Dulce de Leche

Imagine a creamy, rich, brown caramel made from the simplest of ingredients -- milk and sugar -- and involving little more than a pot of boiling water and a couple hours. Hard to believe, but the best way to make dulce de leche is also the easiest way. And tell me you're not salivating as you eye the caramel I've got sitting in a jar in my fridge. This stuff is to die for, people.

Ingredients: 1 can sweetened condensed milk. Special equipment: 1 big, tall pot and lots of water

Peel the label of the can of sweetened condensed milk. Do not open the can. Fill the pot with water so that the water level covers the can by at least an inch. Plunk the can into the pot to check, then remove. Set the pot over high heat and bring to a boil; once the water is boiling, add the can, and turn the heat down to medium high, bringing the water to a simmer. The can should be standing on one side, not rolling around. Now, I noticed that the can tends to make a lot of noise as the bubbles from the boiling water try to escape from beneath it. One trick, if you happen to have two pairs of tongs lying around, is to prop the can on a tilt by sticking a small ball of tin foil underneath it. This stops the noise. Leave the can in the simmering water for at least 2 hours (longer for a firmer caramel -- I left it in for 3), and make sure to replenish the water as often as you need to in order to keep the water level above the can. I had to add about a cup every half hour to 45 minutes.

When 2 hours (or your desired cooking time) have elapsed, turn off the heat and leave the can in the water for at least half an hour, to cool slightly. If you were to remove it immediately, the heat inside the can would overpower the air pressure surrounding it, and it would explode.

After 30-45 minutes, remove the can with tongs; if it's not too hot to touch, you can open it with a can opener. Dulce de leche will start oozing out as you open the can, and you should feel free to -- ahem -- clean it up. With your fingers. And then try it. Gaahhh it's so good :)

Chocolate Pudding Parfait

Lovin' Deb at the Smitten Kitchen right now. I may or may not have spent two full nights sitting paralyzed in front of my computer, debating what the hell to make for Friday night dessert. I made a Mexican-themed meal (kinda) and simply couldn't decide on an appropriate finale. I debated making a torta from Diana Kennedy, a lemon cake, a ricotta tart, and countless other things that surely would have been tasty, but just weren't making my mouth water. Then, Deb posted a fantastic and easy chocolate pudding recipe from John Scharffenberger. I fretted not a moment longer. Pudding -- unlike mousse, souffles, etc -- is rich without being overkill. People would actually be able to eat an entire (small) bowlful. And from Deb's pictures, I could tell that this pudding would be thick enough to support a hefty spoonful of whipped cream and some berries. All I'd need now was something crunchy, to offset the soft and rich textures of pudding and whipped cream.

Enter Danielle of Habeas Brulee, another one of my oh-so-favorite bloggers. A while back, Danielle posted about some nutmeg-chipotle tuilles that she rolled and filled cannoli-style with chocolate mousse. I decided to roll half and stick them into the parfaits, and serve the rest flat so that people could crumble them into the pudding for some added crunch. Admittedly, the recipe seemed a bit finicky, but I gave it a go, and it produced excellent results after only one round of messups. And even they weren't really messups. I mean, I ate them all without complaining so they couldn't have been too bad.

To really make this dessert mexican-inspired, I spiked the pudding with 2 Tbsp of rum, a couple dashes of ground chipotle and -- you guessed it -- a grate of nutmeg, to complement the tuilles.

There are several ways to assemble this dessert, and it all hinges on what types of containers you're serving it in. First, they really should be transparent, to show off the pretty layers. If they're super-tall, create smaller layers and more of them -- so pudding, whippped cream, berries, lather, rinse, repeat. If your glasses are short and stout like mine were, one layer of each is plenty Feel free to actually crumble the tuilles into a layer, or serve them on the side as I did. And make sure to roll at least a couple, as they make for pretty parfait-toppers. You'll notice that my picks have a two broken pieces of tuille. Obviously I served the pretty round ones to my guests, so apologies, but you get the shards :)

That said, this dessert is still freakin' awesome and remarkably easy to make. Assemble them after you clear the table, as it only takes a few minutes start-to-finish.

Silky Chocolate Pudding Adapted from John Scharffenberger, via Smitten Kitchen Serves 6

1/4 cup cornstarch 1/2 cup sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 3 cups whole milk 6 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used good quality chocolate in block form, and just chopped it up; use 70% bittersweet if you want more of a dark chocolate kick) 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 2 Tbsp. rum 1/2 tsp. chipotle

1. Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler. Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients. Place over gently simmering water and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary should lumps begin to form. After 15 to 20 minutes, when the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon, add the chocolate. Continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes, or until the pudding is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

2. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer (or skip this step if you’re a slacker like me who is absolutely certain that there is nary a lump her puddin’) into a serving bowl or into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour into individual serving dishes.

3. If you like pudding skin, pull plastic wrap over the top of the serving dish(es) before refrigerating. If you dislike pudding skin, place plastic wrap on top of the pudding and smooth it gently against the surface before refrigerating. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.

Nutmeg Chipotle Tuilles via Habeas Brulee

Nutmeg Chipotle Tuiles 3/4 C granulated sugar 3 large egg whites 1/2 C butter (melted and cooled to room temperature) 1/3 C all-purpose flour 1 tsp vanilla extract 3/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground chipotle

Whisk the egg whites and sugar together, trying not to beat too much air in. Whisk in the butter. Add the flour, vanilla, nutmeg, and chipotle and again whisk just until combined. Chill in the fridge at least 4 hours before using, and up to two weeks.

Preheat your oven to 350º.

Put a Silpat or something of the sort (parchment paper can work, but it is wrinkly and non-ideal) on a baking sheet that will stay firm and flat in the oven (some of ours have a tendency to warp, so we are very careful which we use for this recipe).

Using a spoon, spread the batter as thinly as possible on the baking sheet in circles of whatever size you like. The batter is actually fairly thick when it comes out of the fridge, so this may take a few tries to perfect. I find that dropping a chunk of batter on the sheet and then using the back of the spoon in small circular motions to cream it before truly starting to spread it works very well.

Don’t bake too many at the time, as you have to act quickly once they come out of the oven.

Bake until golden brown, 7-10 minutes.

If you do not have asbestos hands, put on a pair of gloves before the tuiles come out of the oven. Have a spatula ready so that you can start working it under your first cookie immediately after they come out. You need to shape them very quickly while they are still hot. Once they cool, which happens faster than you’d think, they become crisp and crack to pieces instead of being soft and moldable.

You can use just about anything to mold them into myriad shapes - try twisting them around the handle of a wooden spoon, or draping them over something small to create a bowl, or cutting the baked cookies into strips and playing with those - there are so many possibilities!

I found that I had better luck piping the mousse into the rolled up tuiles right after making it and before letting it set. Your mileage may vary. Try to serve the tuiles as soon after baking as you can, and certainly the same day, as they do tend to lose their crispiness after a while.

Note: Make sure to cool off your baking sheet before each batch, or else your cookie batter will melt as you try to spread it.

World Peace Cookies

Lots of thank yous in this post! First, thanks to Sarina for pointing out that today is National Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day. I know, it's apropos of absolutely nothing, but it had to be said. Second, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! Now that I've got a quarter century worth of silliness behind me, my little bro loves to call me an old fart, and I guess I am. 25, baby!

Now, onto the more relevant thanks: Thank heavens for Pierre Herme and Dorie Greenspan. If you're scratching your head and wondering, "who?" then you'd better catch yourself up to speed. Pierre Herme: world-famous pastry chef and dessert god. Dorie Greenspan: baker, cookbook author, and chronicler of both Pierre's unforgettable creations and her own. Exhibit A: Dorie Greenspan's fantastic book, Paris Sweets, in which she includes Pierre Herme's best-ever chocolate cookies (there called Korova Cookies). Exhibit B: Dorie's latest book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, in which the same recipe appears under a new name: "world peace cookies." The new nomenclature implies that enemies would find it tough to argue with a plate of these cookies in front of them; however, fight me for one of these cookies, and I guarantee, YOU WILL LOSE.

What's to love? Let me count the things. 1. World peace cookies are intensely chocolate-y. I mean, there's a whole lot of cocoa and chocolate in 'em. 2. They're specked not with chocolate chips, but with chopped chocolate. This makes eating them far more exciting; when your lips hit chocolate, you never know whether it'll be just a speck or a big 'ol hunk. 3. They're peppered with salt (as it were) -- enough to taste markedly, fantastically, salty. The salt bounces around on your tongue, making the chocolate notes even more pronounced. 4. With no eggs in the dough, the cookies are rather delicate, yielding to the slightest pressure and melting in your mouth. 5. What, you need another reason? Make them already!

World Peace Cookies Excerpted from Baking: From My House to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Copyright 2006 by Dorie Greenspan.

Makes about 36 cookies

Here's what Dorie had to say about the cookies: "I once said I thought these cookies, the brainchild of the Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, were as important a culinary breakthrough as Toll House cookies, and I've never thought better of the statement. These butter-rich, sandy-textured slice-and-bake cookies are members of the sablé family. But, unlike classic sablés, they are midnight dark — there's cocoa in the dough — and packed with chunks of hand-chopped bittersweet chocolate. Perhaps most memorably, they're salty. Not just a little salty, but remarkably and sensationally salty. It's the salt — Pierre uses fleur de sel, a moist, off-white sea salt — that surprises, delights and makes the chocolate flavors in the cookies seem preternaturally profound.

When I included these in Paris Sweets, they were called Korova Cookies and they instantly won fans, among them my neighbor Richard Gold, who gave them their new name. Richard is convinced that a daily dose of Pierre's cookies is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness."

* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour * 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder * 1/2 teaspoon baking soda * 1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature * 2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar * 1/4 cup sugar * 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt * 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract * 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

3. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don't be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Getting Ready to Bake:

5. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

6. Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you're cutting them — don't be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won't look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Ginger Spice Cookies

I'm going away for a few days this week, and wanted to leave D with an ample supply of goodies for while I'm gone, so yesterday was a non-stop baking marathon chez moi. I'll admit that I find myself constantly reverting to tried-and-true recipe favorites, like those cranberry cornmeal cookies and whole wheat sables. But these days, when making an old recipe means no blog post, I'm shockingly motivated to seek out new, potentially-delicious recipes. Save the occasional failure and the very infrequent disaster, my adventurousness has been paying off.

As it happens, the only new recipe I made this weekend involved eggplant and feta cheese, so no, it's not a cookie recipe. But that's another story for another day. The cookies I made yesterday are all old favorites that have somehow slipped to the bottom of my mental stack, and ginger spice cookies top this list of wonderful but forgotten cookies. No sooner had I sliced up the crystalized ginger than my ginger spice memories came flooding back. After taking a warm, moist, molasses-y bite, I doubted that I'd ever forget these cookies again.

Some prefer a ginger snap (so called for the sound its thin size and crispy texture allow), but I favor the soft yet dense cookies this recipe produces. If you make them small or bite-sized, as I did, reduce the cooking time by about 3 minutes. One more note: while it never occured to me until just now, I bet these cookies would really kiss you if you added some orange zest to them -- maybe a tsp or so for the whole batch. If you try it, leave a comment and let me know how they came out!

Ginger Spice Cookies from Epicurious; makes about 30.

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
• Sugar

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in medium bowl; whisk to blend. Mix in crystallized ginger. Using electric mixer, beat brown sugar, shortening and butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add egg and molasses and beat until blended. Add flour mixture and mix just until blended. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 2 baking sheets. Spoon sugar in thick layer onto small plate. Using wet hands, form dough into 1 1/4-inch balls; roll in sugar to coat completely. Place balls on prepared sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.
3. Bake cookies until cracked on top but still soft to touch, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets 1 minute. Carefully transfer to racks and cool. (Can be made 5 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)