dulce de leche

I have a weakness for dulce de leche, the super creamy milk caramel with origins in Latin America. I love it in just about any dessert from cheesecake to cookies to ice cream. That's why when I read Scott Conant's recipe for dulce de leche cake in a recent Food & Wine, it was only natural that I make it.

This cake does not disappoint: it's moist, light, fluffy, delicious, flavorful — basically every adjective you can think of to describe a cake! The filling is an easy-to-make dulce de leche, and the frosting is somewhere between meringue and marshmallow. If you're in need of a dessert that will take your guests' breath away, make this cake. It's a real stunner! Want the recipe? Read more.

Instead of making a more traditional gingerbread, sugar or butter cookie to leave for Santa Claus, this year, I made alfajores. With an outside of delicate melt-in-your mouth vanilla cookie and an inside of creamy dulce de leche, these Argentine sandwich cookies are wonderfully delicious. The cookies have to be completely cooled before spreading on the dulce de leche, so get started on them right away. In Argentina, they are three to four inches in diameter, but I prefer smaller cookies and made mine with a two-and-a-half inch biscuit cutter; feel free to adjust the size to suit your preferences. These buttery cookies pair perfectly with coffee, sparkling wine, or in the case of Old Saint Nick, a glass of milk! Read more for the recipe.

Every year for my birthday I bake myself a cake. However, I'm spending the actual day on vacation in Spain, so that means the elaborate cake baking will happen when I return.

At the celebratory dinner in Cadiz, I'll offer my new Spanish friends an easy-to-make but delicious-to-eat sundae. Not just any sundae, one that keeps up with my Tex-Mex-inspired menu, a Mexican sundae with cinnamon chocolate sauce and dulce de leche ice cream.

Salty, crunchy peanuts and flaky sweetened coconut give texture to the frozen dessert. To look at the recipe I'll be using, read more.

There are a few bright spots in every Winter, namely the following, in no particular order: snow sports, the Super Bowl, hot cocktails, and Girl Scout cookie season. But sadly, my attempts to track down cookies this year have been in vain, as I haven't seen so much as a single Daisy, Brownie, or Junior anywhere in the Bay Area.

To remedy the situation, I took matters into my own hands with a homemade variation of the Caramel DeLite, or Samoa, the Girl Scout cookie to end all other Girl Scout cookies.

This version, if I must say, is even better than the original. It starts out with a tartlet base of brown sugar, chocolate, butter, and toasted coconut, then gets the royal treatment with a scoop of coconut ice cream, dulce de leche, and more toasted coconut. The only drawback? They'll be gone in seconds. For the recipe, keep reading.