Well-known Chocolate Wafers aren’t any extra, however the icebox cake lives on
Enlarge this picture toggle caption Zoe Francois Zoe Francois
For many individuals, the style of summer season is an icebox cake: whipped cream layered with cookies. There are all types of variations utilizing completely different flavored lotions slathered on every thing from graham crackers to sandwich cookies to shortbreads. And for a lot of Individuals, probably the most iconic model is flippantly sweetened whipped cream with Nabisco Well-known Chocolate Wafers.
However earlier this 12 months, after practically 100 years of manufacturing, Nabisco stopped making them. Mondelēz Worldwide, Nabisco’s father or mother firm, confirmed this week that they’d “delisted” the cookie. That has left followers scrambling for options paying homage to the beloved traditional.
Jessie Sheehan is a baker and writer of Icebox Muffins: Recipes for the Coolest Muffins in City who loves the Nabisco Well-known Chocolate Wafers icebox cake.
“You would eat that cookie by itself. It simply has probably the most scrumptious sort of barely bitter however nonetheless a teeny bit candy chocolate taste,” says Sheehan.
Enlarge this picture toggle caption Brass Culinary Assortment/Michigan State College Libraries Brass Culinary Assortment/Michigan State College Libraries
A part of what individuals have at all times beloved about icebox truffles (of no matter kind) is not only how scrumptious they’re, however how simple they’re to make: mix these bittersweet cookies with candy cream, let it sit within the fridge for a number of hours, and it is performed.
The recognition of those desserts dates again to the rise of refrigeration and early twentieth century promoting, says Megan Elias, a historian of American meals who directs the Meals Research program at Boston College.
Because the identify suggests, icebox truffles started with literal iceboxes, which saved meals cool with a bit of ice. However as fridges grew to become extra widespread, the truffles went from uncommon deal with to attainable dessert.
toggle caption The Alan and Shirley Brocker Sliker Assortment/Michigan State College Libraries
“Fridges do not get reasonably priced till the Nineteen Twenties. After which that is once you actually start to see the craze of the icebox truffles,” says Elias.
She provides that a part of early fridge promotion included company cookbooks, which contained recipes for icebox truffles.
“They [wanted] individuals to worth the fridge. In order that they [had] to sort of create a brand new delicacies that [made] individuals consider the fridge as indispensable.”
Elias says early icebox cake recipes used sponge cake or ladyfingers, issues individuals needed to bake at dwelling. However when packaged truffles and cookies got here alongside, the icebox cake bought even simpler to make. Ultimately, the Nationwide Biscuit Firm, aka Nabisco, printed a recipe proper on the bundle of their Well-known Chocolate Wafers, which grew to become the beloved model many are mourning now.
“It is not a backside up recipe,” explains Elias. “It’s extremely very like inexperienced bean casserole the place it comes from the company, and but it turns into a lot a part of individuals’s lives. It is one thing they keep in mind from childhood.”
So what do you do when one of many essential components of that childhood reminiscence disappears from the cabinets?
There are, in fact, different chocolate cookies like Oreos or chocolate shortbreads. However devotees of Nabisco Well-known Chocolate Wafers say these haven’t got fairly the identical taste or texture. So to make the closest duplicate of this no-bake summertime cake, some are turning their ovens again on.
Baker and cookbook writer Zoë François not too long ago got here up with a recipe that she says is fairly darned near the unique.
She makes use of lower-gluten cake flour to get that delicate snap the cookies are recognized for, and Dutch course of cocoa powder, which is darker, for that zebra-striped impact within the completed cake. She additionally provides baking soda, as a result of the alkalinity makes the dough even darker.
Bake the cookies up, unfold on the whipped cream, and it is an icebox cake virtually like the unique.
Muffins comprised of home-baked or different cookies will in fact differ a bit from nostalgic reminiscence. However they’re simply the most recent chapter in the identical story: “it is about industrialization and meals,” says historian Megan Elias. “But in addition, it is nearly delight, proper?”
And a few dessert that’s good on a sizzling summer season day — it doesn’t matter what the cookie.
Enlarge this picture toggle caption Zoe Francois Zoe Francois
Chocolate Wafer Cookies & Ice Field Cake
From Zoë Bakes on Magnolia Community
Makes about 75 1½-inch cookies, and one very massive cake — you’ll be able to halve for a smaller model
Chocolate Wafer Cookies
1 1/4 cups (133g) cake flour
1/3 cup (37g) unsweetened cocoa powder, ideally Dutch course of
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1. In a small bowl, whisk collectively the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Within the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla extract on low pace till mixed. Improve to medium pace for a minute. Add the flour combination and blend on low simply till evenly mixed.
3. On a sheet of plastic wrap, kind the dough right into a 1 1/2-inch-thick log. Wrap and refrigerate till agency, not less than 1 hour. The cookie dough could be made the day earlier than or frozen for a number of weeks.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. Utilizing a pointy knife, slice the dough log into skinny rounds, about 1/8-inch-thick. Organize on the baking sheets and bake for about 8 minutes or till set (they’ll not be shiny). If baking multiple sheet at a time, you might wish to rotate the trays again to entrance and change from high to backside racks halfway by means of baking. Let the cookies cool utterly.
Ice Field Cake
Whipped Cream Filling:
4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Topping (non-compulsory)
2 cups heavy cream
1 tbsp confectioners’ sugar or extra to style
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Garnish:
Chocolate shavings for adorning
1. To assemble, line an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap. Put aside.
2. Within the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the chilled cream, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla on medium pace till very gentle, slouchy peaks kind.
3. Cowl the underside of the ready pan with a few 1/4-inch-thick layer of the cream. Line the skin of the pan with a number of the cookies. Unfold a layer of the cream on every cookie and layer them collectively within the pan vertically. It’s best to find yourself with about 3 rows of cookies and cream. This may occasionally fluctuate barely relying on how massive your cookies are. Cowl the highest with extra cream, so the cookies are utterly lined. Add a layer of cookies, this time urgent them flat over the cream, so they’re laying horizontally. Add two extra layers of cream and cookies, ending with a layer of cream. Cowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the cake for not less than 6 hours, however ideally in a single day.
4. To make the topping: After the cake has chilled, in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla on medium pace till simply stiff (don’t over beat). Style and modify the sweetness to your liking by beating in additional sugar.
5. Invert the icebox cake onto a serving platter. Frost the highest and sides of the cake with the whipped cream. If desired, pipe a design on the highest of the cake utilizing a pastry bag fitted with a star piping tip. Prime with chocolate shavings. Serve instantly or refrigerate till able to serve.
Notes
Chocolate wafer cookies tailored from “Zoë Bakes Cookies” by Zoë François © Ten Pace Press 2023. Offered courtesy of Zoë François. All rights reserved.
