Day 3 … Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies

Who doesn’t love chocolate and caramel? Add a pinch of flaky salt? Oh c’mon. One of the uncelebrated time savers during the holidays is purchased dulce de leche, found in the Hispanic aisle of your basic grocery store. Slather it between cake layers, pipe it into cupcakes or, like I do here, sandwich it between crispy cookies with a good pinch of salt. Sure, homemade is better but nothing beats the convenience of popping a can top when you’re stretched for time. For Day 3, I’ve sandwiched that delicious caramel between two deeply dark beautiful cookies, with a showy little peek-a-boo window on top. 

For this one, I break out the special black cocoa. The contrast between the super dark, almost oreo-like cookie and the rich brown caramel is stunning. You can find this cocoa online (King Arthur is a great source) and it’s worth seeking out if you bake a lot. For the best flavor, I like to mix it with some dutch cocoa so you get the best of both worlds – that deep dark color and a full, round cocoa flavor. And remember the cardinal rule of cut out cookies: roll warm, cut cold for the best and cleanest shapes.

36 One Dough/Many Cookies from years past:

Fruity: Jam Thumbprints, Jam Streusel Tarts, Raspberry Linzer Squares, Lemon Poppyseed Buttons, Orange Sesame Crisps, Cranberry Pistachio Coins, Almond Raspberry Strips, Orange Sandwich Cookies, Apricot Rosemary Shortbread, Coconut Lime Sticks, Bourbon Glazed Fruitcake Buttons, Lemon Cornmeal Biscotti, Blueberry Lime Buttons, Date Swirls

Nutty: Mexican Wedding Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, Pecan Tassies, Maple Black Walnut Cookies, PB&J Sandwich Cookies, Pecan Triangles, 

Spiced: Cinnamon Sugar Pinwheels, Candied Ginger Spice Buttons, Cardamom Rose Coins, Brown Sugar Wafers with Lemon Lavender Glaze

Chocolate: Mexican Chocolate Crinkles, Chocolate Cocoa Nib Wafers, Raspberry Chocolate Drops, Chocolate Hazelnut Buttons, Dark Mocha Sandwich Cookies, Espresso Crinkles, 

Bars: Rum Butter Bars, Peppermint Brownie Bars, Banana Walnut Bars

Holiday Classics: Cream Cheese Wreaths, Classic Molasses Cookies, Peppermint Candy Canes

2020 12 Days of Cookies line up to date:

Basic Chocolate Butter Cookie Dough

Day 1: Cranberry Cocoa Nib Wafers

Day 2: Chocolate Banana Petit Four

DAY 3: DULCE DE LECHE SANDWICH COOKIES

Start with the base chocolate dough – recipe here. I used mostly black cocoa for this one mixed with dutched cocoa at a 60/40 black/dutch ratio. I love the color of a black cocoa for a sandwich type cookie but prefer the flavor mixed with a dutched cocoa.

1. For the cookies: In the bowl of a standing mixer add the room temperature cookie dough broken into small pieces, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and water; mix with the paddle attachment until well combined.
2. Divide the dough into eight/four/two pieces and roll each between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper to a flat sheet about 1/8” thick.
3. Stack the sheets on a sheet pan and refrigerate at least one hour. The dough sheets can be refrigerated up to 3 days (or frozen up to 3 months) but tightly wrap first to make sure the edges do not dry out.  
4. When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350°F and line two sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking liners.
5. Remove one sheet of dough from the refrigerator and remove the top sheet of plastic wrap or parchment.
6. With a 2” round cutter, stamp out as many circles as possible and transfer to the prepared baking sheets, ¾” apart.
7. Continue with the remaining dough sheets, rerolling/chilling the scraps as you go.
8. With a small cutter, cut a small window in half of the rounds. 
9. Bake 8-10 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until baked through and slightly firm to the touch.
10. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
11. For the dulce de leche filling: transfer to a piping bag or a Ziploc. 
12. To assemble: Flip the whole cookies (without the window cutout) over and pipe about 1 Tablespoon of the filling onto the backside of each cookie.
13. Top each with a pinch of flaky salt.
14. Top with the window cut out cookies, pressing gently to adhere.
15. Store between layers of parchment in an airtight container up to 4 days.
16. Do ahead: it’s best to make and freeze the dough and bake as needed rather than freeze baked cookies. Frozen dough will keep up to 3 months. I find it pretty easy to roll/chill/cut and freeze the cut rounds of cookie dough between layers of parchment. Then just bake the cut frozen cookies as you like. The filling can also be frozen for up to 2 months but needs to be room temperature to pipe.