I know this is a “no-bake” dessert, but I was wondering if anyone knows of a good replacement for the Nabisco chocolate wafers in icebox cake? Or even a recipe to make your own wafers?
I know you can make different versions of icebox cake, but I have such fond memories of my grandmother teaching me to make it this exact way with the chocolate wafers….I’d do anything to taste it again ❤️
by abigailcodyy
31 Comments
Oreos
This is so weird because I grew up eating icebox cake but this cake was not it. It was basically a cake made up of layers of different pudding flavors separated by layers of graham crackers. It was the bomb. Now I need to try whatever icebox cake you’re making. Can you please share the recipe?
Here’s a recipe to make your own!
ps://smittenkitchen.com/2009/03/homemade-chocolate-wafers-icebox-cupcakes/
ATK just released a recipe: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/8169-nabisco-famous-chocolate-wafers-substitute-recipe
I’ve found that Goya chocolate Maria cookies are a pretty good substitute
Would chocolate graham crackers do? Oddly enough, I have never tried those.
I’ve done it with whole Oreos. Scraping them out is elevated and so great, but no one has complained when I’ve left the Oreos whole!
I’ve made it just like this but with chocolate chip cookies. HIGHLY recommend
I used Oreos for my dad’s birthday in March (scraped out the filling). It worked and tasted good, but it wasn’t the same. There are recipes to make your own wafers, but… kind of the great part and point of icebox cake was how simple and easy it was. Also I found out they didn’t exist anymore less than a week before I was making it, so I was on a time crunch.
I’ve heard of Goya brand having a similar wafer, but I haven’t seen it locally so I don’t know much, unfortunately.
I bet a Biscoff version would be really satisfying if you ever wanted to break away from chocolatey cookies 😋
[King Arthur Chocolate Wafer cookies](https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/chocolate-wafers-recipe)
Or, if you want something with a bit of spice, make [Wienerstube Cookies](https://www.reddit.com/r/Old_Recipes/s/vfsUiV7g87) and make sure you use the black cocoa.
Ana’s Swedish Thin Wafers. I can find them in ginger, lemon, and sometimes chocolate.
Trader Joe’s also makes a dupe of Ana’s and carries all 3 flavors.
Both are excellent. Crispy and super thin. Some people talk about making their own but for me that defeats the purpose of an ice box cake which is that it’s so easy and is wonderful and festive. Oreos don’t product the same result – too thick.
[Dewey’s Brownie](https://deweys.com/products/brownie-crisp-moravian-cookie-thins) Thins work great!!
Biscoff biscuits or maybe, ginger wafers.
Dumb question: why not just buy the wafers?
My mom made this all the time when I was a kid in the 60s. I’ve mede it myself until they stopped selling the wafers.
There are quite a few recipes out there for homemade wafer cookies
Try Goya Maria cookies in the chocolate flavor. You can usually buy them at mexican grocery stores. If not i’d bet they have something else that would work, wafer cookies are very common there
I make a Claire Saffitz pudding recipe that calls for the Famous Wafers and I’ve subbed them with the Dewey’s Bakery brownie crisp cookies. I bought them via Amazon.
I have celiac, my friend made an icebox cake with the Simple Mills Sweet Thins, and it was fantastic.
The Oreo recipe in Cookies by Jesse Szewczyk works well if you roll the dough really thin. I have a an adjustable height rolling pin that helps to get them super thin. I think the key is any recipe that uses black cocoa powder.
This is my birthday cake — I make it every summer. Last summer was the first after they discontinued making them, and I was so distraught I was calling distributors asking for answers why they were cancelled/looking for the next closest thing. If my memory is correct, it ended up being a factory issue— it wasn’t worth keeping the factory open for the volume that was selling.
Making the cookies from scratch defeats the purpose of not heating up the kitchen in the summer, plus I have a suspicion that they won’t get that slightly stale dryness that allows them to soak up the cream so well. Maybe bake them now and keep them in the freezer until summer? ha
If you’re looking for a dupe, the Maria biscuits from Goya are not right. They taste more like a chocolate Teddy Graham than a Famous Chocolate Wafer. They don’t have a strong enough cocoa flavor and the color and texture are not a match. Personally, with the sentimental value I have for the cake, it would make me more sad to have something sorta kinda right but meaningfully off than to not have it at all.
The distributor told me that the closest recipe Nabisco uses to the Famous Chocolate Wafer is the Oreo Thin. This is a really important distinction from the standard Oreo: it’s thinner and crunchier. The main differences I noticed is that it’s a bit sweeter and smaller in size than the Famous Chocolate Wafer. I might have put a bit less sugar into my whipped cream to balance and was overall very relieved and happy with the result. Scraping the cream off was actually kind of fun once I figured out a system.
TL;DR— Nabisco uses a very similar recipe for their Oreo Thins. Use those, not the normal Oreos.
I might try this with Pepperidge Farm Milanos. I have a bunch of them.
I call this the zoom zebra cake if you know you know lol
[Chocolinas](https://chocolipedia.com/home/) can also work, I think. They’re used in chocotorta, which is a type of Argentine icebox cake. If you buy them in bulk, they’re not too expensive to import.
I don’t know but this looks DELICIOUS 😋
If u don’t wanna make ur own, we’ve used Oreos the past few years to make this and it comes out great! We use the thins
I can get those wafers still at Kroger, if that helps.
Ginger nut biscuits. So much better than the chocolate version (if you like ginger).
I make it with oreo thins!
I love the Biscoff cookies