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When you’re in the market for an elegant dessert that’s not too fussy, the first place to look is in one of Ina Garten’s cookbooks. Within those pages, you’ll find our all-time favorite dessert from her. The Barefoot Contessa is known for recipes that can impress a dinner guest without requiring too many steps, and she’s famous for reminding her fans that store-bought is fine. Take, for instance, her dark chocolate tart, which is a rich and decadent treat filled with chocolate mousse and ganache, all contained in an extra dark chocolate crust. You might be surprised to learn that her crust isn’t made completely from scratch. Instead, Garten uses Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers (yes, “Famous” is part of the name) as the base for her luxurious treat.
The process for making a crust like Garten’s is pretty easy. All she does is grind the cookies into a coarse powder, mixes them with sugar and unsalted butter to make sticky crumbs, and then presses the mixture into the tart pan, much like a graham cracker crust for a cheesecake. The only problem is that Nabisco discontinued those particular cookies in 2023. Not to fear, however, as there are a few alternatives to choose from. Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers were made with black cocoa, the darkest variety of cocoa powder you can get, which gives them that deep depth of color and flavor. With that in mind, let’s discuss a few cookie alternatives for making that show-stopping chocolate tart crust.
Look for cookies that use black cocoa
If you’ve never heard of black cocoa, it’s made from the same beans as regular cocoa powder and Dutch-processed cocoa, only it’s ultra Dutch-processed to give it that dark color and subtle chocolate flavor. This technique of treating cocoa uses an alkaline solution to temper its bitterness and darken the color. You won’t often see it in recipes for things like brownies or chocolate cake unless the goal is a very dark appearance, like in a devil’s food cake. So if you’re in need of a cookie substitute for Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers, just look for crispy, store-bought cookies that are made with black cocoa.
Ina Garten’s recipe, derived from her friend Erin French’s cookbook, “The Lost Kitchen,” calls for Dewey’s Brownie Crisp Cookies, which are simple round wafers with a telltale dark color that only black cocoa can create. If you can’t find them in the grocery store, Dewey’s cookies are available on Amazon for under $8. If that’s more than you want to spend, you don’t have to scour the grocery store too hard; one of the most famous treats of all time, Oreos, are made with black cocoa. Look for Oreo Thins, which don’t have a lot of the white cream in the center, but keep in mind that the crust will come out a little lighter in color because of the filling, unless you scrape it off of each cookie. And if you have a few Oreos left over? No problem — you can use those Thins to make an easy icebox cake.
