Dulce de Leche Swirl Muffins

    Dulce de leche is an absolute classic dessert in Brazil. It's often served after lunch with slices of mild cheese or guava paste - as weird as the combination may sound, it's delicious. When I was in Brazil earlier this year, I wanted to make my family something wholly American - muffins! - but still bring in one of their favorite desserts.

   These muffins are the perfect combination of indulgent and hearty - they are fairly dense and feel substantial enough to have for breakfast, but the dulce de leche makes them sweet enough to eat for dessert if you wish (although in my opinion, I would rather save them to use as an excuse to eat dulce de leche for breakfast!)

    This is a simple batter which I mixed up by hand. After being divided into muffin tins, swirl in a liberal amount of dulce de leche (or your favorite sweet spread), bake and enjoy! They are lovely enjoyed on a weekend morning, weekday afternoon, or just about any other time you could use a bite of a sticky-sweet goodie.
   Enjoy!

 

Dulce de Leche Swirl Muffins

(adapted from Baking Bites) 

10 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
dulce de leche, about 1/3 cup (if you can find it, use the Brazilian kind - it's a bit thicker)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.
Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
Fill each muffin liner evenly with batter. They should be 3/4 full, if you’re not using a scoop. Top each cake with 1 1/2 tsp dulce de leche. Swirl dulce de leche in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over it.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out fairly clean (it may have a streak of dulce de leche on it, which is perfectly fine).
Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

   -makes 12 muffins