When Fine Cooking published this recipe the editors said, “This impressive and insanely delicious dessert requires only six ingredients. … Italian chocolate-filled sandwich cookies make a crust reminiscent of a Kit Kat bar. …”
All you need is a springform pan, the kind where the bottom snaps off. Basically, this no-bake wonder is a combination of chocolate cookies, chocolate chips, cream and a touch of butter. Wow-o-wow.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter unsalted, melted; more for the pan
- 8 ounces Italian chocolate wafer sandwich cookies Quadratini, or other chocolate wafers, such as Famous
- 9 ounces semisweet chocolate chopped (about 1½ cups); more for garnish
- 1.5 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- pinch kosher salt
- 3.75 cups heavy cream
Servings:
Instructions
- Butter a 9-inch springform pan. Grind the cookies in a food processor until they resemble wet sand, 20 to 30 seconds; you will have about 1.75 cups. Transfer to a small bowl and mix in the butter. Spread the crumbs in the pan, cover with plastic wrap, and press evenly into the bottom. Refrigerate.
- Combine the chocolate, .5 teaspoon of the vanilla, and the salt in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, bring .75 cup of the cream to a bare simmer. Pour the cream over the chocolate, let sit for 1 minute, then whisk until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to cool.
- Beat 1.5 cups of the cream in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed to stiff peaks, about 2 minutes. Whisk the chocolate mixture to loosen it, and fold it into the whipped cream with a large silicone spatula until no streaks remain.
- Carefully peel the plastic wrap off the crust and scrape the mousse into the pan, gently spreading it to the edges. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours and up to 2 days.
- Just before serving, beat the remaining 1.5 cups cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a medium bowl to medium-stiff peaks. Run a knife around the pie to loosen its edges and then remove the side of the pan. Slide a spatula under the crust and transfer the pie to a serving plate. Mound the whipped cream over the mousse and top with chocolate curls, shards, or shavings. To serve, dip a knife into hot water and dry it before slicing.
Where do I find these Italian wafer cookies for the no-bake pie?
Faith – first and foremost, I love your show!! and am on-line now because I need to order that Bahn Mi book you are talking about today.
Now the reason for the comment. I made this no bake mousse cake and although was a hit with my guests, I was disappointed. Yes, it is 6 ingredients and no-bake, but it was more work than it needed to be and could have tasted the same but have been much simpler to make. A couple of examples, 1) whipping cream twice.. really? you could have whipped it all and just split it in half. And 2)do you see how they ask you to melt the chocolate? next time microwave in the same bowl… just as nice. It unnecessarily used a lot of kitchen gadgets (food processor, mixer, whisk, stove) during the summer, I would rather use a couple more ingredients and cut my workload! My fault for not reading it all the way through before starting.
Thanks for listening!
Chris, you are our kind of person! Chris Prosperi and I talk about this all the time, how some recipes call for an absurd number of steps and pieces of equipment. We ran that chocolate recipe because it tasted good, explaining why it was a hit with your guests, so I do make exceptions. Perhaps you’ll appreciate this, something I’ve talked about on the show: a well known New York chef came to my studio, sat down, and told our listeners that the first step in one of his recipes was to make a rabbit stock. Some things are so hilarious it’s best not to say a word, or I can’t speak because I’m desperately trying not to laugh. Rabbit stock was one of those times. Thanks for helping to make us better. And we’ll keep trying to get our authors to simplify, simplify. Happy holidays, Faith