When it comes to the hierarchy of cookies, I always rank chewy cookies first and put crunchy cookies dead last. I just can not abide by a hard, crumbly cookie. Who wants to bite into a cookie and feel so much give? You have to bite hard and inevitably wind up with crumbs running down your shirt and into your special pants your mom bought for you.
But that’s not to say any crisp in a cookie is bad. The crunch of a butter cookie can be quite delightful. And a cookie with crispy edges and a soft center straddles the line of the best of both worlds. That perfect cookie was called the Nabisco Brown Edge Wafer. And, sadly, it is no more. Why did Nabisco stop making Brown Edge Wafers? Does Nabisco still make Brown Edge Wafers? Where can I buy Nabisco Brown Edge Wafers? Let’s bite into this.
Why did Nabisco stop making Brown Edge Wafers?
Nabisco Brown Edge Wafers were the perfect little cookie. They had a nice, somewhat soft center and crispy brown edges. Also, you knew exactly what you were getting with those things: a wafer with a brown edge. While Nabisco labeled them as “Brown Edge Wafers,” these cookies were also known more generally as Swedish Butter Cookies. They were pretty much a basic butter cookie with one crucial ingredient added: potato flour. It was the potato flour that allowed those brown edges to crisp up so nicely.
Does Nabisco still make Brown Edge Wafers?
Sadly, the answer is no. After selling these wafers for years, Nabisco put them out to pasture around 1996. If these cookies were so good, so perfect, why did Nabisco discontinue them? Well, it turns out that sales of the Nabisco Brown Edge Wafer were just too low to continue selling them. Once again, we as consumers did not know how good we had it until the moment was gone. We blew it, gang. And we’ll never have our Nabisco Brown Edge Wafers again.
Where can I buy Nabisco Brown Edge Wafers?
If you came here hoping to find some kind of secret link to buy a fresh batch of Nabisco Brown Edge Wafers, I have some bad news to break to you. It’s not going to happen. Those cookies are gone my friend.
Outside of a few old vintage boxes, you’re not going to find Nabisco Brown Wafer cookies for sale anywhere. But don’t get too disappointed. If you still crave that brown edge and buttery middle then you can just get off your lazy butt and make some for yourself. That’s right, the recipe is out there and is fairly simple to follow.
All you have to do is cream butter and sugar together, then mix in some egg and vanilla extract. Sift flour with potato starch then mix into your butter mix and stir like crazy. Refrigerate that dough for an hour, then roll it out into little balls onto your baking sheet. Flatten them balls out. Use parchment paper to get edges crispier and more brown. Then bake at 375 for around 15 minutes. Finally, take them out of the oven and send them to me so I can eat them. I’ll call you back and let you know if you did it right.
I can still see my mom opening a new box of brown edge wafers, including the knife she always used! The sweetest memory!
We used to get the Nabisco Butter Cookies (round with a hole in the center and scalloped edge) all the time (as well as FFV Lemon Thin, which were much like these wafers). Great for dunking, more like the Danish butter cookies. Another great cookie that Nabisco did away with (along with the Nabisco name). But then, Oreos aren’t good anymore either–nothing like they used to be with crumbly, chocolatey wafers and soft creamy centers. Store-bought cookies aren’t really worth buying anymore, so… meh.
I remember the cookies with the hole in the middle.
I don’t remember ever seeing the Brown Edge Wafers here in Southern California and I don’t remember them ever being advertised. Maybe I thought they would be boring and erased them from my mind. I would try them now at this stage in my life though.