flavor. I can’t decide whether I like them better thin and crispy or a little thicker and chewier. They’re so satisfying both ways. Fortunately, I don’t have to decide because I can make some of each!
If I may, I’d like to recommend using fair trade cocoa. Many brands use child/slave labor to produce their chocolate so please look for that on the label when purchasing your chocolate products.
Love this, Julie! Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review!
I am excited to make these wafers for an icebox cake, which is the birthday tradition in our house. (Last year, when the Famous Nabisco wafers were discontinued, I used Moravian Ginger Wafers and the cake was amazing. But chocolate is the tradition, so thank you for this recipe!)
I have pounds of salted butter at home. Could I use salted butter instead if I eliminate the 1/4 tsp salt in the recipe entirely? Of will this then be too salty?
Thanks for your help!
Yes, you can cut out the salt if you’re going to use salted butter. I think they’ll be fine! Happy baking!!
Hi! I’m thinking of using peppermint extract to turn these into a thin mint type of cookie. Do you think I’d need to change anything in the recipe if I added about 1/4 tsp of peppermint extract?
Nope! Nothing to change! I was just talking to my husband about doing the very same thing with this cookie recipe!
Can you use 1% milk instead of whole?
I think 1% would be ok!
Thank you for this recipe. They are crispy as can be for my Icecream Cake I am making for Fathers day and they taste so fresh and just homemade buttery baked. I just added more flour since I forgot to omit the butte if I wanted them to be crispy. They are fantastic.
Yay!! So happy these cookies were a hit for you, Nica! And thank so you so much for coming back to leave a review!
Those Nabisco wafers were on the very short list of processed foods I buy, and I went to three stores one day in search of them for ice cream sandwiches. No luck, but then I found this EXCELLENT RECIPE! Chilling the dough till it’s hard is key. Thank you, Tara, and ta-ta, Nabisco!
Woohoo! So happy to hear how much you loved this recipe, Naheed! And thank you for coming back to leave a review!
Can I reduce the amount of sugar and if so, what is the minimum amount?
Hi Dan, Reducing the sugar will alter the ingredient proportions and thus the outcome of the cookies so I don’t recommend it.
The dough freezes amazingly! I tested it by freezing it in a log shape and wrapped it up somewhat tight with parchment and stored in a freezer bag for several months.
Then to bake, I let it thaw but not all the way, (it thaws quickly too) so it’s easy to slice. And it baked like I made the dough the same day! Yummy!
I will be making more logs to freeze so I can bake it anytime!
Thank you very much for an EXCELLENT recipe!!!
Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review, Peggy! I’m thrilled you loved these cookies and I couldn’t agree more about how well the dough freezes!
I don’t have a food processor. Can I use the kitchen aide mixer to made cookies? I also live at 8,000 feet altitude, are there any adjustments I should make? I use King Arthur cup 4 cup flour.
Hi Bobbie, I’m sorry but I’m not familiar at all with high-altitude baking so I’m of no help here.
Tara:
I absolutely LOVE finding this recipe for thin chocolate wafer cookies!! You don’t know how long & hard I’ve been working to find commercial brands so I can make a pie crust for a refrigerated Grasshopper Pie for St. Patrick’s day. My question is this – do you have a subsequent recipe for using these wafers to make a crust for a refrigerated pie? If not, I’ll just make your wafers and muddle through while still appreciating your homemade version. Made from scratch is always better. TYhank you.
These worked perfectly with thr strawberry cheesecake I made. Decadent!
Now am looking for a vanilla version that I can add lemon extraxt to or whatnot. Any ideas?
Yay! So great to hear about using these cookies for your strawberry cheesecake crust! I bet it was delish!
Has anyone tried making these with gluten free flour? Any tips?
I’m making these tonight as I ❤️ Chocolate wafer cookies. No food processor but I made the dough as I would make pie dough. Mix dry. Cut in butter until course crumbles, add liquids and mix, knead by hand. Dough will come together. I added some espresso powder to bring forward the chocolate taste.
I love that you adapted this recipe to make the dough without a food processor! How did the cookies turn out for you?
Tara. They were fantastic! Made some fresh whipped cream with blackberries and made frozen sandwiches from some of them. I’m making a second batch today. 😂
Yay! So great to hear you loved these cookies, Cathryn!
Btw, Tara, thank you for this recipe. So versatile. I’m in heaven.
These were delicious! Our traditional zebra cake came out even more delicious using these than with the original store bought cookies. Thank you. You saved Christmas!
So great to hear this, Jb! Thanks for coming back to leave a review!
Have you tested this recipe with gluten free flour?
Hi Lynn, I don’t bake gluten-free so I have not tried gluten-free flour. I’d love to hear how the recipe turns out if you try it!
These were awesome!! I am going to be making large (double or triple) batches so I decided to try it in my kitchen aid stand mixer. I used softened butter and it worked perfectly!!!
I also needed a specific shape and size so I rolled the dough to 1/8 inch between two pieces of parchment and cut with a cookie cutter (I used 1 size smaller circle cutter due to the fact it spreads some). It worked fantastic! Then I put the rounds in the freezer before baking.
And they taste awesome!
Fantastic to hear all of this, Danelle! Thank you so much for telling us about your adaptation!
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that in March 2023 Nabisco officially discontinued their Famous Chocolate Wafers. I need them, found your recipe is ranking at the top and thought you might want to know there is now currently an opening/gap in the market for this item. Just FYI if adjusting your metadata or something might help people get here. I was sure glad to find it.
Thanks so much for the heads up on this, Kay, as I had not heard about them being discontinued.
I can confirm these are very good, and are indeed very similar to the Nabisco “Famous” chocolate wafers from the store.
Um… and this will be my go-to recipe from now on because as of a month or so ago (Spring 2023), the Famous chocolate wafers HAVE BEEN DISCONTINUED.
I am very sad. But, I will survive as I’m a decent baker………………..
Hi Kent, Thanks so much for your note and review. It’s so sad to see such an institution of a cookie discontinued! Glad we have a fantastic home recipe though!!