“Nillas” for Big Kids
I grew up eating Nabisco’s Nilla Wafers. They were a snack cupboard staple and I loved them. I loved them fresh and crisp, all rich butter-snap and artificial vanilla flavor. Sometimes, I would put an entire disc in my mouth, place it vertically between my teeth with my mouth open wide, seal my lips around the edges and breathe through the cookie, like a gas mask: Nilla Air. I also loved them stale, and soft. I’d suck on them until they disintegrated and I could press the crumbs into a ball with my tongue. I ate them right out of the box, by the handful. Sometimes, though not often, I’d dunk them in milk.
Maybe eight years ago or more, Nabisco changed the cookie’s recipe, and my love flagged a little bit. I don’t know what they did to the Nilla, and by now I doubt I could tell the difference. I only remember feeling awfully disappointed when I first realized they were different. I threw the whole package away. Perhaps my own tastes changed, but I don’t think so. The first few years were pretty rough, but, predictably, I got over the loss, stopped crying in the supermarket. I even forgot about them for a stretch. Now, I buy a box maybe once a year and I can appreciate them for what they are. The NewNilla isn’t so bad; it’s perfectly passable in fact.
I have come to believe, however, that I deserve a cookie that is more than passable. Imagine, then, how my little heart fluttered when I came upon a recipe for “Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers” in my newly aquired Bob’s Red Mill Baking Book. I am still on the fence about the Baking Book, so I was eager to try out another recipe. And what better test than a potential Nilla-replacement? A Nilla for grown-ups.
I followed the recipe exactly as outlined in the book. This alone is a congratulatable feat for me. Halfway through mixing, I thought that adding some almond extract might be a good idea – or rolling the dough in sesame seeds before baking, or – - – I like to fuss. I think I know better. (and I do, but this is immodest.) In order to judge a new recipe, however, you really have to make it their way at least once, just to know what you’re working with. It would be a shame to set to improve something that’s already exactly what it ought to be. And, though most recipes are never even close to what they ought to be, I am making an effort to give them at least one shot to show me their stuff.
The verdict: I will never recapture the NillaLove of my youth. In order to make a facsimile of the original Nilla Wafers, I would have to use more sugar and more hydrogenated fats than I am prepared to put into a cookie. But this cookie, this Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafer that Bob’s got in his book, is pretty good. I don’t think I would call them “wafers,” but the vanilla flavor is right on, and the addition of whole wheat flour adds a level of complexity to both flavor and texture absent the Nabisco cookie. Bake them until they are just browning on the edges for a softer cookie; bake them until they are golden for a crisper one. Flatten them a little before you put them in the oven and they might be passable as “wafers,” but I think the little cookie mounds that I made are just fine.
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Sonne
Reading this made me crave Nilla wafers, so I went and bought some–but I made the stupid mistake of buying the Reduced Fat version (to assuage the guilt that would inevitably arise from eating half of the box in one sitting). The flavor is fine–vanilla-y enough–but they just don’t dissolve like the real thing. Not even close. They’re crunchy, which is okay if you expect it, but when you expect something to softly disintegrate and it crunches, that’s bad news. Perhaps I’ll feed them to the birds, perhaps I’ll just wait until I’m having a desperate midnight snack-attack and have nothing else in the house. Lesson learned: Guilt is bullshit; sometimes the fat is worth it.
Daniel
Why they gotta go changin’ stuff? Used to be you could twist open an Oreo and flick the disgusting “icing” right off–now it sticks. I dunno what’s different about it, but I know something is different. Hydroxes are better anyway.
J9
Ah, but who would want an Oreo when you could have a Newman-O?
Jen
My mom used to make banana pudding with ‘Nilla Wafers. I think it was one of the preferred deserts of my childhood.
jai
banana puddin’….. had some of that recently in some little town in southern texas… a mexican buffet place….. it was so good…. reminded me of grade-school cafeteria food.