March 23, 2010

TWD- Dulce de Leche Duos (Caramel Cookies!)

I love the look of sandwiched cookies- the dulce peeking out is smooth and pretty and hints of extra goodness. I was actually super surprised by this recipe. The dough is basically normal chocolate chip cookie dough with added dulce de leche. Sandwich some more between little, soft cookies and you have a fancy named caramel cookie. These were a big hit at our house and are all gone already (although my tall man said they should have been a bit crispier- but I don't trust his opinion on that and he doesn't mine. I think we'll always disagree on crunchy or chewy cookies!). My only complaint is that one can of Eagle brand milk didn't make enough to go into the cookies and on top. It wasn't all bad, though, because I scooped and froze half the dough for another time. That's the kind of freezer cooking I excel at! With about two more minutes of effort today we'll have some more of these soft, delicious cookies again later. Yay!

I'm including my version of the recipe since I made a few changes. I added more flour (mine was way too batter-y to even scoop), more salt, and vanilla. See the real recipe here and the rest of the TWD group's renditions, too. It'll have you craving cookies I guarantee! And don't miss these awesome tips for making your own Dulce de Leche.


Slow Cooker Dulce de Leche
1 Can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk

Remove label from the can and place in a slow cooker. Fill slow cooker with water, two inches over the can, and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove carefully and enjoy!

*Note- I made two cans and I think they turned out a little dark, although everyone loved the taste. It wasn't quite as spreadable as other pictures looked so let me know what you think! And do you think it looks totally unappetizing? My brother was appalled!

Dulce de Leche Duos
adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking

1 cup (8 oz) butter, softened
3/4 cup dulce de leche + more to sandwich the cookies
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Beat the butter at medium speed in a stand mixer until soft. Add 3/4 cup dulce de leche and both sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 or 3 minutes. Add the eggs and beat for 1 minutes. Mix in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter.

Spoon or scoop teaspoon-fuls of dough onto the baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between them and bake for 10 minutes. The cookies should be honey brown with a light sugar crust, but they will still be soft. Let cool for a minute and then transfer the cookies to a rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough, making sure you cool the baking sheets before spooning dough onto them (or scoop the dough onto the sheet and refridgerate while the other pans bake.

Spread a little dulce on the flat side of half the cookies to make sandwiches. Enjoy!

34 comments:

  1. They look really good! My batter was fairly soft, but it didn't spread at all in the oven, so I ended up making sablees. They were definitely crisp! I think the darker dulce de leche has more flavour, so I always make it like that. I used store-bought this time, though.

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  2. your DDL color looks perfect to me!

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  3. I love the colour of your dulce de leche. The cookies look so yummy!

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  4. Not unappetizing in the slightest! I actually wish my Dulce de Leche looked as dark as yours, next time I'm definitely trying the slow cooker method!

    p.s I love that pretty plate!

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  5. I love the way your cookies turned out! I think I'll add more flour, too, the next time! I love your photos! Magazine-worthy!

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  6. My husband said the same thing - he wanted them crispy and I loved that they were soft.

    I also added a little more flour to mine, since scooping them was a messy messy business.

    Yours look great! Love your blog

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  7. I think your dulce de leche is the perfect color. Your cookies look fantastic! I love having a stash of cookie dough in the freezer.

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  8. Your cookies look just like mine. I wasn't sure what they were supposed to be like.
    I love the dark look to the ddl.
    I added more flour to most of mine and added other things, too!

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  9. They look great. I thought this recipe was easy and the results were outstanding!

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  10. Yours are so dainty and perfect. Those would look great on a cookie gift tray.

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  11. I should have added more flour to mine.

    I also added vanilla, I always do.

    Yours are so pretty.

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  12. Yum! They look delish...I've bagged some in the freezer for after Lent. :-)

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  13. That is a great picture of your cookies. I can see that these babies were hard to photograph, but you captured them nicely! Great job.

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  14. hmm, my batter was pretty soft too...probably explains the nonuniformness of my cookies. Yours look perfect!

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  15. Sticky is the word. But they were great - and probably why mine flattened like pancakes. Love the photography, the sandwich cookie is definitely captured here!

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  16. Oooh I might have to try to add more flour when I make these bad boys again. Totally agree about adding more salt. Gotta go w with the wifey on the soft over the crunchy. Sorry Mr Strawberry. HA!
    -CB
    http://iheartfood4thought.com

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  17. Oh, so lovely! These look perfect. - mary the food librarian

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  18. Thanks for baking! Yours look great. These are very soft cookies, that's for sure!

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  19. so pretty! and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that saucer. I agree that more guidance about how much DDL to have on hand would have been nice. I ended up using 2 1/2 cans; I imagine it would have been the same if I had bought some.

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  20. These look great! I had to add a little extra flour to mine too, and they turned out well.

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  21. Your dulce de leche looks goregous! I actually wish mine would've turned out a little darker so I'd have more contrast between my cookies & the filling. Will try extra salt next time too.

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  22. wow! those cookies look incredible!

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  23. I think it looks delicious! I have a can of sweetened condensed milk in the cupboard and think I am going to set it up to cook overnight so I can make these tomorrow. A day late, but...

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  24. I made my dulce in the crockpot too and it looked a lot like yours, though slightly less smooth. I've never had it before so I didn't have any basis for comparison, but it seemed to have worked well. Your cookies look awesome! I had trouble keeping the dulce from leaking out of my sandwiches :)

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  25. Perfect shapes, they look awesome!

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  26. Look delicious. Perfect Dulce. Fun to make your own.

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  27. Your photos are beautiful. I used two cans of condensed milk, since I figured leftover DDL would not be bad to have around.

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  28. My ddl came out dark from the slow cooker and it was delicious. Your bro is crazy!

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  29. Your cookies look absolutely perfect!! MY DDL had the consistency of custard and was as dark as yours, but it was still tasty

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  30. Love your pics especially the one of the dulce de leche. It was really hard to know what these cookies were suppose to be like but it seems a lot of us got the same results. Mine were definitely very chewy. Tasty though.

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  31. Such delicious looking things and such great pictures! :) I love your blog!

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  32. Yours are so perfectly round! My DDL came out dark, also but I left mine in the slow cooker for 11 hours! Oopsy. Still delicious.

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  33. i've been making this caramel sauce for several years but I just do it in a heavy duty pan...making sure that the can of SWEETENED CONDENSED milk is covered with water and boil for 3 hours...that 8 hours is to long of a time to wait!! also great for dipping apple slices, etc. THANKS FOR THE COOKIE RECEIPE!!!

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  34. Wow, these look awesome! And I had no idea of how to make Dulce de Leche-that's amazing!

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