Day 18 (Dish created on day 17)
Dish 13

Yesterday I made a cake called chocotorta from Argentina. I really really liked this cake... but I do have to say, I changed it around quite a bit. So it was not very authentic. I stupidly grabbed the wrong piece of paper for my shopping list yesterday, so I had to get all of my groceries from memory. And I think I got almost everything, but somehow I forgot to get cream cheese... So I improvised quite a bit. Nonetheless, it turned out really good! I would even liked it enough that I would make it my improvised way again on purpose! :)

Ingredients: Fyi, I am going to do my blog post based off of my improv version.

*Some kind of chocolate cookie/ biscuit. I used chocolate graham crackers.

*1 cup of strong coffee

* 1 can Coconut milk (Improved)

*1 small container of coconut yoghurt (Improved)

*Powdered sugar (Improved)

Note: instead of coconut milk, coconut yoghurt, and powdered sugar, you could use cream cheese. Because that was what I was supposed to use. But since I didn't have any, I read up on what is a good substitute for cream cheese... and apparently yoghurt is a good substitute. But we only had one tiny thing of coconut yoghurt so I needed something else. Then I learned that you can whip coconut milk with powdered sugar to make a whipped cream substitute. And hey, coconut, coffee, and caramel is a good combo so I decided to just roll with it! Anyhow, part of the fun in cooking is trying new things and pushing your limits.

*Dulce le leche. (Made with milk, sugar, baking soda, and vanilla.)

*Dark chocolate for garnishing. I didn't have any so I just crumbled graham crackers on top of my cake for decoration.





*So first you will want to make your dulce le leche. I think you can also buy it at the store... but it is not that hard to make, so you might as well save a bit of money. Note: you can also use dulce le leche as a filling for the Conejos con crema which I made a blog post about the other day.

*Combine 2 cups of milk, 3/4 cups of sugar, and 1/8 tsp. baking soda.

*Bring it to a boil, and immediately reduce the temperature to an even simmer. Stir every once in a while. After about 40 minutes or so, it should begin to turn slightly brown. At that point, you'll want to pay more attention to it and stir more often so that it doesn't burn. Let it continue to simmer until it is pretty thick. It'll thicken more after it cools, though, so don't stress if it doesn't seem too thick. It's better to have a slightly liquidy sauce then a burt one. Once it seems like a good consistency, add about 1 tsp. vanilla and immediately remove from heat. let it cool.

Here is what it should look like.

 
*Now you can whip up your coconut milk, yoghurt, and 1/2 powdered sugar. Only use the thick coconut stuff at the top of the can... leave the liquidy stuff. You can save it for smoothies, or mix it with milk. It'll seem pretty liquidy, but it should set more later.

Just for fun, here's a picture of my yoghurt!

And a picture of my whipped coconut milk stuff.

*Now it's time to begin assembling your chocotorta. Use a small pan and lay out one layer or two layers of graham crackers. Dump enough coffee onto this layer to get it soggy. 

*Now add a layer of coconut whipped cream.

*And drizzle on some creme le leche.

*Repeat the last three steps (Graham crackers, coffee, whipped cream, creme le leche.) until you are out of ingredients... I probably did about 3 layers.

*For the last layer, drizzle on your creme le leche and sprinkle some graham cracker dust or chocolate on the top.

And voila!

*Let it chill in the fridge for about 8 hours if possible. And then enjoy!

Thanks for reading!