Cocoa Wafers

Fair warning: This may be the last time you buy chocolate wafer cookies. Alice Medrich has a recipe that is so easy and so delicious, you really won't be able to spend money on packaged cookies again without feeling a tinge of doubt and/or regret.

These cocoa wafers live up to their reputation. They're thin, super crisp and full of a deep dark cocoa sensation that captures your approval at your very first bite. Not too sweet, not too buttery, not too rich, they're ready in no time flat. And really, it doesn't get any easier. The cookie dough is made in a food processor with basic ingredients and then formed into logs. Once the logs have thoroughly chilled for a couple of hours - the wait is the hardest part - you just slice up the cookies, plop them on a lined baking sheet and in 12 minutes, you're in the zone.

Go ahead. Pour a steaming hot cup of good strong coffee or an ice cold glass of milk and congratulate yourself. You've just had the perfect chocolate wafer.

Bench notes:

- I made these with undutched (natural) cocoa powder. I haven't tried them with dutched.

- If you're short on time, place the logs of cookie dough in the freezer for an hour.

- I baked mine exactly 12 minutes. The cookies crisp up as they cool. If they don't, you didn't bake them long enough. Just put them back in the oven for a couple of minutes and then let them cool.

- Cookies will store airtight for up to 2 weeks or frozen up to 2 months.

- This is a great cookie for small ice cream sandwiches, icebox cakes or crushed to make a cookie crust for cheesecake or cream pies.

Cocoa Wafers

adapted from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich

Makes about 50 1 3/4" wafers

1 1/2 C flour

3/4 C cocoa powder (natural preferred)

1 C + 2 T sugar

1/4 t salt

1/4 t baking soda

7 oz (14 T) butter, slightly softened

3 T milk

1 t vanilla

Place the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and baking soda in the bowl of a food processor and process until thoroughly mixed. Cut the butter into small pieces and add them to the bowl. Process for about 10 - 15 seconds.

Combine the milk and vanilla. With the processor running, add the liquid and pulse until the mixture clumps around the blade or at the sides of the bowl. The dough will be very soft.

Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment and form a log about 14" long and 1 3/4" in diameter. Roll the log up in the parchment, wrap in plastic and chill until firm, 1 - 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment or silpats.

Cut the cookie dough into scant 1/4" slices and place them 1 " apart on the lined baking sheets. Bake 12 - 15 minutes. Cool completely on baking sheets set on a wire rack.