I love how my new camera can make even the most disappointing attempts look deliciously mouth-watering. The recipe for Millionaire's Shortbread seemed simple enough: buttery shortbread crust, creamy dulce de leche center, and smooth chocolate on top. Unfortunately for me, despite my many victories in much more complex areas of baking, these basic treats had me stumped. First, there was my use of an 8x8 inch pan instead of a 9x9 inch, which left me with a slightly too overwhelming shortbread base. Then my compulsive need to achieve a darker, more caramel colored dulce de leche, which required more cooking time, but ultimately left me with only a small amount of nearly unspreadable sauce. Finally, there was the fact that I couldn't find the kitchen scale amidst all the Christmas-prep chaos in order to properly measure the chocolate because the recipe I found gave the amount in only ounces and grams. So I eyeballed both the chocolate and the butter that I needed to melt into the topping and was left with a not so flawless finish. (However, this mishap I grew to overlook as the swirled chocolate on top looked so charmingly homemade)

I certainly would like to try it again, especially since I hate to leave such "defeats" unresolved. But for now, the end product is edible and really, I just wanted to take my new camera for a spin.

Millionaire's Shortbread recipe from Joy of Baking

This morning began with a request for a fresh batch of homemade pancakes and soon after the requests began to pile up. My first mission was a coupon treasure hunt at Costco and more miscellaneous grocery shopping at Lucky. Then a request for chocolate fudge sometime this weekend...and a suggestion for sweet potato fudge (still doing some research on that one). Then a bread pudding for my mother's best friend, another batch of pancake batter for my mom to use after I leave on Sunday, maybe some brownies because my mom's boyfriend ran out of box mixes. Not that I had the heart to turn any of these requests down, any excuse to do some baking is enough to catch my attention. But first I had to do what I wanted.

I have been waiting to try this recipe all week. Now they were originally meant to be "Dulce de Leche Apple Bars", but I picked up an adorable circular paper baking mold yesterday at Sur la Table and thought that it would make the perfect size little apple cake. Unfortunately, I must've been into what I was baking that I didn't consider that the batter might overflow. I realized this too late and when I peeked into the oven to see for myself, my susupicious were confirmed. Overflow it had. But I thought it added a certain imperfect charm and it was delicious nonetheless.

My mother and I both agreed that it would do just fine sans the browned butter icing and we would do just fine without all that extra sugar. And being the fruit lovers that we are, we also agreed that next time adding more fruit than the recipe called for wouldn't hurt.



Dulce de leche Apple Cake with Browned Butter Icing

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped, peeled apples
1/2 cup dulce de leche

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9x9-inch square baking pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy.

Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture, just until combined. Carefully stir in apples.

Spoon 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan. Drop dulce de leche by heaping Tablespoons over batter. Drag a butter knife through dulce de leche to swirl through the batter. Drop remaining batter over dulce de leche.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until browned and firm to touch. Let cool completely.

2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons half and half cream