Chocotorta from Argentina

Chocotorta aus Argentinien

Chocotorta is a cake from Argentina that is typically served on birthdays. Usually it does not require for you to turn on the oven as it basically contains store-bought cookies (called “chocolinas” in Argentina), the caramel cream dulce de leche, and cream cheese. If you have these ingredients at hand, you can already prepare a simple chocotorta. I included a chocolate ganache on top of this, but that is optional. However, my recipe below also includes making the cookies from scratch and for that reason we are going to turn on the oven after all.

Chocotorta aus ArgentinienChocotorta definitely is a decadent dessert, I will not keep this a secret. If you have cookies, caramel, and cream cheese as the main players, well, there is nothing really healthy about this cake. You most likely will only manage to eat a small piece. The good thing though is that a chocotorta will keep for a while. If properly chilled, for sure for a week in the fridge. Chocotorta is very happily eaten in Argentina and there are a variety of recipes. Even the neighboring country Uruguay has the chocotorta fever by now. Traditionally chocotorta is served as a square cake, it simply is easier to stack rectangular cookies in a brownie form. However, below recipe lists both options, square and round. Since we will be making the cookies ourselves, I decided to take a little short cut and already make larger circles in the diameter of the cake so that the cookies don’t need to be pressed into a certain shape.

Chocotorta aus Argentinien

Chocotorta from Argentina

Serves: One 18cm/6 inch ∅ cake
Cooking Time: 30min

Chocotorta from Argentina is a layered dessert consisting of chocolate cookies and caramel cream that is mixed with cream cheese. It is often served instead of a birthday cake.

Ingredients

  • Dough for Chocolate Cookies (if you want to make them yourself)
  • 300 grams of all-purpose flour
  • 50 grams of unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 100 grams of regular sugar
  • 200 grams of cold butter
  • 1 egg
  • Some milk
  • Alternatively about 600 grams of store-bought chocolate cookies

  • Chocotorta
  • 1 can of 400 grams dulce de leche, how you can make it yourself, I explain in this blog post
  • 450 grams of cream cheese
  • 150 grams of milk or coffee for brushing
  • 80 grams of heavy cream
  • 80 grams of semi-sweet chocolate
  • 100 grams of dulce de leche for decorating

Instructions

1

How I make the chocotorta you can see in this video.

2

For the chocolate cookie combine the flour, cocoa powder and sugar in a large bowl, then add the cold butter in chunks and rub into crumbs the size of peas. Add the egg and work into a ball, you may need to add a bit of milk if it is too dry. Wrap tightly and chill for at least half an hour or overnight. Take out a baking sheet and line with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Divide the dough and half and roll one half on a floured surface. Cut out circles, mine had 18cm in diameter. This means I could bake 3 circles at the same time. Bake for about ten minutes and repeat with the remaining dough, in total I usually get between 8-9 circles and have a bit dough left. Let cool and wrap tightly until further use.

3

For the chocotorta cream the dulce de leche with cream cheese. Prepare the milk/coffee. Dunk the cookies in milk/coffe and line either a square brownie form with them or simply brush the first circle with it. Now smear about three tablespoons of the dulce de leche cream on top. Repeat procedure until you have no cookies/circles left. The top layer should be the dulce the leache cream. Chill for a few hours or overnight. You can leave the torta as is or decorate some more. Common decorations are to either sprinkle some cocoa powder or chocolate shavings on top. You may also go for ganache. In that case bring the heavy cream almost to a boil. Meanwhile roughly chop the chocolate. Stir in the chocolate and wait until the mixture has cooled off a bit. Then spead on top. You can also pipe on some ganache decorations or pipe on some dulce de leche, this is what I did. If properly chilled, chocotorta will keep for a week.

Chocotorta aus ArgentinienP.S.: If you want to make another very festive cake from Argentina, how about torta or postre Balcarce, see pictured below.

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4 Comments

  • Reply
    Barbara
    Saturday February 19th, 2022 at 11:52 AM

    Hallo Jenny,
    mit den selbstgebackenen Keksen gefällt mir dieser Kuchen sehr gut!
    Interessant irgendwie, dass es so viele Versionen des Kalten Hunds gibt. Die Füllung hier gefällt mir viel besser als die deutsche mit hartem Kokosfett und (Billig-)Kuvertüre…
    Liebe Grüße
    Barbara

    • Reply
      Jenny
      Saturday February 19th, 2022 at 02:44 PM

      In Südamerika ist es eher unüblich den Ofen anzuschmeißen und selber Kuchen zu backen. Von daher ist alles, was “no bake” ist, immer gern gesehen. Uns hat der Kuchen sehr geschmeckt. Falls du ihn ausprobieren solltest, gib gern Bescheid!

  • Reply
    Lisa
    Monday July 31st, 2023 at 08:52 AM

    Vielen Dank für dieses Rezept! Den Kuchen mache ich heute für meinen Mann zum Geburtstag! Er ist aus Argentinien und schwärmt immer von chocotorta, weil es die zum Geburtstag als Kind öfter gab.

    • Reply
      Jenny
      Tuesday August 1st, 2023 at 07:23 PM

      Berichte gerne, ob es funktioniert. Bei Fragen bin ich da!

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