Famous Chocolate Wafer Cookies - a la Nabisco

 

I'm honestly not sure where this recipe came from, perhaps Cooks Illustrated?, as it is ripped from the pages of some magazine.  One thing I do know, is that I have fond memories of these from my childhood as Hi-Ho would cook with them all the time. While these weren't necessarily kept in the cookie jar, it was one of my favorite after school snacks. I would settle down with a little pile of these and a small juice glass full of milk and would dunk these cookies in, give them a little time to absorb the milk, and then  eat the delectable moist crumbly cookie. The best part? At the end, the milk was a special kind of chocolate milk to drink! Yum!

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup dark cocoa powder (Hershey's special Dark is recommended)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 & 1/4 cup confectioners sugar

3 Tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 

 

Process 

 

1. Whisk flour,  cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until combined. 

 

2. In a second bowl, combine sugar, water, and vanilla and whisk until smooth. 

 

3. Add butter to the sugar mixture and whisk until incorporated. 

 

4. Add flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir with a spatula until fully combined. 

 

5. Transfer dough to counter and knead until smooth, about 20 seconds. Roll it into a 5 inch log. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refidgerate until very firm, at least 2 hours or up to 5 days. 

 

6. When ready to bake, adjust over racks to upper-middle andlower middle positions and heat oven to 300 degrees. 

 

7. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. 

 

8. Using a sharp chef's knife, slice the dough log into 1/8 of an inch rounds, and transfer to prepared sheets, placing 20 cookies per sheet, leaving 1/2 inch between each round.  

 

9.  Bake until the center of the cookie gives very little when pressed with your fingertip, 20 to 22 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. 

 

10. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Serve

 

Cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.