The Bella Chocolate cookie torte
Recipe & Food Styling Mari Loewen, Photography Ross Cornish
My daughter Isabella’s favourite birthday cake, The Chocolate Cookie Torte. I think at one point it became The Bella Torte! Every birthday the same request, it really becomes the centre of attention. Made with crepe style chocolate cookies, ground walnuts, and whipped cream. It is buttery, sugary, salty, walnuty, chocolaty, decadent, and delicious. Patience is required, but it’s sooooo worth the effort!
Ingredients
Cookie layers
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 cup walnuts, ground
Cream filling
2 cups whipping cream, chilled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
dash of sea salt
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Preparation
Preheat oven to 375°F. Place butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium. Add eggs, one at a time, mix until well combined. In separate bowl, melt 3 tablespoons butter with cocoa and add to the butter sugar mixture. Add vanilla and mix well.
In another bowl, sift flour and salt and slowly add to batter; beat at low speed for one minute. Add ground walnuts and beat to combine.
For cookie layers, use cup-sized measuring cup or ice cream scoop and form dough into balls. Cut 20 sheets of wax paper into 12-inch by 12-inch squares. Place a dough ball between two wax paper sheets, and roll into 9-inch round layers. Continue with all balls. Transfer a cookie layer onto parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven, transfer to cooling rack. Continue with each cookie until all are baked. Cool.
For cream filling, place cream, vanilla, icing sugar, cocoa, and salt in bowl of electric mixer and beat until thick but smooth, 3-5 minutes. Be careful not to over beat. Assemble the torte by placing a dollop of cream onto your serving stand (to prevent it from slipping), then layer with 1/2 cup filling between each layer. Make sure to spread it to the outer edges of each layer, and keep layering until all cookies are used. Place in refrigerator overnight (this is important as it allows the cookies to soften). Serve chilled.
