Suzi's Blog
Alafajores Con Bano Blanco: Sable Sandwiches Filled with Dulce De Leche and Covered in Meringue
This not just a cookie. It is an experience. I’m posting this on the Saturday before Super Bowl. If you are partying and if you want to impress folks — and certainly give your own mouth a bushel of flavors — then you need to consider this marvelous cookie. It’s from Meringue, a wonderful new cookbook from Linda Jackson and Jennifer Evans Gardner.
I’ve blogged recently about sables, which is the French name for just a great butter cookie. One made with no egg and lots of butter. By themselves, sables are good. Their great value though is being a flavor vehicle. Here is Latin American treasure where sables are married into a sandwich with dulce de leche. And then the whole assembly is bathed in Italian meringue.
Decadent. Perfect for breakfast with espresso. Or at lunch. Or for dessert. Or for that 2AM kitchen raid that you make and you think your spouse does not know about but they do and you’ve begun to suspect it.
I will admit that these cookies are not “quick” or “easy” at least not for me. I found the sandwiched sables to be moving around because my dulce de leche was bit too fluid. Coating that moving target with meringue was not easy.
So, I chilled the dulce de leche. Then I made the sandwiches and refrigerated them. Then and only then, did I attempt to coat with meringue. And I put those critters right in the refrigerator to firm up quickly, too, so that the meringue would not slide off.
It’s worth every step. The multiple layers of flavors and textures are a treat that, in one bite, will appear in everyone’s eye. Then come the sighs.
Alfajores Con Bano Blanco
Yield: 22-24 sandwich cookies
Ingredients:
For the cookies:
- 2 cups sifted flour
- ¼ cup sifted powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into 1 tablespoon-size pieces
- 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
For the bano blanco meringue:
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼cup water
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
Preparation:
For the cookies, preheat the oven to 350°F.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat flour, sugar, salt, and butter on medium speed until the dough comes together. Form the dough into a ball, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.
Sprinkle some flour onto your work surface and, with a rolling pin, roll the dough ⅛-inch thick. Cut into circles, using a 2-inch round cookie cutter, and transfer to parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bring the dough scraps together and gently press into a ball. Flour your work surface again and re-roll the dough to ⅛-inch thick and cut out more circles. (You should end up with between 44 and 48 circles.)
Bake the cookies until they are golden and firm, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes more.
Spread about 1 teaspoon of dulce de leche on the flat side of a cookie and top with the flat side of another cookie. Continue until all of your sandwich cookies have been formed. Set aside.
For the meringue, placed the sugar in a small saucepan then cover with water. Heat on medium, tilting and swirling the pan occasionally, but do not stir. In the meantime, start beating the egg white — instructions below. When all the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat to medium-high and boil until the sugar syrup reaches 235°F [soft ball stage] on a candy thermometer. Immediately remove from the heat.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until they form soft peaks. Slowly drizzle the sugar syrup into the bowl with the egg whites. Continue beating until the meringue is glossy but not stiff.
One by one, use a pastry brush to “paint” the meringue on the tops and sides of the dulce de leche-filled cookies. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Let the cookies dry for several hours or overnight so that the bano blanco forms a crust on the outside of the Alfajores. Store in an airtight container with the cookies separated by wax paper.
Source: Meringue by Linda Jackson and Jennifer Evans Gardner
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
