chocolate chip icebox cake

one day, i was sitting watch one of my favorite chefs, ina garten. she made an icebox cake and had a unique spin on it by using chocolate chip cookies instead of wafers. that peaked my interest! my family loves chocolate chip cookies and this dessert seemed perfect for them. i turned it into a more budget friendly recipe by using homemade chocolate chips cookies and adding my own unique touches to the cream (outlined below). it is extremely hard to wait on this cake to sit overnight... actually it's excruciating. but it is absolutely worth the wait!
ingredients:
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese - room temperature
- 1/3 cup sugar -
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder -
- 2 cups heavy cream -
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips -
- 21 cookies chocolate chip cookies - recipe link below
instructions:
- make a batch of my simple chocolate chips cookies recipes. allow the cookies to cool.
- in a large bowl, cream the cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. add in the cocoa powder and blend.
- carefully blend in the heavy cream until thickened.
- layer the cookies across the bottom of a 8-inch spring form pan. i used 7 and 1/2 cookies in each layer but your amount will depend on the size of your cookies. break the cookies up to fit in the corners.
- add 1/3 of the cream over the top of the cookies. repeat 3 more times until you have 3 layers of each.
top the cake with the mini chocolate chips.
- cover with aluminum foil and allow to refrigerate overnight.
- remove the aluminum foil. using a small knife, line the inside of the spring form pan, to avoid sticking and remove the sides of the pan.
slice and serve...
this cake is showing off for this photo shoot... 🙂
take a bite...
fyi - i made this cake twice. one time, i folded the mini chocolate chips into the cream and garnished it with crumbled chocolate chip cookies. the choices we have to make... 🙂
frugal points:
- i used cream cheese instead of marscarpone cream like ina. cream cheese is half the price and i actually like the tanginess in this dessert.
- also, to cut down on the cost of her recipe, i made my own cookies. one bag of cookies can easily cost at least $3 and you will need 2 bags of chocolate chip cookies for this recipe.
- lastly, i left out the kahlua, cut down on the sugar and did not add the espresso powder.
-recipe inspired by ina garten.