Well, the first month of 2015 just zoomed by.Valentine's Day is next Saturday!! I`m not sure why I sound so excited, I`m not really that excited. Haha! However, it makes me exercise my brain by trying to think of something cute to bake for the occasion. I`m always down for baking cute treats, if you can`t tell already.
These cookies aren`t as easy as the red velvet s'mores cookies or this fantastic banana berry bread pudding, but they have adorable heart cut-outs which makes them worth the extra step. I`ve never made sandwich cookies before. Not sure why...I think it`s because I find them a bit too much? Since, you`re basically eating two cookies with a filling, or frosting, in between them.
I went with chocolate, since chocolate cookies tend to have this bitter-less-sweet taste to them from the cocoa powder and melted chocolate. It`s not too sweet, which I love about these. Plus, the dulce de leche is just divine. You can make your own dulce de leche, or buy the 14oz can one.
Add some sprinkles and drizzle some white chocolate on top of each cookie and they become beautiful little treats! I melted about 1 cup of white chocolate chips in the microwave for the drizzle. I love the contrast in colors it brings! :) If you have cookie stamps, you can definitely etch words or pictures on the cookies. Or use a knife to "write" words, which I did. But, it got tough with the "O"s in "XOXO"...so I stopped. (Recipe at the bottom, after all the Vday treats!)
I wanted to do a round up of Valentine`s Day treats, but I don`t really want a lot of compilation posts, so I`ll include them here. Hope you get some Vday inspiration! ;) But for real, I think any chocolate, cake, brownie, or blueberry treat will please.
Sprinkle Sugar Cookies:
Cheesecake Pops:
Cake Pops:
Buttermilk Brownies:
Red Velvet Brownie Cookies:
Red Velvet Truffle Cheesecake Cookies:
Red Velvet Butter Cookies:
Red Velvet Oreo S'mores Cookies:
Brown Butter Toffee Shortbread Cookies (make them into hearts):
Baked Strawberry Donuts:
Strawberry Poke Cake:
Mini Strawberry Cakes:
Blueberry Cheesecake:
Blueberry Turnovers:
Banana Berry Bread Pudding with Banana Bourbon Sauce:
-----
Chocolate Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients:
-
¾ cup all purpose flour
-
¼ cup cocoa powder
-
½ teaspoon salt
-
¼ teaspoon baking powder
-
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
-
¼ cup granulated sugar
-
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
-
1 large egg
-
1 large egg yolk
-
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
-
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-
½ cup dulce de leche
-
white chocolate, melted
Directions:
1.
In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and
baking powder. Set aside.
2.
In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, and
brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3.
Add in the egg, egg yolk, melted chocolate, and vanilla extract. Combine
well.
4.
Gradually add in the flour mixture (step 1) and mix until just combined.
5.
Divide dough in half, form them into discs, and wrap each disc well with
plastic wrap.
6.
Chill in refrigerator for about 1 hour.
7.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking
sheet(s) with parchment paper or baking mat.
8.
Working with 1 disc of dough at a time-- on a clean and well floured
work surface, roll dough until 1/8 inch thick.
9.
Use a cookie cutter to cut out cookie shapes. Place them on cookie sheet,
2 inches apart from each other.* With half of the cookies, use a smaller cookie
cutter to cut out centers.
10.
Bake for 7-8 minutes, or until cookies are done.
11.
Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then, remove and
allow them to cool completely on cooling racks.
12.
Once cookies are completely cooled, spoon dulce de leche on half the
cookies (those without the center cut-outs). Top with another cookie (with
centers cut-out).
13.
Melt white chocolate in microwave and drizzle over cookies.
14.
If desired, decorate with sprinkles, jimmies, nonpareils, etc.
*Notes:
-
While rolling out the cookie dough, I had the other half in the freezer
to chill faster. Once I was done with one batch, it was too soft to roll up and
cut shapes out again. So, I rolled remaining dough into a ball, threw it in the
freezer, took out the other batch and repeat the process until I finished.
-
You can melt the chocolate in the microwave, in increments of 25-10
seconds, stirring in between until chocolate is melted
-
Cookies are done when they're set, not too soft.
Outside cookie cutter
was about 2 inches. Inside cookie cutter was a littler smaller than 1 inch.
