Chocolate Wafers Recipe & Video

Chocolate Wafers use the most basic of ingredients, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, vanilla, and cocoa powder. What is so different about this recipe is the reduction in fat. This chocolate wafer recipe has just three tablespoons (45 grams) of butter along with three tablespoons (45 grams) of either margarine or a soft buttery spread, like Smart Balance, that contains oil but not hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. But keep in mind that if you use a soft buttery spread the batter needs a longer chilling time to become firm. Also, instead of using the whole egg, only the egg white is used which also keeps the fat content down. Another way to keep the fat content to a minimum is to use cocoa powder instead of semi sweet chocolate. Cocoa powder has a lot less fat in it than semi sweet chocolate and this is because cocoa powder is made when chocolate liquor that is pressed to remove three quarters of its cocoa butter. You can use either regular unsweetened or Dutch-Processed cocoa powder in this recipe. Now, something to keep in mind when making these cookies, is that all brands of cocoa powder are not alike. Each brand has its own distinct flavor and that flavor will affect how these cookies will taste. Some of my favorites that you might like to try are Droste, Valrhona, Equal Exchange Organic Baking Cocoa, and Scharffen Berger.

Once the cookie batter is made it is formed into a log shape and refrigerated until firm and this will take several hours or you can even chill it overnight. (The unbaked log can also be frozen, so you can bake the wafer cookies on demand. This makes them very well suited for Christmas baking, as you can make the recipe up to a month in advance, freeze it, and then the just slice and bake the Chocolate Wafers when you need them.) Then slice the log into thin wafers and bake until they are puffed with cracks (ripples). The longer you bake these cookies the more crisp and crunchy they will be. So if you want a softer textured cookie, bake them a little less than stated. These chocolate wafers will keep for about 10 days in an airtight container. What I also like about these Chocolate Wafers is that you can process them in your food processor until finely ground and use the crumbs in recipes, like pie crusts, that call for finely ground chocolate crumbs.