Mmmm, I actually like blondies more than brownies. Blondies resemble brownies, they have a similar texture, weight, and shape, but their flavor comes from brown sugar, not chocolate. That's why they are light, or "blond" in color. Dulce de Leche is sort of like a caramel made from milk. It's from Argentina and means literally Milk Sweetness, or Milk Jam, the way Dulce de Frutilla means strawberry jam. So, combine the two! yes please.
Dulce de Leche is really simple. You only need whole milk, sugar, a vanilla bean, and some baking soda.
The vanilla bean is split and the seeds scraped. I then put the wad of seeds in the sugar and use my fingers and the sugar to grind the seeds a bit so they fall apart from one clump into several.
Now all ingredients are combined and boiled violently on high heat, but with constant stirring with a whisk. I keep the bean in for the first few minutes to extract extra flavor, then fish it out.
The baking soda causes the milk to foam quite a bit. The more you whisk, the more if foams. It can go up and over if you aren't careful.
The color will start to change as the sugar caramelizes.
More and darker. You can basically stop whenever you want, but it will be quite runny at these early stages. The easiest way to test, is to keep a plate in the fridge, along with a spoon. Take the spoon out and dip some sauce on it, and place it on the plate in the fridge, smearing it around a bit. The sauce will cool quickly and you can see how viscous it will be. This is necessary because when hot it's much runnier than when it cools and solidifies a bit.
Getting close. I wanted an almost gel like Dulce de Leche so I took it even further.
Mmmm, that's the ticket! The milk is what separates this from caramel. It has a very rich creamy flavor whereas caramel is a sweeter more smooth texture.
Once cooled, it has a very nice solid gel like texture. It is not runny at all.
The blondie starts with brown sugar and butter.
Melted so it starts to caramelize just a tad, for a butterscotch like flavor.
I apologize as my camera ran out of batteries, so I only had enough to take some final photos before the batter went in the oven. The batter is the brown sugar and butter mixture from earlier, with flour, eggs, cinnamon, and baking powder. I poured a small amount in the container, than dabbed in a few dollops of Dulce de Leche, then covered it with more batter. Finally I marbleized more of the sauce on the top.
Into the oven!
The smell of this when it came out was just heavily. Vanilla and cinnamon and warm gooey smell.
It cuts very neatly into heavy dense squares. It weighs about a kilo!
Here you can see a chunk of the dulce de leche inside the blondie. Absolutely amazing, the taste is mindblowing. :-)
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