TWD: Dulce de Leche Duos

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Dulce de Leche Duos, arrived with high expectations. I know I've mentioned this before, but I live with a devoted dulce de leche lovah. When the husband heard that the dulce de leche cookies were on the agenda, he looked a little something like this:


Unfortunately, the finished product left us looking a little like this:

The cookies themselves looked like this:

The tragedy of these cookies was that they were so very sweet, so very cakey, and so very bland. The rich dulce de leche flavor didn't come through very much, and so they simply tasted like a soft sugary cookie.

Like the rigid perfectionist that I am, I partially blame myself. I made a double batch of dulce de leche in a water bath in the oven (not my usual method) and I was in a hurry, so the DDL might have needed more time to darken and develop its flavor:

A whiter shade of paaaaale...ooooh...

However, I don't think a more pronounced dulce de leche flavor would have helped with my complaints about the sweetness or the texture. I think dulce de leche can be used to make an awesome sandwich cookie, but it should be paired with a buttery, slightly salty shortbread, maybe with a nut base.

Things improved only slightly when I added a layer of bittersweet chocolate:

All is not lost, however, because we still have a container of dulce de leche in the fridge that will be used to top ice cream and toast for the next week. If you happen to have some leftovers, here are recipes for truly outstanding dulce de leche brownies and candy.