Healthier Dulce de Leche Thumbprint Cookies
These Healthier Dulce de Leche Thumbprint Cookie are deliciously gooey and great for the holidays! This recipe will show you an easy, budget-friendly shortcut to making your own dulce de leche. They're the perfect accompaniment to paleo thumbprint shortbread cookies - creating a heavenly sweet and salty treat!
Equipment
- Slow cooker
Ingredients
- 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup maple syrup *
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil cooled slightly
- 1½ cups almond flour
- 2 tablespoon arrowroot starch
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Flaky sea salt for topping
Instructions
- Remove the paper wrapper of the condensed milk. Place in slow cooker and cover with water. Cook on High for 4 hours or Low for 8 hours. Remove some of the water, carefully remove the can, and let cool for at least 10 minutes. Open carefully (it should be golden brown), pour into heat proof bowl, and whisk until smooth. Add hot water to thin out if needed. Set aside. (It will make more dulce de leche than needed for the cookies**.)
- In a large bowl, whisk together egg and maple syrup until homogenous. Stir in vanilla and melted coconut oil.
- In another bowl, combine almond flour, arrowroot starch, baking powder, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined. Place bowl in fridge.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Once oven is preheated, remove batter from the fridge and roll 1½ tablespoon of dough into balls. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and use a small spoon (I used a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon) to gently press into the middle, creating a "thumbprint" crater. Place back into the oven to bake for 5 more minutes.
- Let cool for 5 minutes and then transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Spoon dulce de leche into the craters and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
Notes
*For darker cookies, sub maple syrup with an equal amount of date syrup.
**To store leftover dulce de leche, pour into an air-tight container and refrigerate for up to a week.