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Dulce de Leche Icebox Cake
Updated June 24, 2024
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- Total Time
- 30 minutes, plus 6 hours’ chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1½cups heavy cream
- 1cup crème fraîche or sour cream
- ½teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2tablespoons granulated sugar
- ⅓cup store-bought or homemade dulce de leche
- 1(10-ounce) pack (about 40) thin chocolate sandwich cookies (such as Oreos)
Preparation
- Step 1
Line a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with a double layer of plastic wrap, pressing it into the corners and leaving several inches of overhang on each side.
- Step 2
In a large bowl and with an electric mixer, beat together the heavy cream, crème fraîche and salt on medium-high until stiff peaks form, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer 2 cups of the whipped cream to a medium bowl and stir in the sugar. Add the dulce de leche to the remaining whipped cream in the large bowl and beat on medium-high for 1 to 2 minutes until stiff peaks form. Season to taste with more salt.
- Step 3
Using a spoon, flick small dollops of both cream mixtures across the bottom and sides of your lined pan. Using a spatula, smooth it into a ¼-inch layer along the edges and bottom.
- Step 4
Cover the bottom with 8 cookies, gently pressing them into the cream. Flick more small dollops of both cream mixtures across the surface of the cookies, then smooth the surface.
- Step 5
Press a row of cookies upright along the long edge of the pan. Generously scoop the whipped creams using the cookies, alternating flavors, and press them upright against the vertical row. Continue forming rows until the pan is full. Tap the pan against the counter to settle the cookies into the cream. Cover the cookies by flicking the remaining cream across the surface, then smooth it out.
- Step 6
Enclose the loaf in the plastic overhang and freeze until completely firm, at least 6 hours. The cake will keep frozen for up to 1 month. To serve, unwrap the top of the loaf, invert the loaf onto a platter, remove the pan and plastic and slice with a serrated knife.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I would not use Oreos in this. Way too sweet. Famous chocolate wafers. Near the ice cream cones in the grocery store.
Search for “chocolinas” cookies on Amazon or your local latin store. They’re the Argentinian cookies used in the original dulce de leche icebox cake, chocotorta. Basic recipe is dip chocolinas in coffee and alternate layers of cookies filling (dulce de leche mixed with cream cheese).
Agreed! Oreos are too sweet to begin with. I had to brush my teeth after reading the recipe.
I would not use Oreos. Trader Joe’s has chocolate sandwich cookies (Joe Joe’s) that are better tasting and have few if any artificial ingredients. They also make a thin version and a vanilla cookie with real vanilla filling. I’m tempted to come up with a variation using them. But I’m going to wait until mid November to make this. By then, Trader Joe’s should have their seasonal peppermint Joe Joe’s in stock, with crushed candy canes in the filling. They are my favorite flavor.
Many years ago I was planning a Mexican themed dinner, courtesy of the Food Network's Too Hot Tamales and they had the same directions, which i followed, except I was enjoying some margaritas and passed out, I mean, I fell asleep. I was awoken by the sound of a shotgun going off in my apartment. Except it wasn't a shotgun, it was the dulce de leche....all over my kitchen. I did wipe some off with a finger and tasted it. It was the most delicious thing I will never make again.
Agree. Nabisco Famous wafers the best way to go.
Dulce de leche is a type of milk caramel sauce, not an ice cream, although there are ice cream flavors that incorporate it, just like you might have a caramel ice cream. You can buy cans of dulce de leche (they look similar to sweetened condensed milk and you can usually find them near that product in the bakery aisle of grocery stores) or it can easily be made at home.
Famous Chocolate Wafers are the best cookie to use with this classic. The cream in oreos is a weird texture and way too sweet.
I've made this with ginger cookies and whipped cream with vanilla.
In a pinch you can make dulce de leche from condensed milk. Follow this method, open the can and Voila! a creamy treat to eat right out of the can. Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil. Remove the label from a can of sweetened, condensed milk and submerge completely in the boiling water (using a pair of tongs or a big spoon). High simmer for 3 hours, checking periodically to ensure that the can remains completely covered with water at all times.
Just made this, in the freezer now. Used famous chocolate wafer thins because Oreos would be too sweet for me. My initial thought is the whip mixture is way too salty, for me at least. Next time I would add half and go up from there.
If you can't find chocolinas, the next best option, in my mind, is oreos or Newman-Os untwisted and the filling removed. Use just the wafers, not the cookie filling; the filling is WAY too sweet!
I shape my Ice Box Chocolate Wafer cake into a letter of the alphabet to celebrate a birthday! You don't use a loaf pan. Just put the wafers and filling together on a sheet pan or cake plate and cover with the cream then freeze. The kids love it!
I followed another reviewer’s advice and used Oreo thins. This was fun and easy to make, tasty and great for a cake on a hot day! I can imagine all different kinds of ways to mix it up-with more of a coffee flavor, or vanilla. Will definitely make this one again!
I usually cut back on the sugar, but I made this per the recipe. I did not find it too sweet, there is not that much sugar in the cream, but I agree that I would increase the whipped cream amount. Some of the cookies did not absorb enough moisture to become cake like in texture . To fill the 9 by 5 loaf it took almost all of the Oreo package, so if you substitute with thinner cookies make sure the space they take up is comparable.
Can also cut the sweetness by reducing the sugar. Unfortunately, Nabisco doesn’t make the Famous Wafers any more …
The cookies stayed hard so I put them in the fridge after trying and it was better. The dulce de leche taste wasn’t there. Might as well make it the old way.
Oreo filling is too sweet for me. I wish we could get Oreo wafers without the filling. They're so good! Here are some less-sweet chocolate wafers: 1. Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers: thin, slightly sweet, with no filling. 2. I used to get a type of tiny Oreo without filling that came in a little bag, 100 calories/bag. 3. Mandy's Dark-Chocolate Cookie Thins. 5. Rustik Bakery Chocolate Cacao-Nib Shortbread (a little too rich and sweet for ice-cream cake, but less sweet than Oreos with filling.)
I've only been able to find Nabisco Famous Wafers in rural supermarkets in eastern California and Nevada. Another poster said you can find them in the ice cream section, next to the cones. Another poster said they've been discontinued.
Made this, it was a huge hit. I 1.5x the recipe, 1 as a hostess gift, .5 for us. The salt and very little sugar in the cream mixture balance the oreos nicely and thin oreos have a very little filling to cookie. This icebox cake is so crazy rich because of the whipped cream and sour cream mixture, the cookies are irrelevant, the cream is the limiting factor to how much you can eat in a serving anyways. Thin oreos were easy and on sale! dulce de leche in the instapot via condensed milk was clutch!
I made this with greek yogurt instead of sour cream which gave it a really nice taste, people thought it was cream cheese. I would use less oreos next time or maybe crumble oreos because the ice cream texture is really good
After reading all the comments, I reduced the sugar slightly in the cream, and found that oreos worked fine!
Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers certainly would be the way to go, but they were discontinued, weren't they? I've tried other cookies, but without success.
My grandmother would make a version of this using only Chocolate wafers and cool whip. Spread the cool whip between each wafer and stack on edge like a log on a cookie sheet. Cover all around with Cool Whip. Cover loosely with wax paper and put in the refrig overnight. Cut diagonally to serve. So easy and tastes great
Why not just mix the two creams, since they seem to get mixed in the recipe?
This is not too sweet with Oreos! I am eating a slice right now. There is sour cream in the whipped cream and this is eaten frozen. Please comment on recipes you’ve actually made.
I use a spring form pan in my purchase less and less and less plastic.
This sounds something like the Portuguese Bolo de Bolacha, which usually uses Maria cookies soaked in coffee and sometimes has butter cream or whipped cream between the layers. I agree that Oreos would be too sweet.
Where can I buy dulce de leche?
Easy dulce de leche: Punch two small holes in a can of sweetened, condensed milk (size based on how much you need). Set can in a bath of simmering water, remove after 40 minutes. Remove lid with can opener, and you have a can of perfect dulce de leche.
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