Chocolate Refrigerator Cake

I had a beautiful Shabbat this past weekend, spent with friends in one of my favorite places, the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem. For both of my meals, I was put on dessert duty. I'm always happy to make desserts but lately I've been realizing that it's easier to make difficult life decisions than decide what to make for dessert. It's actually pretty sad :) I spent part of my in-day on Tuesday researching desserts (yes, baking constitutes research for me!) that would be great for a hot day and as I was flipping through all my books I was hit with inspiration. Chocolate Refrigerator Cake! Or Cookies and Cream Cake. Whichever you think will elicit a better reaction from your eaters.This cake comes from the fifties but is no less of a success now than it was then. Made with chocolate wafer cookies layered with whipped cream and then stacked in rows in a pan, the cake is chilled overnight where the cookies soften into a wonderful cake-like consistency. You can use store-bought chocolate wafers or make your own, as I chose to do here. I used the recipe from the Cookie Companion but you can also use the cocoa wafer recipe found here. Once the cookies are made, this is a breeze to put together. The response to this dessert was overwhelmingly positive. At both meals where I served this, people LOVED it! With cookies and cream involved, it's not too difficult to understand why, but still my roommate placed this in her favorites of all time category and she's been eating my baking for two years now! Needless to say, if you're looking for a fun dessert to make this summer, this should be it.

Chocolate Refrigerator Cake
from the Cookie Companion

Cookies:
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine
1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla

Assembly:
2 cups whipping cream
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp vanilla

For the cookies: whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. Place the margarine in the bowl of your mixer and beat until light. Add the sugar and continue beating until well incorporated. Add the egg, water and vanilla and beat for two minutes. Gently mix in the dry ingredients. Scrape the dough together and cover it with plastic to refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight. This is an extremely soft dough, so make sure it's thoroughly chilled. The next day, working with one half at a time, roll out the dough to about an 1/8 inch thickness on a very well floured surface. Using a 2 1/4 inch round cutter.

 Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake in a 325 preheated oven for about 15 minutes. They will harden as they cool.Watch them carefully- it's hard to tell when they're done because they are so dark. Once they begin to smell, they're probably ready.

 Cool on a wire rack completely.

 To make the cake, beat the cream in the bowl of your mixer until stiff. Fold in sugar and vanilla.

 Using an offset spatula, spread one cookie with cream and top with another.  Continue until you have about six or seven cookies stacked. Repeat with remaining cookies.

 Line a loaf pan with aluminum foil. Spread some cream on the bottom and the sides of the pan.

 Place the cookie stacks on their sides in the pan.

Smear the top of the cookie stacks with some more whipped cream. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Cut the cake at an angle, or not- either way, the stripes of cake and cream are awesome to look at. Enjoy!