Last year I bought a bag of Oreo crumbs to make these instead of wafers, as I didn't have a food processor. It worked really well, and I picked up another bag today to make more for this year.
I had the same problem finding chocolate wafers when I needed them to make cheesecake crusts for a wedding I catered. Chocolate graham crackers worked great and were really inexpensive.
A refrigerator cake is made with whipped cream, not ice cream. Famous wafers are generally somewhere in the store, but often have a picture of a refrigerator cake on the package rather than the actual cookie (go figure). I imagine any dry chocolate cookie would be a fine substitute, Newman's Own makes chocolate alphabet cookies that would work.
Yes, AJ, I agree, that is exactly why they are there - they were called refrigerator cakes, right? But I remember eating them (or cookies like them) as cookies when I was growing up! What is the word coming to?!?
The chocolate wafers are not usually in the cookie aisle of my supermarket - they are with the ice cream cones and related ice-cream accessories. Not sure of the logic, but for many years I used chocolate grahams or oreos until I happened to see the wafers.
Tarragon, I suspect the chocolate cookies are in that section of some grocery stores because for generations, the primary use of chocolate wafers was to make ice cream cakes . . . . you line a small metal loaf pan with them, then layer softened ice cream or freshly whipped cream with more of the chocolate wafers. Then you freeze it. ;o)
I use the chocolate cat cookies from Trader Joe's. They're kind of hard and make a lot of noise in the food processor, but they taste rich and chocolate-y and produce a really nice bourbon ball. I imagine the bourbon balls are not as soft and wet as if you were to use a chocolate graham, so the texture may be a bit less like real fudge, but everyone who's tasted mine has raved about them. ;o).
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