Bolo de Bolacha
Ingredients:
One pot of brewed coffee, cooled
2 teaspoons of sugar (optional)
Two packs of bolachas Maria (Marie biscuits)
1 can of condensed milk
1/2 pack of unflavored gelatin
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
Espresso powder or instant coffee (Juan Valdez, Café Bustelo)
Preparation:
Before you begin assembling this beautiful cake, brew your coffee and once it’s ready, add two teaspoons of sugar (this step is optional). Set it aside to cool.
In a small bowl, warm up some a few tablespoons (2-3) of the condensed milk. You can microwave for 15 second. Then add half the unflavored gelatin envelope. Mix it in and leave it alone for 15 minutes so the gelatin blooms (this will help the cake set).
Lastly, make the whipped cream. Using an electric hand or stand mixer, whip your heavy cream for about 4-5 minutes. About halfway through, stop whipping to add the rest of the condensed milk and the gelatin mixture in. Once the whipped cream is ready, fold in about 1 tablespoon of the instant coffee.
Cooking:
There’s no baking in this recipe but to make it even easier, I recommend forming an assembly line: a plate of Marie biscuits, a bowl with the cooled coffee, the whipped cream, three or four crushed up biscuits, and a 9” springform pan.
You don’t have to do this but I like to add some biscuit crumbs to the bottom of the pan to add some texture to the cake. The first layer should be some of the whipped cream. Next, working quickly, dip a few biscuits into the coffee mixture. Make sure to flip the biscuits over so both sides get soaked. Add the soaked biscuits to the top of the cream, forming a layer. Once the cream is mostly covered by biscuits, add another layer of cream and repeat the layering until you run out of biscuits. The last layer should be cream.
Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours so that the cake sets. Before serving, decorate by adding Marie biscuit crumbs and some of the powdered coffee on top (see image to the right for an example). To serve, remove it from the spring form pan and cut it into slices as big as you’d like because it’s your cake.