dulce de leche brownies
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My friends, thank you for surviving my breakfast-for-dinner streak last week. This week, I have a few sweet treats in store for you. (Yay!)
First up, Michael’s birthday request: dulce de leche brownies…
I’d never made dulce de leche before, but Michael had a vision in mind of just what he wanted. We adapted our recipe ever-so-slightly from the ice cream-and-treat genius David Lebovitz. Mr. Lebovitz is my go-to resource for ice cream recipes (his book is FABULOUS).
These brownies are a touch on the cake-y side. I usually prefer a deep, rich, fudge-y brownie like this or this, but these were very tasty. They were especially tasty served warm with a scoop of homemade salted caramel ice cream on top (recipe later this week).
Dulce de leche is caramel-y and sweet. You can make your dulce de leche ahead of time, several days in advance. On its own, it will keep up to 1 week in the refrigerator. I made mine the day before I made the brownies, and it worked beautifully. The completed brownies froze beautifully. We pulled them out a few at a time later on when we needed a sweet treat and they were awesome!
One last note on the recipe: I probably over-swirled a bit. If you want yours to have even larger pockets of dulce de leche goodness, swirl just a little less.
Dulce de Leche Brownies
Ingredients
For the Dulce de Leche:
- 1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
- pinch coarse salt
For the Brownies:
- 8 Tbsp butter
- 6oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4c unsweetened baking cocoa
- 3/4c sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1c flour
Instructions
To make the Dulce de Leche:
- Pour sweetened condensed milk into an 8×8″ glass baking dish or 9″ glass pie plate and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Wrap tightly with foil. Place baking dish into a 9×13″ baking dish. Pour water into the 9×13″ pan until water reaches halfway up the side of the 8×8″ dish.
- Bake at 425 degrees 1hr 15 minutes, or until the color of peanut butter. Check every 30 minute or so during the cook time to monitor its progress. Add additional water to the 9×13″ pan, if necessary. Allow dulce de leche to cool before handling.
For the brownies:
- In a large saucepan, melt butter and chocolate chips over medium heat until smooth. Stir in cocoa and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition. Add salt and vanilla. Fold in flour until just combined.
- Pour half of the brownie batter into an 8×8″ baking dish lined with parchment paper. Spoon 1/3 of the dulce de leche mixture over the brownie batter in small clumps. Use a butter knife to swirl the dulce de leche into the brownie batter.
- Pour the remaining half of the brownie batter into the pan and smooth. Scoop the remaining dulce de leche in small clumps over the surface of the brownie batter and swirl with a butter knife.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until the center is just set or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the brownies comes out clean.
- Allow to cool completely before slicing.
Notes
The dulce de leche can be made up to a week ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator. If you’ve made it beforehand and stored it in the refrigerator, you can warm it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to make it smooth enough to stir (it will still be thick).
Brownie recipe adapted from David Lebovitz and dulce de leche recipe from my sweetened condensed milk can.
I have never made dulce de leche anything – these are definitely a good place to start. They look amazing, and happy birthday to your husband! I will be trying these – right along with your breakfast for dinner recipes, I always love breakfast for dinner!!
Oh, Heavenly Day!
These look and sound amazingly glorious.
What a mouthwatering batch of brownies! These look amazing, Emily. Happy birthday to your hunny!
Came across your post at Tastespotting and I’m SO glad I did! I’ve made something similar to these, a Caramel Swirl Hunk, basically the same thing but the base is more blondie like. These look outrageous though! So glad to be your newest follower 🙂
You can make the dulce le leche more easily and with less mess by putting the can of condensed milk, rightside up, unopened in a pan of water and letting it simmer quietly for 3-4 hours. The time does not seem to matter much. I usually crumple up a bit of aluminum foil and put it under the can so it does not rattle. (Of course, this eliminates the effect of the added salt. I’m not sure what difference that would make, or if you could salt it before using.
Betty- Thanks for the suggestion! That sounds very simple. I’ll have to try that next time!
Throw it in your crockpot as well. I usually do a couple cans and put an old rag under them. 6 hours low while I sleep and I have caramelly good ness in the am!
I’m envious of people who has dulche de leche. 🙁
I have gained 12 pounds reading this entry, and have been concurrently battling my salivary glands throughout. Please have a proxy serving or two for me (with a glass of cold milk) to help me justify the additional weight. I will be much obliged. These look incredible!
David Lebovitz’s brownie recipes are my favorite. They always turn out perfectly, as did these. Absolutely stunning!
Nice recipe. I love a simple brownie recipe which is easy for the kids 🙂
I also like the below brownie recipe.
http://www.wascene.com/food-drink/perfect-chocolate-brownie-recipe/
Thanks for sharing,
Jane
I cooked these for 10 minutes less than the suggested minimum time and they still turned out INCREDIBLY dry. Not sure what happened.
Brittany – so sorry to hear it! I had one other reader mention a similar issue. Do you have an oven thermometer? I’ve found if my oven temp is off, it’s easy for me to over-bake. I’ve adjusted the baking time to include a wider range of times to check to help others avoid a similar issue. I hope that helps others!
I also made the recipe, added two extra eggs because my eggs were small, and they were really dry after 30 minutes. I would try again with five large eggs and check after 15 minutes. Its not my oven…I bake all the time, and I don’t live in the mountains.
Praise Yahshua for brownies!
Jewsforjesus.org!