Thursday, February 10, 2011

Cocoa Wafers

For my peanut butter pie (you'll hear about it next week), I wanted to make a homemade crust. I searched my books for good chocolate wafer that would serve this purpose. I thought I was successful until I decided to search the internet. The first hit was Cocoa Wafers on Smitten Kitchen's site and I thought, jackpot! What was even more perfect was that I owned the book from where the recipe is taken. Pure Dessert is a book I don't get to use often so I was glad to put it to use and find a great recipe for cocoa wafers! This cookie dough is super easy to make as all the work gets done in a food processor. These cookies are deeply chocolately, you can just smell it and the color doesnt lie, either. Depending on how long you bake them you'll wind up with cookies crisp enough for cookie crust or cookies soft enough to house a vanilla cream filling a la Oreos, definitely worth a try! I made half of this recipe as I really needed it for the pie but a few cookies were left over and I gave them to one of my girls, who happily devoured them. These could be considered icebox cookies so I would allow these a generous overnight rest so that they don't go to wonky on you.

Cocoa Wafers
adapted from Pure Dessert

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup Dutched cocoa
1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
14 tbsp unsalted butter or margarine, softened and cut into chunks
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Place the dry ingredients in the bowl of your food processor and pulse to mix thoroughly. Add the butter or margarine to the bowl and pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup and with the processor running, pour it through the feed tube. Process until the mixture clumps around the blade. 
 Transfer the dough to a bowl and knead a bit to make sure all the ingredients are evenly moistened.
Form the dough into a log and wrap in parchment paper. Chill overnight.
The next day, preheat your oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment.
 Slice the cookie log into 1/4 inch slices. Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating for an even bake. The cookies should crisp as they cool, if not, then you didnt bake them long enough. You can return them to the oven to finish baking. Cool the cookies on racks.
Perfect cocoa cookies. Use in your favorite pie recipe or just eat 'em straight up.

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