TWD: Dulce de Leche Duos
One Thanksgiving several years ago I was getting ready to make a pumpkin pie. I had all my ingredients out, the crust was already in the pie pan, and I was making the filling. I opened the can of condensed milk and was horrified. What was supposed to be a creamy off-white liquid was brown and congealed.
I’m sure I said some naughty words as I chucked the abomination into the garbage can. Mike, who knows the deliciousness of a homemade pumpkin pie, immediately put on his jacket and dashed out the door for a quick Smith’s run for another can or three (“Make sure they sound liquid-y!”).
While he was gone I went online to see if I could find out any information about what had happened to the can of milk. I found that at some point during the shipping or storing process, my little can had been exposed to heat and had turned into dulce de leche. I was a little let-down that we hadn’t known this beforehand, but it was probably for the best that it had been tossed since we didn’t know when or for how long it had been that way anyway.
So, with all that being said, I was very excited to see that this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe (chosen by Jodie of Beansy Loves Cake) was going to involve dulce de leche, and I was determined to make it myself. You can find dulce de leche pretty easily here in Vegas, but I wanted to make my own (making it yourself is a bit cheaper, too).
I decided to go with the crockpot method, so last night before bed I placed my can of condensed milk (label removed first) in the crockpot and filled it with water so it was completely covered. I put the lid on and left it on low for the night, and it ultimately went for about eight hours. When I got up this morning I took it out of the water and let it cool completely. Easy peasy!
I didn’t really do anything differently with the recipe except that I added 1/2 a teaspoon of salt instead of 1/4 (caramel and salt are heaven on earth). The cookies by themselves are good, but sandwiched with the dulce de leche they’re absolutely amazing.
Should I hide them or share them? This is the day’s dilemma.
Love your close-up photo of the cookie and filling! So, did you share? I gave all mine away–both the first disaster batch and the second batch with a different cookie. I had already filled up on dulce de leche anyway…
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Heather
March 23rd, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Hi Mary! Thank you 😀 I haven’t shared yet – the husband and kids are at work and school, so it’s just me and the cookies, sitting here staring at each other…
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I don’t even doubt your story about your condensed milk turning into DDL b/c I’ve been to Vegas in August. Oh baby! My spoiled CA skin was not ready for that heat! I upped my salt too. I added 1 tsp. I think that definitely helped enhance the sweet for me. Glad you enjoyed the cookies.
-CB
http://iheartfood4thought.com
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Heather
March 23rd, 2010 at 3:11 pm
It’s funny the things that the heat affects that you don’t give much thought to! For example, it’s almost impossible to find a bag of chocolate chips that haven’t all melted together and then re-cooled in the store. You have to bash the bag against the counter a few times prior to making cookies 😀
I’m glad I’m not the only one who ups the salt in a sweet recipe – it makes such a yummy difference!
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Hide just a few for yourself.
Your cookies look fabulous
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Heather
March 23rd, 2010 at 2:46 pm
That sounds like an excellent compromise! (And thank you!)
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It tastes exactly like a See’s butterscotch sucker 😀
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This is Amazing!! Mmmm…I’m speechless. I am definitely going to work with this. Thanks Heather!
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Glad you liked them. They’re one of my faves now! Thanks for baking!
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That’s crazy! I can’t believe it turned into dulce de leche on its own! Your cookies look absolutely amazing!
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Great photos! I hope to make these tomorrow.
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I shared them and my coworkers were superhappy about that, they really liked these.
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wow DDL by mistake – i wish i had things like that happen to me! they were a hit with us too!!! nice job 🙂
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Your cookies look amazing! Good call on adding extra salt…these really needed something to cut the sweetness a bit.
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GREAT looking cookies. Looks like there are little pockets of caramel in the cookie.
Love the fact that we can make Dulce de Leche at home.
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The cookies look yummy 🙂
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Oh i can imagine the horror of opening that can to brown goo but it was dulche de leche! YUM!
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Your cookie looks wonderful! I had the same thing happen with a can of sweetened condensed milk once. It was pretty old and I tossed it.
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Very cool post, well thought out indeed!
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