dulce de leche filled butter cookies

Well I know it's been a while since I've blogged, and it's been entirely circumstantial... now that I'm in my second trimester (yes, I'm pregnant with my second child!) I'm starting to feel a little better and food is actually tasting and smelling good again. So now I'm back with a stellar recipe that should be made in earnest.

Years ago when I subscribed (and they still printed) Gourmet Magazine, I ripped this recipe out and saved it. I had never tried dulce de leche before, but I was intrigued by how easy and delicious these cookies looked. The first time I made them (maybe 5 years ago?) I had found a jar of dulce de leche at William's Sonoma and served the cookies after a dinner party. We were all hooked by the thin, delicate cookies and the creamy dulce del leche...needless to say these cookies are special and stayed ingrained in my memory as something to repeat. Recently I was at Trader Joe's and found a jar of dulce de leche, which inspired me to make these cookies again and share them here!

The dough is not overly sweet, which allows for a generous filling of dulce de leche and dusting of confectioners' sugar. The cookies, by themselves, are simple and unassuming, but filled with the dulce de leche they soften and crumble into the filling becoming one glorious bite after another. My sister recently made this recipe but filled the cookies with Nutella (which were also incredible, although I still prefer the dulce de leche) but really any jam or nut butter would be great with these.

a cookie unlike any other

I love a good buttery-jam-filled cookie and saw this recipe in a magazine ad. I was intrigued because as I read the recipe I realized the dough was simple. Perhaps too simple. It’s only requirements were butter, cream cheese and flour. Where were the salt, vanilla, and sugar? Then I realized the cookies were rolled out in powdered sugar, not flour. Ok, so there’s the sugar.

Still, was rolling out the dough in powdered sugar going to be a sweet enough cookie for me? I’d never rolled a dough in anything other than flour and I wasn’t sure what the powdered sugar would do. Would it clump up and get sticky? And then I read that the raw cookies were sandwiched together, with jam in-between, before they were baked. Mind blown. Any other decent sandwich cookie I’ve ever made always bakes the cookies separately and then, when cooled, the filling is installed. I wondered if they would be gummy and half-baked if they were already assembled pre-baking.

All these questions about this cookie made me realize I just had to make it and resist the need to dump in a bunch of other ingredients or try any rogue methods. At least on the first try, anyways.

The result? The most tender, flaky, soft cookie with just a little crispness on the edges. There was no need to add any other ingredients or change any methods. All my doubts and fears were forgotten and I wouldn't change anything. This is apparently how they make cookies in Hungary and they are doin’ it right. (recipe after the jump)