Last Week's TWD - Dulce de Leche Duos - The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

I meant to make these on time for last Tuesday, really I did. They sounded so yummy, and I didn't need to buy anything for them, because I happened to have a can of sweetened condensed milk in the cupboard, left over from fudge I made around Christmas time. (And I don't think I posted the recipe for that, slacker that I am.) Anyway, I finally got started on things on Wednesday of last week.

First up, making the dulce de leche.

I decided to use David Lebovitz's recipe, and it was wonderfully simple.

The only difficulty I encountered was that something must have dripped inside the oven last time I cooked, because when I first got the oven temp up to 425, smoke started coming out the vent and I had to run around the house pulling batteries out of the fire alarms to shut them up. At least we know they all work.

Anyway, about an hour and a half after the pan of sweetened condensed milk went into its water bath, it was darker and caramelier and - woo hoo - just right. I didn't have time to do anything else with it that day, though, so into the fridge it went.

I didn't get to the actual cookie-making part until Saturday. Bill had taken the kids on one last ski trip of the season, so I used some of that quiet time to bake the cookies. In retrospect, I should have cooked two cans' worth of the sweetened condensed milk, because what with using 3/4 of a cup in the cookie dough, I was left with very little filling for the cookies.

But no matter - I melted some semi-sweet chocolate and filled the rest with that.

When everyone got home that night, I made them taste the cookies. Julia loved the straight-up dulce de leche version. Alex didn't - but he did like the chocolate-filled ones. I liked both, and so did Bill.

And that's my uncharacteristically brief post about these yummy cookies. They go really nicely with strong coffee...which I happen to be drinking now...so maybe I should go get one...or two...of those cookies to go with it.

Many thanks to Jodie of Beansy Loves Cake for choosing this one. You can find the recipe here on her site, or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. And if you'd like to check in with the other TWD members, you can do so here (just scroll through the comments for all the links.)

3 Comments

I like the "boiled can" method for making dulce de leche. Throw the unopened can in a pot of water, and simmer for about two hours, making sure the can stays submerged. I do a few at a time. Since the cans are unopened, I can keep them on the shelf until I'm ready to indulge. As if I'm not always ready to indulge....

Posted by: Kat | March 29, 2010 at 02:02 PM