Hi.
I’ve noticed you around these parts a lot. I made you some cookies. I’m glad you’re here.
Maybe we could sit down and you could shell out some advice. I just have one question. Gimme your gut. What’s it thinkin’? This might seem silly, but what else is new? I really need your help with this.
Couch. Should I buy a couch?
Just the thought of a real life couch in my little apartment gives me all sorts of unreasonable anxiety. Yeesh. I thought I would only buy a couch… a big fluffy couch… when I was an adult and I had my life aaaaaaaallllllll figured out. Well… I’m pretty darn sure I’m an adult, and I’m pretty darn sure I’ll never actually have it all figured out…. so I might just need to buck up and buy the darn couch, right?
Couch. It’s just a couch. Somehow… it seems like so much more. What do you think?
I’ll trade you your thoughts for these ridiculously good cookies. Deal? Deal.
There are a few things you should know about these cookies…. wait! Do you know what dulce de leche is? Dulce de leche is like a thick, milky, caramel sauce. It’s made when sweetened milk is slowly cooked and boiled down to deliciousness. I buy the jarred stuff because it makes my life easier.
This recipe from Dorie Greenspan makes one whole heck of a lot of cookie dough. Phew! This recipe makes about 30 sandwich cookies. That’s a lot.
Even with the dulce de leche, brown sugar and granulated sugar, these cookies aren’t as sweet as you might think. Surprising… I know. I added a bit of sea salt on top of the dulce de leche I spread into the sandwich cookies. Amazing!
The one small downside to these cookies? They sure aren’t as pretty as I wanted them to be…. but oooh so delicious.
Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies
recipe from Baking: from my home to yours
makes 30 sandwich cookies
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup store-bought dulce de leche, plus more for filling
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and position a rack in the upper third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until just softened and broken up a bit. Add the 3/4 cup dulce de leche, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients all at once. Mix only until the flour is just incorporated. You may need to finish off the mixing with a big spatula.
Spoon the dough onto the lined baking sheets using a heaping teaspoon of dough for each cookie. The dough will be soft and this might be a bit messy. Leave 2 inches of space between each cookie for the baking spread.
Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes. The cookies will be honey brown with a light crust, but still very soft when they come out of the oven. Let them rest on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before removing to cool.
Once the cookies are cooled completely, spread them with dulce de leche and sprinkle with a bit of sea salt if you like. Keep well wrapped for up to four days.
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Hi Joy,
I’ve followed your blog ever since I found your Pan Dulce recipe (as I’m a homesick Texan in NY in need of a sweet fix that reminds me of home!)
Just wanted to say these cookies would most certainly make us best buds…I remember watching my great-grandmother make dulce de leche on her stove..mmm..
As for the couch dilemma…well, Carolyn above gives you most of the practical advice I thought of too…and I would just add, pick out some cute pillows and maybe a great throw to go with the couch and I’m not sure how tall you are, but make sure when you sit on it, you’re feet reach comfortably (I’m very short, this is a big issue for me!). :)
Good luck on the hunt for a couch, and thanks for sharing all your baking genius with the rest of us. I can cook…not so great at baking. But, you inspire me to try more things!
You should get a nice couch if you have the room. We had a cheap, barely cushioned ikea couch in our apt that was not comfortable at all and I thought my friend was so lucky having a real, soft, cushioned couch in her studio. It makes it more home-y i think.
So I checked at the grocery store yesterday, but no dice… I looked on the baking aisle, but maybe a diff area? “Ethnic” foods? Must. Have. Dulce de leche….
I haven’t seen the kind in a jar. What I buy is in a can and is usually with the condensed milk/sweetened condensed milk, in the same kind of can. If your market has an aisle for Mexican food it might be there also.
williams sonoma has the best dulce de leche
I can’t find it in the stores in my neighborhood either. I looked online and found it at http://www.amigofoods.com. They delivered really fast and it tasted great. Good luck…
I know what you’re saying…I felt so adult when I bought my first couch several years ago. It was only $550 and I couldn’t even believe I could afford it. Good luck with your search!
I love your “tree” plate…where did you get it?
Buy the couch. I’ve been without a dresser for four years, and I recently took the plunge and a bought a really, cute vintage mahogany dresser. I was giddy like a schoolgirl after the purchase.
Joy,
Don’t worry about having your life figured out. Nobody ever really gets their life figured out. Live now. Enjoy yourself. Dream big. Buy the couch.
i dream of dulce de leche. on a spoon. in ice cream. any which way. these sandwiches will do me in for good. happy new year, joy!!
Joy! These look awesome. And I have some words on couches. When I lived in Boston going to graduate school, I was obsessing about a “big girl” couch. I wanted a real piece of furniture so badly, and ended up saving for a sweet, baby blue couch from Crate and Barrel. I loved it. Then, 8 months later, I decided to move across the country and financially id didn’t make sense to bring her along :) So if you’re staying put for awhile and you’re sure that you don’t want to pick up and travel South America for an entire year anytime soon, go for it. But if you want to keep your backpack light (did you see Up in the Air??), I’d hold off. Good luck!
(LOVE. YOUR. BLOG. by the way).
Hi,
I am friends with your Grandpa Bill at the gym that I go to. He is really pretty awesome. He has really adorable workout outfits. Hah. But, your website is amazing! I am really glad to see that other people (like me) have an active interest in baking. I really felt alone for a while. It is always foodnetwork around here, but I do not see much baking, and it pleases me that you are also a baker. I am only 19, so my baking skills are not quite as adept as yours, but I am slowly working on it. Your cookies look amazing. And I think you should buy a big, fluffy couch. I know what you mean though about not knowing anything about the world. I thought that I had it all figured out when I turned 18. I was going to go away to school, open a cupcake store, and become rich and successful, but it hasn’t really worked out that way. I am more interested now in photography, but they maybe might both (the cupcakes and photography) become a career, who knows? But definitely know that I feel for you and your grandpa talks about you constantly, it is adorable. He brought in your aprons and everything and was like, the cutest. He even gave me a cute little paper with your website on it :]. Hence, why I am here. Anyways, good luck!
Best wishes, Laura
I have that book and I CAN’T WAIT TO MAKE THESE!
Your cookies look delicious! This is the latest of many treats I’ve seen here and thought about how I really must make those soon. Then I look closer at the recipe, and realize I have that book. Then I wonder, “Why haven’t I made this yet?”
Good luck on your couch. We happen to be looking for a new couch.
Hi Joy,
Love your blog! i have a practical and not very professional question – i’m abroad for some time and don’t have my kitchen equipment. i’m looking for reciepes which don’t requiere a mixer. is it possible to make those cookies by hand?
Thanks!
You definitely need a couch! A patterned, whimsical one!
Yum, dulce de leche. This makes me think of alfajores when I was studying abroad in Argentina and Uruguay: delicious little butter cookies with dulce de leche in the middle, rolled in coconut and drizzled with chocolate. Yum. I love the honey color of these cookies.
When I saw those photos I immediately knew I had to get the recipe and will be using it very soon!
Dear joyfull joy,
Buy the couch and don’t take life too seriously.
Your friend Audrey 12 years old in Cincinnati
Lovely cookies! You could spread dulce de leche on shoelaces and I’d eat them :) Buy the couch and don’t worry about it – you’ll be more comfortable! And you need a place to relax and enjoy these yummy cookies…
I made these last night and thought that they were beyond amazing but they were even better today! It was the perfect combination of salty and sweet. Thank you so much for this recipe. It is going on my list of favorites!
Printing NOW. Too delicious for coherency. Drooling.
Hello Joy,
I just stumbled upon your blog today. I love trying new recipes and this website seems to be the perfect place to pick some yummy ones up. Thank you for your blogging and recipe sharing!
About your couch, I would go sit on every single one of the pretty couches in the store and figure out which one your butt feels best on, then by that one.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case, the taster.
Nomnomnom! These look divine. I bet even if I swapped out a nut butter or Nutella these would still be divine.
Thanks Joy!
Hi Joy! I love your recipes! I bought my first couch at 24 (right out of college for my second apartment) 6 years later I still have it. It was my first big grown up purchase all by myself and I sat and sprawled out my 5’10″ frame on every single couch in the furniture store to the shock of all the sales people. It was the best purchase I have made-I love it! :) So-I say go for it and get one you like-really like so that you can love it. (I wish I would have bought the matching love seat as well-I’m still kicking myself!) Good luck!
joy, dulce de leche reminds me of my home. argentina. i have yet to make these little bits but i appreciate the photos and good words. <3
My dear Joy,
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I am always checking up on your blog while at work, and my co-workers are always peeking over my shoulder and directing me what to make next. I made these last week for a co-workers birthday and they were AMAZING (but what isn’t from your blog…)
Thanks again!
Laura
Indianapolis, IN
Hi Joy,
I made these last night as a “I’m sorry” gift to my boyfriend for being a bit of a spaz last weekend. I think baking cookies is the female equivalent of giving flowers to make up for a wrong. Anyways, huge hit. Thanks for the recipe!!
Maggie
nice job maggie!
I tried this recipe today and it was beyond fantastic! We also happened to have Nutella on hand, which brought these cookies to a whole new thigh expanding level. Thanks for all of the fantastic recipes and many many laughs.
http://www.lizdidit.com/2010/06/amazing-cookies-fantastic-girlfriends.html.
Liz! Great minds do think alike. I also wanted to try a little nutella on these…(wait, I want to try nutella on pretty much EVERYTHING)…
QUESTION: What did you actually do with the nutella? On top or inside with the dulce de leche???
Thanks!
Ruby
trick for making them prettier –
use a cookie cutter (any shape as long as it’s smaller than the cookie) and on half of the baked cookies. spread the DDL on the other cookies (duh) (at this point you can also sprinkle them with icing sugar) then when you put them together the dulce de leche shows through! neato!
The next time you do a recipe with dulce de leche, you should tell your readers about this way of making dulce de leche: http://www.thecookinginn.com/tcirecipes/canmilkb.html
You should try with chocolate cookies. Chocolate + dulce de leche= heaven. Believe me.
Chocolate cakes are also great! And pancakes!! OMG
I’d really recommend using our dulce de leche for your (talking to all americans) recipes! It’s delicious and much more healthier and lighter than all those fillings and frostings you make out of butter and cream. You can find easy recipes as the one rachel says, or the real dulce de leche recipe which is, of course, the best in the world..
Lots of love from an argentinean girl :)
Hi Joy,
My friend and I made these cookies this weekend and they were delicious! They were so easy to make and the recipe actually made 50+ cookies total.
Thanks for this wonderful treat!
Abby
I made these last weekend.
They were very good and the co-workers liked them.
I made these this weekend for a party, and my friends went crazy over them! One of the guests was even walking around holding one in each hand, going back and forth between them! (If that’s not high praise, I don’t know what is.) In addition to being insanely delicious, they were a breeze to make, stayed fresh and soft for a few days, and made my friends think I’m a baking genius. Thanks for the stellar recipe Joy!
i’m making this lovelies now in my oven…i can smell the sweet sweet smell of Dulce de Leche.
I’m definitely making this. Question is whether I’m brave enough to make the dulce de leche too!
Hi Joy,
I’ve been following your blog and I found this recipe today… it’s almost a year after it was published but I liked the couch discussion… My husband and I were living in our house for more than A YEAR before buying our two couches… and that was after I got pregnant. I was 7 months pregnant when the couches arrived and our internal jokes for years to come is: We have the house, the baby and the COUCHES!
BTW, I’m from Argentina and dulce de leche is like our national sweet (and we tend to say that we invented it). =)
Nice recipe!
Hi Joy!
I made these for my sister’s volleyball game – they were such a hit that we made them for our christmas cookie party…and they continue to be a hit! Thanks for the great recipe.
http://homnom.blogspot.com/2010/10/dulce-de-leche-cookies.html
yum yum yum!
I just got a ridiculously rad 70′s retro-modern couch at Goodwill for $30. It’s big and goldenrod and I love it. I suggest you check out a thrift store. They always have the coolest vintage furniture for cheap. As long as you have a steam cleaner or know of someone who has a steam cleaner. :)
You can get Dulce de Leche at Wal-Mart. I know – I’m not a fan either but it is the only place in our part of the world that I can find it. It is on the aisle with Mexican food – not with the sweetened condensed milk. I can just eat it out of the can – the whole can – which probably explains why I NEED to use P90X! :)
Yummy, yummy, yummy. The family went nuts for these. I used nutella and dulce leche for the filling and a touch of sea salt.
HOLA again Joy!
how are you?
im baking right now these cookies, i got some out of the oven, but since im a big nutella fan, i was wondering could i top some nutella on these cookies? do yoou think it will still taste good? haha, i’ll tell you how everything turns out!!!
have a nice week :D:D
Hi Joy!
Thank you for the recipe, I baked the cookies last night and my family and co-workers loved it. This recipe is definetly a keeper :)
Joy, these are UH-MAZING!
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