Chocolate Wafers

I love chocolate (who doesn’t?), but really, I LOVE chocolate. Even if a dessert recipe doesn’t call for chocolate, I’ll usually find a way to sneak some cocoa powder or chocolate chips in. I’m eating chocolate chips out of a bag as I type this. So when I was browsing Gourmet’s Favorite Cookie Recipes: 1941-2008 and I saw this recipe for Chocolate Wafers, I couldn’t resist. These are simple, easy to make, and dangerously yummy. The recipe calls for rum extract, and after an unsuccessful search for rum in my parent's cabinets, let alone extract, I gave up and used a dash of sherry for some sort of alcoholic/tangy component and replaced the rum extract with vanilla extract, which worked out well.

Chocolate Wafers, adapted from Gourmet Magazine (February 1950)

Yields about six dozen

• ¾ cup butter
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon rum extract (I used a dash of sherry and a tablespoon of vanilla extract)
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ cups sifted flour
• ¾ cups cocoa (I added an extra tablespoon…or two…of cocoa)
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (I used only a teaspoon since I feel like baking powder occasionally adds a metallic taste to cookies)
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar together gradually, until light and fluffy. Add rum extract (or vanilla extract) to the mixture and beat thoroughly.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Add the sifted dry ingredients gradually, mixing well after each addition to make a light dough (as I added more and more of the dry ingredients, the dough got increasingly fudge-like and not particularly “light.” Not a problem as it turns out, as it still yielded an awesome, lightly crispy cookie).

The Gourmet recipe calls for rolling out the dough on a floured surface and cutting with a 2 ½ inch diameter cookie cutter. I found a much easier solution, thanks to a commenter on Gourmet’s site; roll the dough into two small logs, and chill for at least an hour until firm enough to slice into 1/8 inch thick discs.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place rounds on an ungreased baking sheet, and bake for 8 minutes. Watch verrrryy carefully, as the cookies burn quickly. One cookie sheet I baked was a bit burnt, and still tasted excellent, but the ones I didn’t allow to bake as long ended up tasting better as they hardened naturally in Tupperware containers in the kitchen at room temp. Though they weren’t there long…

Original recipe can be found here.