It’s cookie time, folks! I’m sure you’re all baking a lot for the holidays, either to give your baked goods as gifts to your family and friends or to just eat them all by yourself while listening to Christmas carols. No judging here! It’s Christmas after all! This year I was very honored to participate in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, which “brings together food bloggers from around the world in celebration of all things scrumptious.” This cookie swap not only brings lots of joy to food bloggers but also supports a beautiful cause: the Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. So, how does this cookie swap thing work? You sign up and receive the address of three other food bloggers to whom you send one dozen homemade cookies each. And then you receive three different boxes of cookies from other food bloggers. So it’s pretty much a big delicious cookie party! I can’t tell you how happy I was every time I got home and found a package in the mail with cookies inside! I had never received cookies in the mail before. I certainly need to make this into a new tradition! I was also beyond excited every time one of the food bloggers I sent cookies to posted my cookies on Instagram thanking me for them.
When I decided to sign up for the Cookie Swap, I already knew I had to do a Brazilian recipe. Even though my blog is not solely dedicated to Brazilian cuisine, it is still a huge part of who I am as a cook. So I had my mind set on these Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies that we call “Casadinhos” (which means “married”) in Portuguese. In Brazil, these cookies are usually filled with guava or dulce de leche. I thought the dulce de leche was more representative of the holidays! :) (Mostly because I usually save my guava recipes for the Summer!)
Before I made the final batch to send to my blogger friends, I made a test batch and brought it to work with me. Oh my… people went crazy for it! Some of them were offering money for these cookies, so I decided that was the recipe I wanted to make for the Cookie Swap. And, as if they were reading my mind, OXO sent me this amazing 8 Piece Baker’s Silicone Decorating Bottle Kit that helped me fill the cookies and were super easy to clean! Thank you, OXO!!! If you’re in a hurry and there’s no way you can get your hands on a can of dulce de leche, but you have a pressure cooker, just cook a can of sweet condensed milk (with enough water to cover the whole can) for 1.5 hours. Just wait for it to cool so you can open it, and voila: dulce de leche!!!
Don’t be fooled by how simple these cookies look. They are insanely delicious and also a bit dangerous! They are the type of cookies you won’t stop eating until you see the bottom of the jar/tin. The velvety butter cookies combined with the rich, creamy and sweet dulce de leche make them a very special treat for the holidays! The cookies bake for about 15 minutes only (just until the bottom starts to become this beautiful golden color and the top is still soft) and they set as they cool. They are very delicate and they melt in your mouth when you bite them. I’m telling you, they are insanely good and I want to dive into a pool of these cookies. (Don’t judge me!) To make them even more delicious, I roll them in confectioners sugar after I fill them with dulce de leche. But you don’t have to, if you don’t want! You could also roll them in granulated sugar but then they are going to be a tad sweeter! Enjoy the cookies with coffee – or tea – at anytime of the day. In Brazil they are served during the ‘afternoon coffee’ (our version of the afternoon tea).
This recipe makes 72 butter cookies, that make 3 dozen sandwich cookies. It is perfect for the holidays as one recipe will be enough to gift at least 3 friends. Christmas is the time to gift our loved ones with beautiful and delicious things! I found these lovely Christmas cookies jars (pictured below) and thought they were perfect to send my cookies for my friend food bloggers. I hope Maegan (The Baker Mama), LeAndra (Love and Flour) and Jenna (To Deliciousness and Beyond) enjoyed them (and the cookies, of course!). Finally, I need to take a second here to thank Angela & Laura (About a Mom), Amy (What Jew Wanna Eat) and Alicia (Balancing Motherhood) for the delicious cookies they sent me. It’s almost as if they knew when I was having a bad day and magically timed the cookies to arrive and save the day! Ladies, you rock! And, as promised, the recipe:
