These Dulce de Leche Bars are made of chocolate chip cookie dough, filled with dulce de leche, baked to golden perfection.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword bars, cookies, dulce de leche
Prep Time 30 minutesminutes
Cook Time 1 hourhour
Total Time 1 hourhour30 minutesminutes
Servings 16bars
Calories 400kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
1cupunsalted butterat room temperature (226 grams)
1/2cupbrown sugar(100 grams)
1cupgranulated sugar(200 grams)
2eggs
1teaspoonvanilla extract
2 1/2cupsall-purpose flour(318 grams)
1teaspoonfine sea salt
1teaspoonbaking soda
1/4teaspoonbaking powder
3/4cupsmacadamia nutschopped (100 grams) optional
1/2cupwhite chocolate chips(85 grams)
1cupdark chocolate chips(170 grams)
1 1/3cupdulce de leche(396 grams)
Instructions
Dulce de Leche Bars
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream softened butter for 2 minutes.
Add sugars gradually, cream for another 2 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time. Wait for the first egg to be fully incorporated before adding the next one, scrape the sides of the pan if you have to.
Add vanilla, mix until combined.
Mix flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together.
Add dry ingredients to batter.
Mix on low.
Once flour is almost incorporated, add macadamias, white chocolate chips, and dark chocolate chips.
Line a 9x9” pan with parchment paper.
Pour half of the cookie dough on the bottom of the pan.
Spread Dulce de leche on top.
Top with the second half of cookie dough. It helps to use floured hands, grab a piece of dough with your hands, kind of open it flat in your hands, and place on top of dulce de leche. And keep doing this in patches, and at the end, smooth the top down by pressing down lightly. See pictures above for reference.
Place tray in the freezer while you pre-heat the oven to 350F.
The reason why you will place the baking pan in the freezer before baking, is to solidify the butter in the dough. And this way, when the pan enters the hot oven, the butter won’t start to melt immediately. The gluten formations around the fat particles will be able to establish themselves before the fat melts, which will provide your baked goods with a much better structure, visibly and texture wise.
Bake bars for 45 to 50 minutes, until the top is golden brown, and the center is set. Cover pan with foil as soon as the top starts to brown, so this way the top won’t burn while the middle stays undercooked.
Let bars cool completely before cutting them. I even like to place them in the fridge for a few hours before cutting.
Storage
Store in the fridge, covered, for up to 4 days.
Notes
Note 1: Find out how to make dulce de leche here.Note 2: The macadamia nuts are optional, you can substitute for any other nuts you'd like, or simply leave them out.Note 3: To make variations, you can use all dark chocolate chips, or chopped chocolate, milk chocolate, or mix and match instead.Note 4: To make an Easter version, use chopped Cadbury eggs instead of chocolate chips, or substitute some of the chocolate chips for chopped Cadbury eggs. Top the dough with chopped Cadbury eggs before baking