Chocolate Wafers from the Fifties!

17 years ago

When I was a little kid in the Fifties, home-made Christmas cookie assortments always had a few chocolate wafers. They were very, very thin, and very chocolaty. This is one of the handful of foods I remember from childhood that I've been trying to duplicate ever since. No recipe I've tried is at all like them.

Now I have hope! Thank you, Granjan, for posting that link to Gourmet's cookies from the past. I was just thinking about you, and your Christmas baking, and that I haven't seen you here in a long time.

A question: the recipe includes a tablespoon of rum extract. How will using rum instead affect the result? I kind of doubt the ones I liked so much tasted of rum... I don't remember such a taste, which I'd have known from butter-rum lifesavers, LOL. That's the only liquid, other than eggs.

Here's the recipe:

Cream 3/4 cup butter, add gradually 1 1/4 cups sugar, and cream them together until light and fluffy. Add 1 tablespoon rum extract and 1 egg to the butter-sugar mixture and beat thoroughly. Sift together 1 1/2 cups sifted flour, 3/4 cup breakfast cocoa, 1 1/2 teaspoons double-action baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add the sifted dry ingredients gradually, mixing well after each addition to make a light dough. Roll the dough out 1/8 inch in thickness on a lightly floured board and cut it with a floured cooky cutter into rounds about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Place the rounds on an ungreased baking sheet in a hot oven (400Â° F.) and bake for 8 minutes. Six dozen cookies are yours.

By the way, these cookies are not in the Epicurious site's search results.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gourmet: Favorite Cookies 1941-2008

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Comments (14)

sally2_gw
17 years ago
That looks like an interesting recipe.

I'll add another question...What's "breakfast cocoa"?

Sally
cloudy_christine
Original Author
17 years ago
I guess it's just plain cocoa powder, like Hershey's. That's what everybody would have had around in the Fifties. They now sell it in the baking section at my store, not in the cocoa section; I guess nobody but me makes cocoa from scratch any more!
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gbsim1
17 years ago
Do you mean the Nabisco Chocolate Wafers? Thin plain crispy rounds about 3" around and they came standing up in a row in a box?
They are hard to find, but they're still made. We've got a sort of old time grocery that handles hard to find items and they've got them there.
I googled and found them here http://www.hometownfavorites.com/products.asp?dept=1026&number=HFDE342&variation=
The website says that they used to be part of a tin that included ginger and sugar cookies, but I only remember them from the 60's as the chocolate in that paper box.

Grace
jojoco
17 years ago
Christine,
If you look for the thread I posted on "homemade oreos", you might find those cookies to be what you're looking for. I would roll them out to the thickness you want and omit the frosting. Also, the suggestion in the recipe for less sugar would be useful.
Good luck.
Jo
lindac
17 years ago
OK....I got lost on that link for a while!!
Lisa_in_Germany
17 years ago
I got lost this afternoon in that link and almost was late for a doctor's appointment! LOL
Lisa
fearlessem
17 years ago
Oh man do I love the nabisco chocolate wafers. I can hardly ever buy them as I have NO willpower and just gobble them all up within a day or two...

Em
cloudy_christine
Original Author
17 years ago
Grace, the ones I remember weren't like any bought cookie. I've tried a lot of recipes for chocolate wafers, and they're never like those great ones I remember. I'm thinking this recipe from Gourmet might just be the one, because it's actually from the time, and because the picture looks right.
Jo, the Gourmet recipe is richer, less sweet, and much more chocolaty than the homemade oreos recipe, and that seems to fit with my memory. I'm definitely going to make the Gourmet cookies, but am just thinking about the rum part.
And sharing my excitement!
gbsim1
17 years ago
Christine,
Were they a crunchy cookie or a chewy one?
When you make them be sure to let us know if you found your long lost cookie!

Grace
granjan
17 years ago
I'm so glad that link brought you a new recipe to try. I hope it's the right one. I have several food memories I've never been able to duplicate also. Those cookies sound great. Let us know how they turn out.

I haven't been around the forum as much this year. Lots of distractions although I still check in to lurk and see what everyone's up to!

Janet
coconut_nj
17 years ago
I can't wait to hear if they are the right ones. With or without the rum. Smiles. If you decide you don't want to use the rum, just use vanilla. I have several recipes that call for anise extract and I just use anisette liquor, so it should be fine to use the rum instead of the extract if that's the way you want to go.

Um, yah... I got lost on that site too. It's after 4 am......................lol.. benne seed cookies.. wow. haven't seen them in ages. I think I'll be spending some time there tomorrow.

Good luck.
mitchdesj
17 years ago
What a lovely site, cookies from all those decades, I bookmarked it.
sally2_gw
17 years ago
Okay, I'm going to have to book time to explore that site, too.

Christine, you're not the only one that makes cocoa from scratch. I can't stand those mixes that you mix with hot water. It's so easy to make hot chocolate from real cocoa and sugar and milk, I never use a mix.

Sally
cloudy_christine
Original Author
17 years ago
These are definitely the closest I've come to the ones I remember. They are intensely chocolate and not too sweet.
I did not roll and cut, but formed them into logs, then chilled and sliced. They would be great cut-out cookies, though: they really hold their shape, and the dough is easy to handle. There would be a danger of working in too much flour, and if I roll and cut them I'll do it without flour.
Next time I will slice them thinner. The recipe says to roll the dough an eighth of an inch thick. I think that just means "really thin" and I should have sliced thinner than an eighth of an inch to get exactly the kind of wafer I remember. Of course then they'll need even more careful watching.

Chocolate Wafers from the Fifties!

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Chocolate Wafers from the Fifties!

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