Substitutes
Missing Nabisco’s Chocolate Wafers? Make This Chocolate Crust Instead
We found another worthy substitute for your pie crusts and cheesecakes.
Earlier this year, Nabisco discontinued its Famous Chocolate Wafers, one year short of the cookie’s 100th anniversary. Makers of icebox cakes and chocolate crusts were incensed, and you know what happens when a bunch of bakers get outraged? They riot in the streets! They organize sit-ins! They protest their local grocers!
Well, not really, but I wish they did. Bakers are much too practical for that. They lodged complaints on the internet for a few days and then got in their kitchens and angrily figured out substitutes.
One such unhappy baker was my mom, Judy Hesser, who’s been using the chocolate wafers for decades to make her sour cream cheesecake. In the comments of our story on the discontinuation of the wafers, she weighed in: “Since I will no longer be able to obtain the chocolate wafers for the crust of my cheesecake, I shall invent something new and will inform you at that time. Very sad that Nabisco discontinued the chocolate wafers but I will not use Oreos as a replacement, nor will I add cocoa to vanilla wafers.”
Sometimes in the heat of the moment, we say things we don’t mean. Judy tried using Tate’s Double Chocolate Chip Cookies as a substitute, but didn’t like the results. Later, after comparing the ingredient lists of the chocolate wafers to Nabisco’s Nilla Wafers, she realized they were very close in nature, so she ate her words and tried out the Nilla Wafers mixed with some cocoa and butter. The experiment paid off, and she created a chocolate crust worthy of the original. And, as Judy promised, she’s now sharing it with the community.
More baking inspiration from Food52
- Our Favorite Fall Baking Recipes
- Our 34 Best Gluten-Free Baking Recipes
- Erin Jeanne McDowell’s Foolproof Tips for Perfect Holiday Pies
- 11 Very Different Ways to Make a Chocolate Chip Cookie
Written by: Amanda Hesser
Popular on Food52
17 Comments
To make gluten-free bourbon balls, I bake up a batch of gluten free chocolate biscotti, leaving out the nuts and chocolate chips. (I use a standard recipe, substituting King Arthur's measure-for-measure blend for the flour.).
I've also made chocolate graham crackers, which have worked well. If taken out of the oven on the early side, so they remain a touch softer than you'd otherwise want them, chocolate graham crackers would work great for the traditional "icebox cake," as my mother called it, made by vertically layering whipped cream and chocolate wafers in a loaf pan. ;o)
Thanks for the recipe to substitute for the wafers.
See what other Food52 readers are saying.