Not Your Average Cookie

It should come as no surprise that I really enjoyed my time studying abroad in Madrid -- my food experiences there have been the inspiration for more than one of the posts on this blog. Here's another one:

While in Madrid, I lived around the corner from a bakery that sold delicious dulce de leche cookies. My roommate, who happened to be one of my best friends from college, and I would make up any excuse to treat ourselves to the cookies. Since we've been back in the States, we still often reminisce about how delicious they were, so I decided to try my hand at making them myself... you know how much we love cookies.

It wasn't until Mary and I were going over the recipe and making a shopping list that I realized that dulce de leche isn't for sale in the grocery store, but rather is made from heating condensed milk. This made me more than a little nervous, since as we kept googling how to make dulce de leche, we kept reading warnings about how the condensed milk cans could explode. My fears were definitely not assuaged by the warning on the label of the cans telling me to never heat the cans, either. As a result of this, my parents avoided the kitchen for the day, and in the end, we made some pretty delicious cookies. They were nothing like the cookies in the bakery in my neighborhood in Madrid, but I daresay they were even better.

Dulce de Leche:

Remove all labels from condensed milk cans. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, reduce heat to simmering and place in can(s) of condensed milk. Make sure water covers the can by at least an inch. Simmer for at least three hours, adding about a cup of water to the pot every thirty minutes to maintain the water level. Our dulce de lecher was pretty thin, but according to some of the recipes we read, the longer you keep it on the stove, the darker and thicker it becomes. When ready, gently remove the cans from the pot and let sit for at least 30 minutes until cool. We (ok, I) was pretty nervous the cans would explode when we tried to open them, but Mary bravely opened them (and lived to eat the finished product).

Dulce De Leche Cookies:

2 1/2 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter

3/4 c. dulce de leche, plus more for filling

3/4 c. light brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

2 large eggs

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

2. In another bowl, use a mixer (hand or standing) to beat the butter until soft. Add the dulce de leche and sugars and beat until fluffy. Add one egg at a time, mixing well between eggs.

3. Reduce mixer speed and add the dry ingredients, mixing until they just disappear into the batter.

4. Using a teaspoon, spoon the dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Make sure to space them well, as the cookies tend to spread.

5. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees. Halfway though, rotate the cookies in the oven. They should be light brown, but still soft. Remove from oven, and let cook before transferring the

cookies to a wire rack.

6. When the cookies are cool, spread the flat side of half of the cookies with dulce de leche, and using a second cookie, create a sandwich with both flat sides touching.

Thankfully this recipe makes a LOT (about 35 pairs) of cookies, because the cookies were amazing. We have never made anything like them - they were soft and chewy and the dulce de leche was delicious. It was practically impossible to only eat only one of them. The only reason I haven't been baking a new batch every day is because I am still a little nervous about the whole dulce de leche making process, but the more I reminisce about these cookies, the more I am realizing I need to bite the bullet... perhaps even tomorrow.