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I feel like I write this all the time, but the moment I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it. What's not to like about a shortbread cookie base, topped with Dulce de Leche and Chocolate? These are like the grown up answer to Twix candy bars.
As I said, I knew right away I would make these cookies, and I think I waited all of 24 hours before I did. Unfortunately, I didn't have great luck with the first batch. The cookie dough was way too dry and crumbly. I was able to force it into ball shapes, but the moment I pressed down to make the thumbprint, the cookie cracked all around, almost in half. I baked them anyways, but they weren't very pretty and seemed too hard. They were fine for dunking in coffee but not quite what I was hoping for in these cookies.
I could have easily enjoyed eating the dulce de leche all by itself with a spoon, or even dunking the sad crumbly cookies in it, but I was determined to make the whole cookie work. So, I took a peek at my usual thumbprint recipe and, as I suspected, it called for a much higher wet to dry ingredient ratio. I made a few adjustments and the second batch turned out just the way I wanted. Still a lower ratio than the other recipe, but it worked perfectly for this short bread base. Just goes to show the difference a half of a cup of flour can make in a cookie. Of course, these adjustments are reflected in the recipe below.
Dulce de Leche and Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour*
*If after mixing in all of the flour the dough happens to seem to wet, go ahead and add an additional tablespoon or two of flour, but I suspect you won't need it.
**I only needed 1/2 cup of dulce de leche to fill my cookies.
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and salt until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine. Slowly add the flour and mix until the dough comes together and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Roll the dough into balls by the tablespoon full (no more than a tablespoon!) and place 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Use your thumb (or the back of rounded teaspoon measuring spoon) to create an indentation in the center of each cookie.
Bake for 17-20 minutes. Dough should just be starting to turn golden brown on the bottom. Repress the indentation if necessary. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, about 20 minutes. Towards the end of cooling, add chocolate chips to a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second increments until melted, then whisk in the butter until smooth.
Once the cookies have cooled, fill each indentation with dulce de leche. Using a pastry bag, ziploc baggie with a teeny piece of the corner nipped off, or a knife, drizzle the cookies with desired amount of chocolate.