Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A la peanut butter sandwiches!




The first time I tried dulce de leche was when we made the Snickery Squares for TWD.  And to be honest, I really didn't like it all that much.  While I do like caramel flavors, it was just too sweet for my tastes.  Maybe it was just the kind I bought, but I wasn't excited to try it again any time soon.  So I wasn't quite sure what to think when I saw that Jodie had picked Dulce de Leche Duos for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.  They are sandwich cookies that have dulce de leche used both in the dough and for the filling.  Hmm.

I decided to give them a try despite my misgivings.  First thing was to come up with some dulce de leche (which I'm going to abbreviate DDL from now on =)  ).  Since I had a hard time finding it the last time, I was quite happy to see Julie's Tricks for Treats post with some ideas on how to make your own.  While the idea of making it in my crockpot was appealing, I decided to go with David Lebovitz's oven method.  Part of what swayed me was the fact that he says to add a bit of sea salt to the sweetened condensed milk before putting it in the oven.  I love salt added to caramel, so I figured it might be a good addition to the DDL.  That idea was further reinforced by the fact that I recently watched this Good Eats episode about adding salt to desserts.

The verdict?  Oh. My. Goodness.  I may not have liked DDL before, but I certainly do now!!  With the added salt, the stuff is fantastic.  It was all I could do not to just sit there and eat it with a spoon.  But I made it for the cookies, so into the cookies it would go.  =)  So next up, cookie dough.


The cookie dough is pretty straightforward to make.  You cream butter with granulated sugar, brown sugar, and the DDL.  Then you beat in eggs.  (And maybe vanilla? I can't remember right now.)  Then you mix in flour, baking soda and salt.  I did add a bit more salt than the recipe called for.  The cookies are simple drop cookies (no chilling or rolling or anything like that).  I used my #100 disher and was quite happy with the size of the cookies that I got.  However, I probably should have cut the recipe in a half, since I got a few more cookies than the recipe was supposed to yield.  It said 30 sandwiches, but I got enough individual cookies to make 45 sandwiches.  Oh, well, more to give away. =)  Next up, the filling.

Dorie recommends filling the cookies with more of the DDL.  Only problem with that was that I'd used up almost all of my DDL in the dough.  I should have done more than one can, I guess.  Actually, at the time I made it, I only had the one can.  But I picked up another one when I was grocery shopping, and decided to go ahead make more DDL.  I figured it wouldn't go to waste.  Once I was done making more, I used it to make a couple sandwich cookies.  Hmm.  I thought at first the DDL was thick enough, but after the cookies sat for a few minutes, it started to drip out the sides.  And while the taste was nice, the combination of cookie and filling was a bit sweet for my taste.  Then I was inspired--peanut butter!  By itself, it might be a bit much, but what if I mixed it with some of the DDL?  I played around with the amounts of peanut butter and DDL to see what I liked best.  You can certainly try your own mixture, but I found that I liked mixing 100g of peanut butter with 125g of dulce de leche, which gave me enough filling for about 20 cookies.


The final verdict?  Wow.  These cookies were awesome!  I took a bunch to work on Monday and got the most enthusiastic response I've had in a while.  They absolutely loved them.  I was told that I could give the Girl Scouts a run for their money.  And when I offered to take the leftovers home when I left for the day (to remove temptation), I was informed that I should just put the cookies down and move away. =P  They were a big hit at my house, as well, so I think it's safe to say that I'll be making them again.

If you'd like to try them for yourself, you can find the recipe at Jodie's blog.  And be sure to check out the TWD blogroll to see what everyone else thought of these!



18 comments:

  1. I love how your story progressed and I love you mixed the DDL with peanut butter. YUMMY! I miss TWD but I can't afford the calories...and I just can't resist the temptation!!

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  2. Wow PB and dulce de leche - brilliant!

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  3. Your title for today's post takes me back to the Sesame Street days! :-)

    The cookies look delicious.
    Enjoy!

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  4. Peanut butter sounds like a great addition to a very sweet cookie!

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  5. DdL and PB. AWESOME!! Will have to try that. I made 1/2 recipe and got 35 cookies. Froze some. So will have some for that PB mix.

    They look perfect.

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  6. I love your tulips - they make me smile despite the constant rain we've been having for 2 days. I think tomorrow I'll head out and get some for my house :)

    Anyway, great job on the cookies! I totally agree that the sandwiches were too sweet (though I loved the cookies on their own). I love your idea for the pb & DDL and will definitely give that a shot at some point.

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  7. PBDDL cookies! Delicious! What a great flavor combo. Nice looking too! - mary the food librarian

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  8. Mmmm, peanut butter and ddl?! Sounds fabulous. Looks terrific too! :)

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  9. What a great idea to mix peanut butter with the dulce de leche!! Yum!

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  10. Brilliant idea on the peanutbutter.

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  11. As soon as I read peanut butter I rushed to my cookbook to write that little tidbit on the recipe for next time. My Hubs will love it being a PB freak and all. Great idea!
    -CB
    http://iheartfood4thought.com

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  12. what a great idea! i'll try that next time.

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  13. Well, I think the PB was a brilliant idea. Have to remember that for the next time. Oh, and the salt, too!

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  14. A DDL Convert! Nice!! Your cookies look gorgeous and I think the PB is an awesome idea!

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  15. Your cookies look awesome and I love the addition of the peanut butter - I'll bet that was soooo good!

    To answer your question about the DDL recipe I posted, I ended up with about 3 to 3 1/2 8-oz jam jars filled. I know I had at least three full ones, and I think I ate the remainder because it wouldn't fill a jar.

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  16. They look fabulous! I think I am where you were on the DDL before you made your own. I definitely need to try Lebovitz's recipe and make these again. David loved these even with the store bought stuff; I can only imagine how good they'll be with the homemade! Glad the cookies were a hit!

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  17. Love your use of the French expression "À la" ...the funniest part is that French people don't like peanut butter much, it never caught on over there... but that's okay, makes more for us!

    Very nice Di!

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  18. Oh, my your cookies look wonderful, I am not sure I could just have ONE of those. They really are nicely done. Love the tulips...aren't they just so beautiful always?

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