No-bake chococake

On my way back from Italy, I made a short stop in Buenos Aires to visit my family. As a welcome treat, by brother's family made an Argentinian "chocotorta", made popular by a brand of packaged cookies, Chocolinas.

Back home but without all my kitchen equipment yet (thank you customs process), I was happy to recreate this delicious recipe with American ingredients. The process to assemble this cake is similar to my no-bake lime pie. It is sweet but also a bit sour, so not cloying at all. I promise you won't get tired of it any time soon.

This recipe calls for dulce de leche, a very common product in Argentina that you may have trouble finding here. For this reason, I include instructions to make it from a can of condensed milk.

My sister-in-law and her mom welcoming me

Ingredients

• One 8 oz. can of condensed milk (we HIspanics prefer La Lechera)
• One 8 oz. pack of cream cheese
• One box of chocolate graham crackers
• 2 cups of milk
• Sprinkles (optional)

You will also need

• A shallow baking dish where you will assemble and serve the cake.

Preparation

 Place the can of condensed milk in a pot that allows you to submerge it in water. Bring water and can to a boil, cook it for one and a half hour. Flip the can and cook it for another hour and a half. Let it cool enough to make it easy to handle. Voila, you have made dulce de leche. Open the can, pour the content in a bowl and add the cream cheese. Mix until you obtain a homogeneous cream.

Pour the milk in a shallow container. Submerge the graham crackers two or three at a time, and place in the bottom of the baking dish to form a layer. Cover with the dulce de leche cream. Add another layer of crackers and another of cream, until you finish with a layer of cream. Add sprinkles.

If you are curious to make the authentic chococake

Then you are lucky to live in the 21st Century, when a lot of products are available world-wide. Here are the Argentinian ingredients most commonly used: