chocolate + lemon

Having mentioned my favorite chocolate wafer recipe, I figured that I should also put it up! Of all of the chocolate-and-fruit pairings, I love chocolate and lemon the best – the richness of the chocolate pairs well with the acidity and floral flavor of the lemon. It’s a pairing that is less sweet than chocolate and raspberry, and more unexpected than chocolate and orange. I also find that the lemon stands up to the chocolate, whereas raspberry and orange are meeker pairings. For those of you who don’t want your chocolate adulterated with fruit, well, I’ll just tell you that you’re missing out. All of this, however, is just a preamble to say that I make these chocolate wafers primarily to make icebox cakes.

Specifically, an icebox cake made from layers of wafers and lemon mascarpone cream. The lemon mascarpone cream is something I’ve used in the past to both fill and frost a cake, so if you’re looking for a cake frosting, this one is excellent. It has a bit more body from the mascarpone cream, which helps it keep its shape better than a whipped cream frosting (the healthy dose of gelatin also helps). I made it for a cake that I brought to work a while back, and only used about half of it; the rest of it got made into icebox cake with Anna’s brand gingersnaps (my favorite for making cheesecake crusts). The wonder of icebox cakes is osmosis: you take something very dry, combine it with something relatively wet, and you end up with something that tastes like a cross between cake and pudding. Many icebox cakes are made with storebought wafers and whipped cream, and are popular in the summer, when turning on the oven is anathema.

Knowing me, you know that I like to make things a little more complicated. Don’t get me wrong – the gingersnap-and-lemon icebox cake was pretty excellent; but this chocolate-and-lemon version is even better. The wafers have some heft to them – they’re not quite as airy as a storebought wafer, though they have the same snap to them. This allows them to get soft from the lemon cream, but not too soft (as in, you can have a leftover tupperware of this cake in your fridge for two weeks and it will both be still good and not too mooshy).

I’ve also made these chocolate wafers on their own (most recently for my sister’s baby shower). This is an easy dough to make in your food processor, and slices very well. I have tried adding lemon zest (a LOT of it – 3 lemons’ worth) and it did not do a thing – the wafers are darkly chocolaty, and do not brook opposition from any competing flavors that you could add to cookie dough. The lemon curd in the lemon cream, by the way, can be from the store or homemade. Lemon curd from the store tends to be less acidic and more muted than the homemade version, so if you have the time, I would recommend making your own – it’s very easy!
chocolate wafers
(adapted from Alice Medrich, the queen of chocolate recipes)

1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (2.4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder (use good cocoa – I used Valrhona, which provides a nice, dark, deep chocolate flavor)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon dark rum

1. Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times to mix thoroughly. Cut the butter into 1-tablespoon chunks and add them to the bowl; also add the lemon zest if using. Pulse several times (the mixture will look like wet sand). Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the processor running, add the milk mixture and process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl (probably 10-20 seconds). If your dough isn’t evenly moist (mine wasn’t), then turn it into a bowl and mix it a little with your hands until it’s homogenously moist. You want to make sure it’s not dry anywhere, otherwise the dough will crumble when you try to slice it later.
2. Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 ¾ inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap (I usually wrap it twice and twist the ends tightly to keep the dough in place) and chill until firm, at least one hour, overnight if possible.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into slices, a little more than an 1/8 of an inch thick. Place the cookies one inch apart on the baking sheets. Bake 10-14 minutes – the cookies will puff up and deflate, and are done about 1.5 minutes after they deflate (it was 11 minutes for my oven).
4. Cool the cookies – they’ll crisp up – and store in an airtight container.

[makes about 60 2″ diameter cookies; these stay good for two weeks, or longer frozen]

 
lemon mascarpone cream

16 oz mascarpone cheese (Italian style cream cheese – it’s a little less tangy than American cream cheese, which you could probably also use), softened
1 jar lemon curd (er…maybe 1 ½ cups’ worth?)
Zest of 4 lemons, chopped fine (this is so you don’t get strands of lemon zest, which are pretty unpleasant to eat)
1 pint whipping cream
2 packets (4 ½ teaspoons) Knox gelatin (or other unflavored gelatin)

1. In a small bowl, mix together the lemon curd and lemon zest.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese until smooth with an electric mixer, then beat in the lemon curd mixture.
3. In a large bowl, beat the whipped cream on medium-high speed with an electric mixer. When the whipped cream reaches soft peaks (drag the mixer through the cream, it should leave soft tracks), sprinkle 1 packet of gelatin over it and mix on medium speed just until combined evenly. Repeat with the second packet of gelatin.
4. With a rubber spatula, fold a third of the whipped cream mixture into the lemon-mascarpone mixture (this lightens it and prevents the mixture from losing air). Fold another third in until combined, then the last third.

[makes enough to fill and frost a 3-layer cake, or more than enough to make the lemon icebox cake]

lemon curd

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

6 large egg yolks
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lemon (1/4 cup), seeds strained out
12T sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1. Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes. Specifically, you want to cook the mixture to 170F. You don’t want this mixture to be too runny – the yolks should have time to cook enough to thicken with the lemon juice – but the butter will help thicken the curd to a spreadable consistency.

2. Remove saucepan from heat. Add butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until consistency is smooth. (Note: I accidentally put everything in the pot at the same time, when I made this last summer – it turned out fine! I think the mixture reaches the proper temperature sooner if you don’t add the butter before cooking it, though.)

Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour.

[makes 1 1/2 – 2 cups; stays good in the fridge for 2-3 months]

 
chocolate lemon icebox cake

1 recipe chocolate wafers
1 recipe lemon mascarpone cream

1. You can make this in a dish, or free-form on a plate. If you make it in a dish, the bottom layer should be cookies so it’s easier to get out of the dish. If you make it on a plate, the bottom layer should be mascarpone cream so the cake sticks to the plate. Basically to assemble, all you do is layer the cookies and the cream. I like to overlap the cookies a little bit, and I used a spatula to spread the cream. When spreading the cream, dollop it in the middle and spread outwards. If you’re doing this free-form, make sure the cookies are stuck in the layer of cream underneath so they don’t shift as you put a layer of cream on top. For the dish I used (maybe 8.5” in diameter), I put about 1 1/2 cups of cream per layer, and had four layers.

2. Cover the cake and chill overnight to allow the wafers to soften (my guess is that at least 12 hours is needed).

Note: I had enough cookies and cream to make probably 1 ½ times the dish I used, so you could totally do this in a 10” round, tall dish, or something of a similar volume. I ended up with the 1 dish of cake plus 4-5 smaller individual portions. You could also make these in ramekins for individual desserts for dinner, but it’s easy enough to make it all in one dish and serve out of that. If you use up all the cream and chocolate, you would probably serve 15 (closer to 10 if your guests really like cake!).

[serves 10-12; stays good for a surprisingly long time, at least 2 weeks, in an airtight container]