This morning I decided to stuff some chocolate cookies with dulce de leche -- the kind I can buy at the grocery store....not the fancy, authentic type from Argentina. It's made with milk from a cow, not a goat......like cajeta. I don't care for goat products.
The recipe I used for the dough is called Mexican Chocolate Ice Box Cookies. I got it from Lindsey's Luscious. It's an old Maida Heatter recipe which gets a kick from cinnamon and cayenne pepper. The dough is the kind you roll into a log and store in the icebox, which is nice because you can cut off exactly how much you want and bake as many cookies as needed. This morning, I only cooked up a few. I stuffed three of them with dulce de leche (see directions below) then added about a minute to the baking time. I also chilled the cookies so the dulce de leche wouldn't be too gooey.
Here's a picture of the finished cookie. You can't really see the dulce de leche in the photo, but you'll definitely taste it in the cookies. I really liked these better with the dulce de leche because it tamed the heat. These cookies are very spicy. Really.
Also, mine are very dark because I used Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cocoa powder.
Maida's Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookies
1 ½ cups flour
¾ cup quality Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa
¾ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoons cayenne
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Whisk the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, cayenne, salt, and pepper together in a medium bowl and set aside.
Put sugar, vanilla, and egg into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until thick and pale, about three minutes. Add butter and continue to beat on high speed until smooth, about three minutes more. Using your fingers work flour mixture into butter mixture until dough is just combined. Divide dough in half and roll each half into a 9-inch log. Wrap each log in parchment paper, twisting ends tightly to make a uniform cylinder. Freeze dough logs for at least eight hours and as long as overnight.
Preheat oven to 350° F. Unwrap dough and slice each log into rounds ⅓-inch thick. Place rounds one inch apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Bake cookies until slightly puffed and tiny cracks appear on surface, about eight minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to let cool. Makes about four dozen cookies.
To make the dulce de leche cookies, follow recipe as above, but instead of freezing dough, chill in refrigerator. Slice rounds as directed, but flatten rounds and scoop a generous ¼ teaspoonful (which is really about a half teaspoon) ball of dulce de leche in the middle of one round. Lay a second round over dulce de leche, pinching edges tightly and smoothing out and rolling gently between balls to make a smooth mound. Bake for 9 minutes.
Heather
I bought a can of dulce de leche on a whim a couple of weeks ago. Then one of my supervisors decided that we need a potluck on Tuesday and that's it a mexican theme. Oh man, I can't wait to make these tomorrow.
shells
I finally got to make these. They are so great. Thanks for the recipe and the great blog!
Anna
H Shells,
Nope. Maida didn't fill the cookies with anything.
shells
I can't wait to make these!
Did the original recipe include the filling, or could you just make the spicey chocolate cookie with no filling?
Todd I Am
You do not like cheese from a goat?
You might like it on boat.
You don't like it, so you say.
Try it! Try it, and you may!
Try it and you may, I say.
Anna
Good, glad to hear there's no goaty twang to the real stuff. I do not like goat cheese one bit. I've tried to like it, but if it merely touches anything else on the plate, it ruins it. I love blue cheese and feta, though. So I think I have a goat product aversion.
Randi
oh, and the real stuff isnt like cajeta. Cajeta has that goaty twang ya know. Do you like goat cheese?
Randi
just an fyi. Williams sonoma has Guittard Couverture Chocolate, Bittersweet on sale for 5.99 for a 1lb package. Thats a great price. I ordered 3lbs. Im sure you could go to the store and find it, but im 150 miles from the store.
Anna
Randi, I will eventually give the real stuff a try. But if it's anything like cajeta, then I won't like it. My dad use to put cajeta over his ice cream on a regular basis and while I wanted to like it, it sort of made me gag. I bought some a few years ago to see if maybe I'd like it as an adult. Still got the same gag reaction. I believe I have an aversion to all goat products.
Randi
anna, anna, anna, call me a food snob, but I URGE you to try some real dulce de leche. The stuff you bought is milk caramel FLAVORED. There is one brand from Argentina that is too die for. Its pricey though. You can even make your own with a can of sweetened condensed milk. Btw, I love the cajeta. I bought some at Big lots and made crepes with it.
Anna
It's widely available and usually found in the ice cream topping section. The baking section of our store also carries Nestle brand dulce de leche, but I haven't tried it yet.
cookiemonster
What area of the store do you find this? i.e...where ice cream toppings are, or jellies or? Thanks!!!
Jennifer
I didn't know this product existed. I'll definitely be on the look-out for it. These cookies look sinful.
Anna
Carole, I'll be looking forward to your report. The dough is a little stiff after being refrigerated, so you do have to carefully mold it around the dulce de leche without over-working it. It's worth the trouble, though.
Domestic Chicky, I am going to go see if that recipe is in my KA Cookie Companion. Thanks for the tip.
Claire, if your dad likes the heat, he'll love these. They have a long finish and kind of a slow burn. I actually do not like fiery foods which numb the tongue (peppers and the like), but these cookies were an exception.
Claire N
Once again a recipe to add to my "to try" file! My dad will like these with the chocolate and cayene. Sounds interesting!
Domestic Chicky
Yum-I am crazy about the chocolate chile craze...these are on the must try list...
My favorite cookie (quid pro quo and all that, but I don't want to put it on my blog yet)
King arthur flour cookie book-Good-as-store-bought cookies (I think that's what they're called),I omit the chopped chocolate and the nuts, melt the butter, use all brown sugar, cream sugar, butter eggs, vanilla til light in color. Add flour/oat/salt/baking powder/soda mixture (without the extra chocolate), add choc chips and 1/2 bag toffee chips til just mixed. SOO yummy!
carole
My project for tomorrow. I love anything caramel.