mi maestra de chocotorta / my chocotorta teacher

Steph holding the finished
chocotorta

Argentine's love sweets and I have a grown a larger sweet tooth while being here. One of the delicious Argentine desserts is called "chocotorta", basically chocolate cake. I have eaten many but have never made it before so I asked my good friend Steph (pictured right) to teach me how to make one. It is layers of chocolate and dulce de leche (similar to caramel but better) with a twist, aka DELICIOUS! We made it in my apartment this past weekend so I asked her to share a bit about chocotorta and why it is so amazing!

So what's the deal with chocotorta..?

The chocotorta, as many people think, does not mean "chocolate cake" but "chocolina cake". Chocolinas are the cookies that we use to prepare this amazing dessert. This cake was my birthday cake as long as I can remember, and I think I'm speaking for most of the argentinos here when I say there's no birthday without chocotorta. It's something that kids and grown ups enjoy equally, so I think that is why is so important to us (besides from the fact that is a cake that WE ARGENTINES invented, and are so proud of that). 

How do you prepare it?

I think this is the first thing that I ever learned how to "cook". I would make a chocotorta with my mom for every family birthday until I learned to do it on my own (sorry mom, but I think mine is better now). I gained a reputation among my friends for my chocotorta when I was in High School, and I will tell you how I make it. 

Ingredients:

Chocolinas

Dulce de Leche

Queso Blanco (Cream cheese)

Ground coffee
Milk (optional)

This is the easiest and most delicious cake you'll ever make. I'll give you the instructions to make it look pretty (cause it can get a little messy)

-Wrap a "tupper/cake mold" in plastic paper

-Disolve the coffee in cold water with some cold milk. This might sound weird but if you use hot water the cookies will fall apart. ---Then coat each cookie in the coffee and place it in the tupper to make the first layer.

-The filling is a mix of dulce de leche and queso blanco (just heavenly). With a spatula, spread the filling and cover all of the cookies. 

-Repeat! Add another layer of cookies and so on until you've run out of them or you feel like your chocotorta is high enough. Suggestion: make at least 4 layers of cookies.

-After you're done, place your chocotorta in the frigde for a few hours. If you can keep it there overnight, better!

-Once the cake is really cold, it's time for only "tricky" part of this. You have to unmold the cake. Turn the mold around on a tray and help yourself with the plastic paper to take it out. 

- Add a final layer of dulce de leche and queso blanco as frosting and decorate with crumbled chocolinas! 

- ENJOY!! 

Why is it called chocotorta?

The chocotorta didn't have a name at first, most of the people called it "Torta de chocolinas", until Freddo released an ice cream flavour a few years ago called "Chocotorta", recreating our famous cake. I think this is when everyone started calling it "chocotorta", I know I did at least. 

Any fun chocotorta stories to share?

I remember once, the chocotorta my mom had made was a little dry and she didn't know how to make it more moist. She works at a Pharmacy and we had syringes at home, so she had a brillian idea. She put the coffee inside the syringe and injected the chocotorta with some more coffee. It worked perfectly! 

Thanks Steph for sharing!