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Grandma’s chocolate ice box pie--the remake

Grandma’s chocolate ice box pie--the remake

Pies

My dad’s favorite dessert (or, as we think of it, Daddy’s Favorite Dessert) is an old fashioned ice box pie made with packaged lady fingers (the soft ones) and layered with an airy chocolate mousse, and whipped cream lightened with egg whites. It’s one of the first desserts I learned to make, and either my sisters or I (mostly my sister who lives in New Orleans) have made it for his birthday for as along as I can remember. My parents were in Austin for a visit the weekend before my dad’s 90th birthday. Dad had radiation treatment for throat cancer a few years ago, so his taste sense has changed dramatically, as has his ability to swallow. So even though I re-worked the recipe (I wanted to avoid using raw eggs and packaged lady fingers.), I wanted to create the same sense memory as the old one. I’d like to think of this as the new and improved version. I remember when my dad turned 50. He was really upset about being 50--he was worried that he was old. His own father was in his 50’s when he died, and I’m sure that weighed heavily (I can see that now, but at the time, we all just thought he was crazy or vain for thinking that way.) I was in college, and I came home for the weekend to surprise him. We decorated an appliance box with wrapping paper, and during the party, I hid in the box and jumped out when he opened the front door. This year, my sister who lives in Colorado came to Austin for a day, and on his actual birthday, my brother, who lives in Florida, surprised him with a day trip to New Orleans. We’re big into surprises. I think he was surprised by this cake (but maybe not in a good way--he kept asking me where the lady fingers were!). Lady fingers are essentially sponge cake, so I was thrilled to find mrslarkin’s Master of Disguise Sponge Cake recipe, which I modified so that I could make two 8” round cakes, and flavored with vanilla extract. As she points out, it's a dry cake, so I brushed it with a couple of tablespoons of rum before assembling the dessert. For the mousse, I considered the brilliant Hervé This Chocolate Mousse, but in the original recipe, the mousse is very light (the chocolate is folded into a mixture of whipped cream and beaten-till-stiff egg whites). The first time I made it, I used Alice Medrich’s dark chocolate whipped cream recipe, to which I added a little powdered espresso. We liked it, but felt like the chocolate kind of got lost. The second time, I used a chocolate pudding that I make frequently. My husband liked that version so much that he was eating leftovers for dinner while I was out of town… For the whipped cream, I adapted Nancy Silverton’s Genius recipe. I made two layers so I could decorate the top with sponge cake. But it can of course be decorated any way you like.