How to Make Chef John's Mocha Chip Icebox Cake

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Learn how to make Chef John’s Mocha Chip Icebox Cake in this video! This delicious no-bake dessert combines rich coffee flavor with creamy layers of chocolate chips and coffee-infused whipped cream. Watch as Chef John guides you through each step, ensuring you achieve a decadent, chilled dessert that's sure to impress your friends and family.

Transcript

00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Mocha Chip Ice Box Cake.

00:09That's right!

00:10Instead of baking a cake in an oven, we're going to make a cake in the refrigerator,

00:14which back in the days before electric appliances used to be called an ice box.

00:18And now that we've gotten that kitchen history lesson out of the way, let's go ahead and

00:22get started on making one of the easiest and most delicious chilled desserts ever.

00:26And the first thing I'm going to do is put a few dabs of butter on this round piece of

00:30parchment paper, which is going to help hold it in place in the bottom of this 9-inch springform pan.

00:35And you only have to do this if you're going to eventually flip this over and the bottom

00:39is going to be the top, which I wasn't sure if I was going to do or not, but I wanted

00:43to play it safe.

00:45But anyway, the real point is, this is the best size and type of pan to make your cake in.

00:50And once that's set, we can move on to our mocha filling.

00:53And that's going to start with some white sugar, to which we will add some instant coffee

00:56or espresso powder, followed by a little bit of unsweetened cocoa, as well as a little

01:02splash of pure real vanilla extract.

01:04And then if we're able, this is very nice if we add some coffee liqueur.

01:09And I'm using the one featured in The Big Lebowski, but anything will work, so you decide.

01:13I mean, you are after all the dude of what goes in your food.

01:17But regardless, we will follow that up with two cups of very cold heavy cream.

01:22And please note, the colder your cream, the faster this is going to whip up, which is

01:26exactly what we're going to do next.

01:29But we're not going to whip this up all the way yet, right?

01:32We still need to add some mascarpone cheese to this, but I think we want to give the whipped

01:35cream a little head start before we transfer it in.

01:39So what we'll do is whip this until it just starts to thicken up.

01:42And has the texture something close to a thin pancake batter?

01:45And once we do get it to about this stage, we will stop and we will transfer in what

01:49is basically a very rich Italian cream cheese.

01:53Which reminds me, yes, you can use cream cheese instead.

01:56And once that's in, we'll continue mixing this until we have fairly stiff, but not too

02:00stiff peaks.

02:02And as you hopefully know, if you over-whip cream, the fat will separate and you'll end

02:07up accidentally making butter, which would be delicious mocha-flavored butter, but not

02:11what we're going for here.

02:13And the same thing will happen to the mascarpone if you over-mix it.

02:17So we want to be very careful.

02:19And when our mixture looks like this, which is basically soft peaks, we really want to

02:23pay attention, especially if you're using an electric mixer, since you might only be

02:28like 10 seconds away from over-mixing.

02:31So at this point I was getting very close, but I did want it to stiffen up a little more

02:35before I would consider it perfect, which you're just about to see.

02:39Oh, and if you can, try not to lose your grip on the mixer.

02:43But anyway, I was fine, and so were my peaks.

02:46And I'm going to grab a spoon here, so you can get a great look at what I think is the

02:49perfect texture.

02:50Okay, what we want is something that holds its shape beautifully, but it is still nice

02:54and creamy, and not too stiff and grainy and separated.

02:58And if you drag the edge of your spoon through the mixture, it should hold a very sharp line

03:02and not fill back in.

03:04And by the way, it's not an accident that I showed you that by making an X, right?

03:08We're actually going to do four layers of the mocha mousse, and that's going to help

03:12us visualize how much to transfer in.

03:14And that's it.

03:15So we have our filling set.

03:16We can just keep that in the fridge when we're not using it.

03:19And then we'll go ahead and grab our pan, and we will place in our first layer of cookies,

03:23which for me are going to be some chocolate chocolate chips.

03:26But for you, it can be literally any cookie.

03:29And the general strategy here is to put as many whole ones as you can fit in, and then

03:34simply break off some smaller pieces to fill in the gaps.

03:37And once our cookies are placed down, we will transfer in exactly one-fourth of our mocha

03:41mixture, and then we'll use a spoon to spread that out as evenly as we can.

03:46And once we get that first layer successfully completed, we will simply keep repeating that

03:50entire process until we get all the way to the top.

03:54And once we're done, we're going to have a total of five layers of cookies, with four

03:57layers of our mocha mousse sandwiched in between.

04:01And as you know, I hate time-lapse footage, so instead of doing that, I will just fill

04:05time by telling you some things I want you to know.

04:08The first of which is regarding the cookie choice.

04:10Okay, I know I told you you could use literally any cookie you want, but for best results,

04:16I think we want to use something that's crispy, and not a cookie that's already soft and moist.

04:21Since what's going to happen when we put this in the icebox to set, is that our cookies

04:25are going to soak in moisture from the whipped cream mixture, which if we give this enough

04:28time is going to transform the texture into something very cake-like.

04:33Plus besides that, by pulling moisture out of our filling, it's going to help stiffen

04:37that up, and make it much nicer and firmer.

04:41So feel free to switch up the flavor of the cookie if you want.

04:44But no matter what you decide to go with, it really is a big advantage if it's crispy

04:47when you start.

04:48Oh, and it's not a bad idea as we build these layers up, to give those cookies a little

04:53bit of a pressing down.

04:55And then the other key piece of information I want to pass along, is that you can change

04:59up how many layers you do.

05:01Alright, five layers of cookies and four layers of filling is pretty much the max, but if

05:05you did want something less cakey, with a higher proportion of the mocha mousse mixture,

05:10you can just do four layers of cookies, or even three.

05:13And while I started with a layer of cookie, and I'm going to finish with a layer of

05:17cookie, you actually don't have to.

05:19Okay, for slicing purposes, I think you should have a layer of cookie on whatever is going

05:23to be your bottom.

05:24But since this is going to firm up beautifully, the top layer can be mousse.

05:29So please feel free to switch up the layering order, and the proportions if you want.

05:33But anyway, as I've already mentioned, I am going to do five layers of cookies, with

05:37four layers of the mocha filling, and once that last layer is finished, we'll go ahead

05:42and wrap this up in plastic, and we'll give that one light last pressing down, at which

05:46point we have to transfer this into the fridge, sorry, I mean icebox, for I would say a minimum

05:52of 12 hours.

05:53But I really do think 24 is best, and I did in fact chill mine for a full day, before

05:59I pulled it out and unwrapped it, and then before we snap the ring open, I think we

06:04should go around with a thin knife, that I actually dipped in a little bit of hot water,

06:08just to make sure it's not going to stick, at which point we will unlock it, and we will

06:13carefully remove the ring, and if everything goes according to plan, that should come off

06:17fairly cleanly, and as you can see, happily this one did, and once that has been de-ringed,

06:24we can move on to a few optional steps, like taking a knife or spatula, and doing a little

06:29fine tuning, and then after that, I decided to take some plain whip cream, and use a star

06:34tip to pipe some of that over the top, which I'll admit is completely unnecessary, but

06:39does make for a little bit more of a professional look, and if you don't think you can do this,

06:44you can.

06:45Alright, if you have the skills to get toothpaste out of a tube, this really shouldn't be much

06:49of a challenge, and then for a final touch, I dusted some cocoa over the top, just to

06:54make it look a little more mocha-ish, or if you wanted, some shaved chocolate would

06:58also work beautifully here, and that's it, after transferring that onto a cake plate,

07:03and taking way too many contractually obligated pictures, I went ahead and cut in, and removed

07:08an almost perfect, absolutely gorgeous slice, and then I grabbed a fork and went in for

07:13a taste, after I had tipped it over, which I thought would make it easier to eat, since

07:18I sometimes have trouble eating on camera, and by sometimes, I mean every time, but anyway

07:23that my friends, is just an absolutely luscious dessert, and it is quite amazing what happens

07:29to the texture of those cookies, that started off all crispy and crunchy, but thanks to

07:34them sitting for 24 hours in that moussey mixture, they've taken on a texture almost

07:38identical to a beautiful moist chocolate cake, but the chocolate chips in the cookies do

07:43not get softer, so what we end up with here, is an irresistible textural combination of

07:49moist cake, our creamy mocha mousse, and then the bite of those firm chocolate chips, and

07:55when you put all those together, this really is difficult to stop eating, so to summarize,

07:59I loved everything about this, and even if you don't make this cake, at least by watching

08:05this video, you now finally understand why your grandmother used to yell at you to close

08:09the icebox, that you're letting all the cold air out, but whether this is made in an actual

08:14icebox, or a modern refrigerator, it's a very simple recipe that everybody loves, which

08:20is why I really do hope you give this a try soon, so please follow the links below for

08:25the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual, and as

08:31always, enjoy!

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