If I had to summarize my last 12 months of baking with two ingredients, I’d have to say they were: dulce de leche and sea salt. So, despite the fact I’d already picked my contributions for the annual cookie exchange I love to attend, I simply couldn’t resist adding this to my roster at the last minute when it popped up online.
To be honest, I thought I would be mixing Nutella and dulce de leche somehow but the recipe calls for Nutella to be used in half the batch and dulce de leche to be used in the other half. Since I had so much dulce de leche, however, I simply used it on all the cookies.
As I mentioned this was one of my three types of cookies I took to my friend’s annual cookie swap: The others were the pecan pie cookie, and a chocolate chip cookie I’d never tried before. This was my favourite from the bunch. The shortbread wasn’t the most buttery, so I wouldn’t use it on its own, but it held its shape beautifully and the dulce de leche firmed up quite nicely.
Bonus, the output was terrific: Dozens of cookies from just a few easy steps, which my children did actually help me with – rolling the dough into balls and then pressing their thumbs into the middle to make an indent. And they tasted great a few days later too.
While the recipe, which you can find here, says the thumbprint will keep its indentation after it cools, I didn’t trust that would be the case. So I gently pushed the end of my wooden spoon into the thumbprints to make them slightly deeper when I pulled the cookie sheets out of the oven and they were still warm.
Substitutions: None
Would I make these again? Probably, but I’m not aching to. I think this is because I’ve made and tasted better shortbread and it was on the dryer side – nearly like a fresh batch of biscotti.
Grade: Four stars out of five for simplicity. This is the kind of recipe you can whip up for a potluck you forgot about the night before. As long as you have some Nutella and dulce de leche on hand, and if we’re kindred spirits, I know you will…
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