Lennie & Miller's Chocolate Orange Swoon

An old college friend in Britain recently emailed me a recipe for this wonderful-sounding chocolate orange creation. The original recipe called for "Langues de Chat" biscuits to be arranged around the side of the dish. Well, I knew I didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of finding those in beautiful downtown Laurel, Maryland, and so I just filed the recipe under "To make at some future date". Then today I just happened to read a thread that Chef Lennie had started in the discussion forum. In that thread, she wrote, "Calling all fans of the chocolate-orange flavour combination! I just made the most amazing cookies.... I used my one-inch scoop and got exactly 57 cookies (I likely ate at least 2 cookies worth of raw dough, though LOL). I can't believe how good these are :-)" Needless to say, I put 2 and 2 together and thought "Oh, boy! Do I ever have a good use for those!" By pure luck, I happened to have a gawd-knows-how-old box of orange cake mix carefully buried in the back of the pantry. So I quickly, and easily, came up with the following "Recipezaar Teamwork" combination. This stuff is to die for. Thank you, Lennie! (Prep time includes chill/set time.)

• Ready In: 3 hrs 25 mins
• Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• Cake Ingredients

• 6  ounces chocolate
• 10  fluid ounces milk
• 2  tablespoons orange brandy
• 2  eggs, separated
• 2  ounces  soft light brown sugar
• 1⁄2 ounce unflavored gelatin, dissolved in
• 3  tablespoons hot water
• 2  oranges, zest and juice only
• 10  fluid ounces heavy cream, whipped
•  chocolate, triangles to decorate
•  grated orange zest, to decorate

• Cookie Ingredients

• 1  box  orange cake mix
• 1⁄2 cup canola oil
• 2  eggs
• 2  cups  miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. ---To Make Lennie’s Orange Chocolate Cookies---.
2. Combine the orange cake mix, canola oil, and eggs.
3. Then stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Bake on ungreased baking sheet in preheated 350°F oven for 9 minutes; let cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes then remove to racks to cool.
5. ---To Make The Chocolate Orange Cake---.
6. Gently heat the chocolate in a small pan with the milk until melted.
7. Stir in the orange brandy.
8. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until creamy, then blend in the chocolate mixture.
9. Return to the pan and heat gently, stirring until thickened.
10. Stir in the gelatin, orange zest and juice; cool.
11. Fold in two-thirds of the cream.
12. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture.
13. Pour into a lightly greased loose-bottomed deep 7½ inch springform cake tin and chill until set.
14. Turn out on to a plate.
15. ---The Finale---.
16. Arrange Lennie’s Cookies around the side.
17. Decorate with the remaining cream, chocolate triangles (or other chocolate novelties – I used After Eight thin chocolate mints) and orange zest.