Dulce De Leche Brownies

It was Cinco de Mayo! Since I’ve been working on getting my blog readjusted, I am behind on posting recipes I’ve made.
This year I wanted to make something for Cinco de Mayo. I was doing a search for desserts and came across dulce de leche and thought yum! A good caramel tastes great and I wanted to make my own Mexican version.
Of course Alton Brown makes just about anything, including the dulce de leche. I’ve see other recipes using a can of sweetened condensed milk and in the oven which didn’t really seem appealing. I love making things from scratch, but do not always get the results I expect. This time my dulce de leche didn’t get as thick as I thought and wanted it too. Still tasted good! I hope you all try making this on your own.
Then I found a brownie recipe to go with it. David Lebovitz had such a great photo of his dulce de leche brownies. They look dark and moist. I was very satisfied with my results.
Milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds

Heating up

Brought to a simmer

Added baking soda

Onward to cooking

And more…

Straining

Final dulce de leche

My lined pan

Melting the butter

Chopped chocolate

Whisking in cocoa powder after melting the chocolate in the butter

After eggs are added

After sugar, vanilla and flour

Spread half into pan

Part of the dulce de leche marbled in

After second layer of each brownie mix and dulce de leche

Baked result

Dulce de Leche Brownies

Dulce de Leche

Ingredients:

• 1 quart whole milk
• 12 oz sugar, 1 ½ cups
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• ½ tsp baking soda

Directions

Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.

Dulce de Leche Brownies
12 brownies

• 8 tablespoons (115g) salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup (25g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup (200g) sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup (140g) flour
• optional: 1 cup (100 g) toasted pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup Dulce de Leche (or Cajeta)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 C).
Line a 8-inch (20 cm) square pan with a long sheet of aluminum foil that covers the bottom and reaches up the sides. If it doesn’t reach all the way up and over all four sides, cross another sheet of foil over it, making a large cross with edges that overhang the sides. Grease the bottom and sides of the foil with a bit of butter or non-stick spray.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chocolate pieces and stir constantly over very low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sugar, vanilla, then the flour. Mix in the nuts, if using.
Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan. Here comes the fun part.
Drop one-third of the Dulce de Leche, evenly spaced, over the brownie batter, then drag a knife through to swirl it slightly. Spread the remaining brownie batter over, then drop spoonfuls of the remaining Dulce de Leche in dollops over the top of the brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl the Dulce de Leche slightly.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. The brownies are done when the center feels just-slightly firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Tagged as: Brownies, Caramel, Chocolate