Suzi's Blog
Easiest Ever Dulce De Leche Bars with Coconut
Last week I posted a recipe for dulce de leche swirl congo bars. Fantastic cookies combining the flavor of blondie cookies with chocolate chips and dulce de leche.
Here’s another great idea from Simply Sensational Cookies. These are called Easiest-Ever Dulce de Leche Bars. Why “easiest?” Because amazingly, you don’t use dulce de leche as an ingredient. No you make a shortbread batter, bake it off, then top it with sweetened condensed milk. Pop it back in the oven. The shortbread finishes cooking and that milk is transformed into dulce de leche. Oh, and you top it off with coconut.
It’s really easy. It’s decadently good. If you want to justify making this, get some children. Tell them you are going to demonstrate an important chemical reaction. In goes the shortbread base with condensed milk and out comes dulce de leche. Honestly, I think that’s just the sort of lesson that can trigger a healthy interest in science or cooking.
Or eating.
Easiest-Ever Dulce De Leche Bars
Yield: 24 2” squares
Ingredients:
- 1 batch Simple Shortbread Bar dough [recipe follows]
- 2 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon almond extract or coconut extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups shredded or flaked sweetened coconut
Preparation:
Baking Preliminaries: Position a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 350°F. Line a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil, letting the foil slightly overhang on the narrow sides. Lightly grease the foil or coat with nonstick spray.
If the shortbread dough has not been prepared ahead, ready it; press it evenly into the foil-lined baking pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the shortbread is tinged with brown and just slightly darker at the edges.
Reset the oven to 325°F.
For the filling: In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, almond extract, and salt. Evenly pour the mixture over the crust. Cover the pan tightly with foil. Bake (middle rack) for 40 to 45 minutes or until the filling is the color of caramel candies. Sprinkle the coconut evenly over the top. Bake, uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until the coconut is nicely browned and crisp.
Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely. Using the foil as handles, lift the slab to a cutting board. Carefully peel off and discard the foil.
Cut away the overbaked edges using a large sharp knife. Cut the slab crosswise into sixths and lengthwise into quarters.
Source: Simply Sensational Cookies by Nancy Baggett
Simple Shortbread
Yield: one 9 by 13-inch pan
Ingredients:
- 13 tablespoons [scant 1 2/3 sticks] butter, unsalted, cool and firm, cut into chunks
- ½ cup granulated sugar, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons more for optional garnish
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose white flour
- 1 ½ cups dulce de leche, room temperature from a 13.4 ounce can or ajar of store-bought dulce de leche or, better, home-made and chilled
Preparation:
Baking Preliminaries: To prepare simple shortbread bars, position a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 350°F. Line a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, allowing it to overhang on the 9-inch sides slightly. Lightly grease the foil or coat with nonstick spray. (If using the dough as a bottom crust for layered bars, after making the dough proceed as directed in the individual recipes — which is what is suggested above for this Easiest Ever cookie).
To make the dough with a mixer, let the butter warm up until just slightly soft. In a large bowl with the mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt just until evenly blended, scraping down the bowl as needed. On low speed, beat in the flour just until the mixture forms a mass. (If the mixer motor labors, stir in the last of the flour a large spoon; or gradually knead it in with your hands.)
If the dough too crumbly to hold together, gradually work in up to 4 teaspoons water until it holds together her smoothly. Press and pat the dough into the pan until evenly thick all over (Laying a sheet of wax paper over t h e surface may make it easier to smooth out t h e dough.) If planning to serve t h e shortbread as a cookie itself, garnish the t op by evenly sprinkling over a little sugar. Bake (middle rack for 23 to 28 minutes or until t h e shortbread is nicely browned all over, perhaps slightly darker at the edges, and just firm when pressed.
Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool to firm up slightly and cool to warm.
Source: Simply Sensational Cookies by Nancy Baggett
Marble cake
Sometimes it can be a little hard to keep current on this blog with what we cook. I can get behind in my writing. This cake is an example. We had it for Christmas. Last year.
I had other dessert ideas at the time. Buche de Noel. Apple pie. Some medieval German wonders. All sorts of things.
“We want the Marble Cake,” my grandsons announced.
“What marble cake?” I asked. I had no idea.
“The one you made for our birthday party. Five years ago,” the twins announced.
I scratched my head. So did Suzen. Apparently that cake had made quite an impression. Suzen was willing to go marble, but she wanted to make the bestest ever marble cake. For that, there was one obvious source: Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Years ago, Rose wrote The Cake Bible. You would sort of think that might end things for her cakewise. But, as this title suggests, there is a higher plane. Heavenly Cakes is an understatement. The book is filled with very lovely creations. You’ll see some other ideas from Rose in the coming weeks. This one is relatively simple to make and exceptional.
Marble cake is perfect for those of us who cannot make up our minds: vanilla, chocolate, vanilla, chocolate. Here you have both flavors in the very rich batter. Six egg yolks! Two sticks of butter! And sour cream! It’s an abundance of all the things that you have to watch for. Personally, I’m pretty sure that the calories in the butter and the calories in the sour cream cancel themselves out. I can’t begin to think of anything plausible about the eggs.
It’s a rich satisfying cake. That’s why Rose says in will feed 12-14.
Marble Velvet Cakes
Yield: serves 12-14
Ingredients:
For cake batter:
- 3 ounces dark chocolate
- 6 large egg yolks
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups cake flour
- 1 ½ cups superfine sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
For the ganache glaze:
- 4 ounces dark chocolate
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat one 10-cup metal fluted tube pan with baking spray and flour.
Heat the chocolate until almost completely melted. Use a small microwavable bowl, stirring with a silicone spatula every 15 seconds (or use the top of a double boiler set over hot, not simmering, water, stirring often—do not let the bottom of the container touch the water).
Remove the chocolate from the heat and, with the silicone spatula, stir until fully melted. Allow it to cool until it is no longer warm to the touch but is still fluid.
In a medium bowl, whisk the yolks, ¼cup of the sour cream, and the vanilla just until lightly combined.
To make the batter, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter and the remaining sour cream. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1 ½ minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Starting on medium-low speed, gradually add the egg mixture in three parts, beating on medium speed for 20 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Remove almost one-third of the batter (1 1/2 cups) to a bowl and stir in the melted chocolate until uniform in color. Spoon one-third of the remaining batter into the prepared pan. Top with dollops of half the chocolate batter. Spread gently but evenly. Top with another third of the plain batter and then with dollops of the remaining chocolate batter. Spread evenly and top with the remaining third of the plain batter, spreading it evenly over the top.
Use a regular tablespoon to marbleize the batter lightly: Dip in the tablespoon, without touching the bottom or sides, and lift up and over in a folding motion, like the roll of a wave, six to eight tunes, going all around the pan. Smooth the surface evenly.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a wire cake tester inserted between the tube and the side conies out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. The cake should start to shrink from the sides of the pan only after removal from the oven. During baking it will rise above the center tube, but on cooling it will be almost level with the sides of the pan.
Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen the cake by jiggling it up and down until it moves slightly. Invert it onto a wire rack that has been coated lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Cool completely before applying the glaze, if using.
To make the ganache glaze, have ready a fine-mesh strainer suspended over a small glass bowl. In a food processor, process the chocolate until very fine. Remove it to a small heat-proof glass bowl.
In a 1-cup or larger microwavable cup with a spout (or in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often), scald the cream (heat it to the boiling point; small bubbles will form around the periphery) and pour it over the chocolate. Cover the bowl for 5 minutes to allow the chocolate to melt. Using a silicone spatula, gently stir together the chocolate and cream until smooth, trying not to create air bubbles. Press the mixture through the strainer, stir in the Cognac, if using, and cool until tepid. A small amount of glaze dropped from a spoon should mound a bit before smoothly disappearing. If the glaze is too thick and the mound remains on the surface, or if the glaze seems curdled, add more warm cream 1 teaspoon at a time. When the consistency is correct, use the glaze at once, or store covered and reheat it.
To glaze the cake, place it on a serving plate. Pour the glaze evenly over the top of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides and pool slightly on the serving plate.
Source: Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum
