Dulce de Leche Duos

Dulce de Leche Duos - made February 24, 2011 from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (book #47)

I love this baking book, no two ways about it.  The sometimes lengthy directions are mainly geared for novices so I tend to skim them and do my own thing but if you're a beginning baker, this is a great recipe book to talk you through the steps of baking each recipe.  Nearly every recipe I've tried from it has turned out and they're straightforward to make and taste great.  Don't let the size of the book intimidate you.  As far as I'm concerned, the more recipes, the more pages and the more pictures it has, the better.  This one book alone could probably keep me busy baking for a year, not only trying new recipes but going back to the ones I've already made from it that have turned out well.

This is another sandiwch cookie recipe and has dulce de leche as the star ingredient, both mixed in the cookie dough itself and as the filling for the sandwich cookies.  I used up the last of the dulce de leche that my friend Jenny brought me from South America for the cookie dough itself so I substituted nutella for the sandwich filling.  Dulce de Leche and chocolate hazelnut?  There's a duo I can get behind.

The dough for this is pretty soft, even after I froze it for a couple of hours.  I ended up giving up using my small ice cream scoop for the dough rounds since it was a little too soft to be scooped properly.  So I used two small spoons to shape them in roughly spherical shapes. Follow the sandwich cookie rule and make each one small and approximately the same size (which is a little harder to do without an ice cream scoop). It bakes like a chocolate chip cookie with crisp edges and chewy middles so it's a little fragile when used as a sandwich cookie (be careful when you handle them to spread the filling and sandwich them).  It tastes great as a standalone cookie even without the filling but do try some with the filling, whether you use dulce de leche, nutella or something else.  Just make sure that whichever filling you use, it's a soft, spreadable consistency.  I had to warm up the nutella slightly as it was too firm to spread over a fragile cookie.  15 seconds in the microwave and a good stir and it worked fine.

This is a tasty little cookie, not too sweet, despite the dulce de leche in the batter.  It's not crisp all the way through like most cookies used for sandwich cookies but not cakey soft like whoopie pies.  Rather, it's a nice middle ground between the two.  You neither want to underbake it (too soft) or overbake it (too crisp/brittle).  Instead, Goldilocks it to "just right" with golden brown edges while the middle is still a lighter tan color.

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ cup store-bought dulce de leche, plus more for filling

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

½ cup sugar

2 large eggs

1.    Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.    Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

3.    In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until soft.  Add the ¾ cup dulce de leche and both sugars and continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until just combined.

4.    Spoon the dough onto the baking sheets, using a heaping teaspoon of dough for each cookie and leaving 2 inches between them.

5.    Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, turning around halfway for even browning.  The cookies should be honey brown with a light sugar crust, but they will still be soft, so remove the sheets from the oven but let cookies sit for another minute or two on the baking sheet.  Then, using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to room temperature.

6.    Repeat with the remaining dough, making sure you cool the baking sheets before using them again.

7.    When the cookies are completely cool, spread the flat bottoms of half the cookies with a small amount of dulce de leche, and sandwich with the flat sides of the remaining cookies.

ETA: Every Saturday I try to participate in a "Sweets for a Saturday" post on a blog Lisa started up.  Go check it out - it's worth it: