Many of my original dessert recipes come from a thought or memory tied to my heart. Two days ago I found myself daydreaming while mixing up a bowl of cookie dough for truffles. When I finally snapped out of it, I laughed. “Where did I go just now?”
Oh yeah.
It was my thirtieth birthday. My husband had taken me to a nice restaurant and I was wearing a new green dress. The waiter brought out the biggest piece of chocolate zuccotto cake I’d ever seen! People in the restaurant were turning around to look at the tremendous piece of cake in front of me. I felt happy.
Needless to say, the truffle-making was history. Instead, I pressed the chocolate chip cookie dough into a stainless steel bowl. It was the beginning of a very good thing.
As far as dome desserts go, this one is fairly simple. It has a few steps but they’re all pretty straight-forward. The combination of cookie dough, chocolate mousse and brownie make it entirely delicious. It’s a real looker, too!
Plan ahead if you’re making this for a holiday gathering. Both cookie dough and mousse need to chill in the freezer for several hours.
Chocolate Mousse Cookie Dough Bombe
Yield: 12-15 serving [click for printable recipe]
Cookie dough layer:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips
¼ cup whole milk
- Line a 2 ½ quart (10 cup) bowl with plastic wrap.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, stir together flour, salt, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Pour in butter and vanilla extract. Mix until a dry dough forms. Add chocolate chips and mix on lowest speed (this is “Stir” on KitchenAid machines).
- When chocolate chips are evenly dispersed, add whole milk 1 tablespoon at a time with the machine on low speed. Remove dough from mixer bowl and press about 2/3 into the bottom and up the sides of the lined bowl. Wrap remaining portion of dough in plastic wrap and save for later use. Ideally, the cookie dough layer should be about ¼ -inch thick, but mine was more like ½ -inch in places. Do the best you can with it.
- Place in freezer while you make the chocolate mousse.
Chocolate mousse:
1/4 oz. package of powdered gelatin
2 tbsp cold water
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk, hot – (put in the microwave for 30+ seconds)
8 oz. high quality chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 cups whipping cream.
- In a medium saucepan sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand for 1 minute. Whisk in eggs and sugar. Stir in hot milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Mixture will thicken after 5 minutes or so. When done, it should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Stir in chopped chocolate and blend until chocolate has melted and no white streaks remain. Let cool.
- Whip cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whipped cream into the chocolate mixture until well blended. Remove bowl lined with cookie dough from freezer and pour in mousse mixture. Smooth the top to even with a rubber spatula. Place in the freezer until firm, 4-6 hours or overnight.
Brownie layer:
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch round baking pan and line bottom with a parchment circle.
- Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add egg; beat well with spoon. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Spread batter thinly and evenly in prepared pan.
- Bake 10- 15. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap and peel off the parchment circle.
Assembly:
- Remove mousse from freezer. Place a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap on a work surface. Roll out the remaining portion of cookie dough on the paper to ¼-inch thickness. With the help of the paper, flip the dough over onto the mousse and trim to fit inside the bowl. Lightly brush the cookie dough with water and then turn the brownie layer onto the cookie dough layer. Press brownie into cookie dough gently but firmly. Trim the edges of the brownie so that it fits inside the bowl and is flush with the bottom of the cookie dough bowl. Trim edges of cookie dough bowl if necessary to make it flush with the brownie. You will have a little leftover cookie dough to nibble on.
- Turn entire dessert out onto a wire rack. Peel off plastic wrap. Place wire rack inside a large jelly roll pan with a lip. Let stand at room temperature while you make the glaze.
Glaze:
9 oz. chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. corn syrup
- Place heavy cream in a large microwaveable bowl. Heat in the microwave at 40 second intervals until very hot but not boiling (you can do this on the stove top if you don’t have a microwave). Stir in chopped chocolate. Let stand for 3 minutes then begin gently stirring mixture. You can use a whisk, but do not whisk vigorously as it will create air bubbles in the finished glaze. When chocolate and cream are thoroughly mixed and smooth, add corn syrup. Stir until combined. Transfer to a 4-cup measure with a pour spout. *Note: Corn syrup can be omitted if desired. It is used to give the glaze an extra glossy appearance.
- Pour glaze over entire surface of bombe. Allow the dessert to stand until the glaze dripping subsides, then pour excess chocolate in the jelly roll pan back into the 4-cup measure. Rewarm glaze for 20-30 seconds in the microwave if it has thickened. Stir then pour a second coat over the entire surface of the dessert. When dripping subsides repeat warming and pouring process a third time (the more times you cover with chocolate, the smoother the surface becomes). Transfer bombe to a cake plate using a large spatula on one side of the dessert and a hand supporting it on the other side. Place a line of standard size chocolate chips flat-side-out around the bottom edge of the dessert. Keep chilled. Slice and serve.
Note: The outer cookie dough shell may seem resistant to cutting at first, but after the first piece you’ll get a feel for slicing it. Be sure to use mini chocolate chips in the cookie dough, they make slicing easier.
Wow! That looks incredible. I'd be very happy to get that for pudding on Christmas day, on any day really. Definitely going to try this one.
You and I are clearly soul mates. Clearly.
This is incredible.
Bomb indeed. Cookie dough heaven. Wow!
In the words of Joy the Baker and Tracy Shutterbean..
Boom boom POW!
A real beauty! That bombe must be divine. I wish somebody would make that for my B'day…
Cheers,
Rosa
Dear Heather,
Post a video how you made the cake…PLEASSE!!!!!!!!
Regards from Spain!!
Oooooo, this looks so impressive! What perfect holiday treat. In this case, allowing a few hours to chill is actually a blessing- it's perfect for a make-ahead dessert!
Holy. Crap. This looks so, so incredible!
This is such a pretty dessert! I got the chuckles because I'd put more gold chips on there to make dessert 'grills'!
Wow. Just wow…
This is absolutely beautiful!
This looks awesome – and it gets better when you look inside!
Seriously, that thing is amazing!
Oh girl.
I have no words.
I have a very busy work schedule this holiday (I work in marketing for a big online floral retailer) but would love to make this for Christmas. Can I make it a few days ahead of time? If so, should I save the glaze part until the day of??
Thank you very much
Um yeah. I need three things take this. I'm going to the store now.
Oh.My.God. I feel an immediate urge to make this. Can't decide if I should make it now and eat it for the next week or wait the 9 days until I go home for Christmas and make it for family…maybe both!
Oh my, this has almost all of my favorite things in one dessert. It sound incredible!
Hold the phone! A cookie dough shell, brownie base,and mousse centre? And it looks SO ELEGANT?
How have you done it?
I haven't made one of these in ages. Yours looks delicious! Great tutorial!
Field-trip to get a small stainless bowl TOnight!
absolutely gorgeous!
OMG! I wish you lived next door to me.
Heather – this is the best ever! Its the middle of summer here! This is the perfect Christmas dessert!
This is really beautiful ! I love the dome !
ratedkb.wordpress.com
What a gorgeous cake! I can`t even count on how many people would love this with my fingers!
This is so spectacular. I love the clean layers that show when it's cut.
What a ridiculously amazing dessert that I MUST try! Thanks for sharing- adore the decoration also.
http://lyndajanecakes.blogspot.co.uk/
x
yum!! the melted chocolate on top is amazing!
Looks fabulous! I'm sure it's equally delicious, too!
Amazing! I'm gonna have to try that sometime soon!
Mine wasn't nearly as perfect but I made this last night for a party at work today. I got a hug and someone told me they wanted to spoon me. LOL
Oh my! That is the grow-up version of my university "girls night" cookie dough fix. 🙂
I hope you don't find this rude, but I've noticed in a few of your posts you used 'strait' instead of 'straight'. A strait is a channel of water, which I'm sure isn't what you meant!
Thank you Anonymous. No, I don't find it rude! I also do this with led/lead. It's just one of those words my brain doesn't process. Thanks for the heads up!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
drool
This looks exceedingly decadent. No time to make it this year, but maybe next year instead? 🙂
This is so cool it makes me want to swear!
I made this for our Christmas party. Was very well liked!
Thanks so much for this recipe! I made it for our family's Christmas dinner last night and had 14 people raving about it! Not only does it taste amazing, but the presentation is wonderful as well!
I just finished making this today for my boyfriend's birthday, and it turned out so awesome! It was well worth all the steps. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
I made it and love it! So fun (and amusing) to put together! I couldn't stop taking pictures of it…http://bepcityblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/bombes-away/
Valuable information ..I am delighted to read this article..thank you for giving us this useful information. Great walk-through. I value this post.
I have been making this cake for my son's 17th birthday party. He was injured in his basketball game and now wants to postpone his party. I made the Bombe down to assembly (I haven't added the chocolate ganache'yet). Will it be OK to freeze for a week?
Hi Cari – yes! It should be fine in the freezer for that amount of time. So sorry to hear about your son's injury! Sending well wishes!
Thank you so much for your answer. Just one more question…as I said, I made everything and was just about to add the chocolate ganache when I received the call from my son. The ganache seemed really thin, so I tested it out on some cookies that I had just made and the cookies became soggy (and did not harden at all even overnight). Did I do something wrong with the ganache?
Hi Cari!
The glaze has a higher ratio of cream to chocolate than a regular ganache. Regular ganache (that you can make into truffles) is usually about 1/2 cup heavy cream to 8 oz. of chocolate. This is more thin so that it pours easier and can cover a large surface area. It's basically a cake glaze rather than a true ganache. I don't think you did anything wrong.
xo
H
How far in advance can I make this cake?
You can make this 3-4 days in advance. I'd keep it in the freezer the first couple of days then let it thaw in the refrigerator a day before serving.
This is pure genuis. Can't wait to try it