BVC Eats: Chocotorta, an Argentinian tiramisu

This stuff is pretty gooey. Its chief merit is that you can make it in about ten minutes. You still have to chill it for several hours or the darned thing just slip-slop-slides apart. Most of my desserts look pretty beat up, even when they’re untouched (like this one above), but if you chill it a good long time, you’ll be spared the usual Jennifer Presentation Godawful Mess.

CHOCOTORTA

Adapted from a recipe by Sandra Gutierrez at thekitchen.com

Makes 9-12 servings

1 can dulce de leche, room temp
8 oz cream cheese, room temp
1 t vanilla extract
½ c cold heavy cream
1 c whole milk
1 T instant espresso
around 1 ¾ lbs chocolate cookies – I used two boxes of Davies brownie crisps
1 T cocoa powder

Line an 8”x8” pan with plastic wrap. I tried it with my medium French casserole. Use two overlapping sheets of plastic wrap laid crossways, with enough overhang to cover the whole dish when it is full.

Beat 1½ cups room temp thick dulce de leche, 8oz room temp cream cheese, and 1 teaspoon vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth.

While mixer is running, pour in ½ cup cold heavy cream and beat for 1 minute. Increase speed to high and beat until mixture is light, fluffy, and spreadable, about 1 minute longer. Refrigerate ¾ cup of this mixture for the top.

Dissolve 1 Tablespoon instant espresso powder in 1 cup whole milk in a wide bowl.

One at a time, dip the chocolate cookies quickly in the milk-coffee mixture and arrange in a single tight layer in the baking pan, breaking them as needed to fit. I simply doubled the cookie layer, alternating them to fill the gaps. Spread about ½ cup of the dulce mix over the cookie layer. Use up the cookies and top with the dulce mix.

Be a little chintzy with the dulce mix, or it’ll be too soupy when you cut into it. As you can see, mine has a certain “How can you spoil all my wonderful wickedness” quality.

Cover the top of the chocotorta with the overhanging plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to overnight so the cookies can get mushy and the whole thing can firm up.

Peel the plastic wrap from the top, cover the top with a serving plate and flip it upside down, keeping the plate and pan together. Remove the baking pan and plastic wrap.

With a spatula, frost the top with reserved ¾ c dulce mix and dust with cocoa powder and espresso powder.

In my opinion this is not as good as tiramisu. I tried a more traditional tiramisu a couple of weeks later, using ladyfingers. The Davies cookies were better than the ladyfingers, but the creamy filling, which I made without eggs and with sweetened whipped cream and mascarpone, was superior to the dulce de leche filling. YMMV. Dulce de leche has a much more caramel-like flavor, and if you love caramel, this may be just your fix.