I’m just going to assume that if you read the blog you probably follow me on instagram which means you saw that last week I was trying to live my life in Mexico where the micheladas flow like a river into my mouth. What you didn’t see was that 5 days in I got food poisoning and had a very limited range in regards to travel because I didn’t know where to get a toilet that could be strapped to my body. But in not TMI news there’s a michelada post to school the children in the werks.
When I was able to move it was pretty much to the convenience store to buy 2 giant bottles of water and cookies and chocolate ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Those Marias cookies above were definitely purchased and I just pretended they were saltines and good for me and had weird memories about my mom buying them for us when I was a kid. They’re basically those animal crackers but, you know, not shaped like animals. They’re not very sweet and have sort of a lemony flavor, and they’re perfect for something like an icebox cake/pie/excuse to eat whipped cream.
At it’s simplest form the icebox cake is just a bunch of cookies or whatever stacked up with whipped cream then it’s left in the fridge where the cookies or whatever softens from the cream and sort of becomes one with said whipped cream. It’s a glorious magical thing.
I thought I was going to be super cute and use dulce de leche with the cream and have it taste sort of like an alfajor, which is this cornstarch cookie with dulce de leche filling, but instead it just tasted really good with a gentle touch of the alfajor. We’re still living our life, it’s okay.
There’s also cream cheese with the whipped cream because I’m a patriotic american and I like there to be a little more body-ody-ody to my icebox cakes. This cake itself is actually pretty rich so naturally I put just a little more dulce de leche over the top with a sprinkle of maldon then eat 4 pieces while listening to bitch better have my money.
To health and sugar!
Alfajor-ish Icebox Pie
Makes 1 9″ Pie (will easily serve 8 if everyone has good self control)
This can sort of be assembled any way you want, obviously I’m choosing the pie dish path but you could use a springform or cake pan if you want to drive off in that direction. For the dulce de leche I highly reccomend this one. I’ve found it at several safeway/vons so I’d check there first, but I know walmart also carries it because their hispanic aisle is insanely good. I’ve found the marias cookies at every grocery store I went to.
8 oz cream cheese, very much softened, basically room temp
1 cup dulce de leche, if you buy the can you’ll probably have leftover which is perfect because you need a little more for serving
pinch of salt
1 pint (2 cups) heavy cream
1 sleeve of marias cookies + maybe a few more cookies because you’ll eat a few while making the pie.
flaky maldon for serving
In the bowl of a stand mixer beat together the cream cheese, dulce de leche, and salt with the whisk attachment until it’s smooth. You’re probably going to have to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times to make sure it blends completely.
Once it’s all one being, add the heavy cream and turn the mixer on to stir (lowest setting) then once it’s sort of mixed together turn the mixer to medium high, or medium if it gets sloppy, until the mixture is fluffy but thickened and firm and you have stiff peaks.
Be careful not to go too far or you could end up curdling the cream and begin to make butter. There’s a time and place for that, this isn’t it.
Once the mixture is whipped then we can assemble. Line the bottom of a 9″ pie plate with the cookies, you might need to break a few to get them to fit, then cover with about 3/4″ of the cream mixture. Layer with another round of cookies, carefully pressing them into the cream (this makes it easier to spread the next round of cream). Add another 3/4″ of cream then repeat this two more times. By the end you should have 4 layers of cookies and 4 layers of cream, ending with the cream.
Let the cake sit for at least 4 hours (max 24), then serve with a little bit of warmed dulce de leche and a sprinkle of maldon/happiness.
