This popular English cake
is like making your own chocolate bar. It contains only four ingredients; melted
chocolate and butter, toasted and chopped nuts, and Digestive Biscuits (or
graham crackers). There is no baking involved which makes it the perfect dessert
for the harried. All you do is mix the ingredients together in a bowl, press it
into a tart or cake pan, and leave it to chill in the refrigerator. While 'No
Bake Chocolate Cake' is a fitting name for this cake it is also known as a
Chocolate Biscuit Cake, a Refrigerator Cake, and a Chocolate Tiffin ('Tiffin'
being an Anglo-Indian term for lunch or afternoon snack).
Whenever you are making a dessert where chocolate is the dominant flavor,
it is important to use a good quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
that you enjoy eating out of hand. Some excellent choices you may want to
try are Lindt, Scharffen Berger, Valrhona and El Rey. Besides the
chocolate there are also choices in what type of nuts to use in making
this cake. You may want to consider using almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia,
pecans and/or walnuts as they all pair well with dark chocolate. You also
do not have to limit your choice to one type of nut as mixing two or even
three types would add a complexity of flavor and texture to this cake. The one ingredient that may
be hard to find is Digestive Biscuits (cookies) which is a British cookie that has a slightly sweet
flavor and a crisp sandy texture. Although most regular grocery stores do not
carry them, I often find them in specialty food
stores (like Whole Foods) or else you can buy them on line. McVitie's Digestive is the most common
brand found in North America. I am not sure why they are not sold in regular
grocery stores, although Alan Davidson does tell us in 'The Oxford
Companion to Food' that the word 'Digestive' cannot be used in the
States so other names like 'sweetmeal' or 'wholemeal' are often used for this
type of cookie. But if you cannot find Digestives don't worry, you can use graham crackers,
ginger cookies, shortbread cookies or other types of butter cookies with excellent
results.
If
using hazelnuts:
Preheat the oven to 350 degree F (177 degree C) and place the hazelnuts on
a baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes or until fragrant and the skins begin
to flake. Remove from oven and place a dish towel over the nuts.
Let the nuts sit (steam) for a few minutes and then rub the nuts in the towel
briskly to remove the skins. Let cool and then chop coarsely.
If
using almonds, walnuts, pecans, and/or macadamia nuts: In
a 350 degree F oven bake the nuts for about 8 - 10 minutes or until lightly brown
and fragrant. Let cool then chop coarsely.
Then in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of
simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate.
Meanwhile
break or chop the digestive cookies into
small pieces (about 1/2 inch).
Once the butter
and chocolate are melted, remove from heat and stir in the digestive
cookies, along with their crumbs, and the chopped nuts.
Spread this mixture into a lightly buttered 8
inch (20 cm) tart or cake pan, cover, and refrigerate for several hours or until
set. Cut or break into slices. Store in an airtight container in the
refrigerator.
Makes about 10
slices.
Sources:
Davidson, Alan.
'The Oxford Companion to Food'. Oxford University Press. Oxford: 1999.
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