Chocotorta is a dessert originally from Argentina. In 1975, Bagley launched a variety of small chocolate cookies of the brand Chocolinas. In many populations of the South of Santa Fe, people started to make this cake at home, known as “the dessert of chocolinas”. Benefitting from the popularity and diffusion of this specialty in the whole country, the own established company of the cookies started to include this dessert, that was renamed as Chocotorta, in its recipe books and advertisements, a campaign for which Marité Mabragaña was in charge of, according to the company Bagley. In contrast to the original recipe in which the cake is made with dulce de leche and cream, the latter one was replaced with cream cheese in the new mixture, in the style of the American Cheesecake.
Characteristics
editThe chocotorta is a very common dessert in Argentinian households, although rarely offered in restaurants and cafeterias, and it is inspired by the Italian Tiramisú. It is known to be easy to prepare and bake, since its main ingredients do not require any cooking. There is a strong controversy if the chocotorta can be considered a cake or rather a simple dessert that only requires little work. Other editors quote similar predecessors to the mentioned one: a dessert of similar characteristics was already part of the menu in San Martín College in Avellaneda in the 1970s. In its preparation coffee was used to soak the cookies, while the rest of the ingredients and the way to combine and present them were the same as in the later launch of the chocotorta.
History
editIn 1982, the advertising executive Marité Mabragaña, a gastronomy enthusiast and first boss in creative advertising to be employed by the agency De Luca, introduced the cake to celebrate a birthday. People liked it that much that she had to make two more and bring them to her clients: the owners of the Chocolinas cookies which were produced by the soon to be Bagley company in Argentina, the owner of the cheese cream Mendicrim of the SanCor cooperative and the landlord of the disappeared company that produced the Ronda dulce de leche. Although the brands were fascinated by the idea of Marité, it took them about a year to make the commercial due to difficulties because of business Co-brandingcobranding. From the beginning of the appearance of the commercial, which was broadcasted for almost two years, sales of Chocolinas and Mendicrim increased exponentially. After this success, Marité came up with the idea of dipping the chocolate cookies in pasteurized milk (as opposed to the dessert tiramisu, which is dipped in coffee). They should be alternated with the layers of dulce de leche and cream cheese, so that the layers of the well soaked chocolate cookies stay at the bottom of the dessert and the upper layer should have a rectangular shape.
Soon, other chocotorta recipes appeared. They include the soaking of the chocolate cookies in liqueurs, such as Port wine or Hesperidina, in Glucose syrup, in chocolate milk, sprinkling the top with pieces of peanuts, almonds, cashews, several kinds of pine nuts (for example from the Brazilian pine tree, the Chilean pine tree or from the pecan tree), Mantecol flakes (the mantecol can be inserted between the layers of cream and dulce de leche); different sorts of jams, etc.
It can be served instantly (after preparing) or cold, but never hot. Since the chocotorta is made with perishable ingredients (cream cheese, or cream), it should be consumed within a few hours after its preparation; or it should be kept in the fridge for a couple of days until consumption.
Recipe
editIngredients
edit- Milk or chocolate milk or strong coffee
- Chocolate cookies
- Dulce de leche
- Milk cream and/or
- Cream cheese
Preparation
edit1. In a cup, mix the water with the chocolate milk, or prepare a strong coffee.
2. Mix 4 tablespoons of dulce de leche with milk cream and cream cheese and
whip it until you obtain a homogeneous mixture.
3. Then, put one layer of cookies moistened with coffee or chocolate milk in a
bowl.
4. Put one layer of the mixture of cream or cream cheese and one of dulce de
leche on top.
5. Continue like that and make layers. At the end, on the last layer, put graded
chocolate.
6. Place in the fridge for 1 to 3 hours or more, to achieve better consistency.