April baking

Howdy,
I have been baking in April but didn't have time to photograph and post about the yum. I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Martha Stewart's Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies. I made these for E's birthday in April and they were a huge hit. I modified the recipe by making the cookies smaller and everyone liked the two-bite size better. Also, this recipe makes a million cookies, so I froze some of the dough to use later. For the second batch of whoopie pies I decided to go with a dulce de leche frosting which was also delicious. I actually thought I might have pioneered this whoopie pie meets alfajore concoction, but google-ing reveals otherwise. Anyway, here's how to make that dulce de leche and put it in frosting: 


Dulce de Leche
Take a can of sweetened condensed milk and put it in a soup pot. Put enough water in the pot so that the can is covered. It is imperative that the can remain covered with water the whole time otherwise it will explode. Put the pot on the stove and bring it to a boil. Boil the can in the water for 3 hours. At the end, you'll open up the can and voila, dulce de leche.

Dulce de Leche Frosting
Now, take a half stick of butter (1/4c) and cream it in an electric mixer. Add 2 tbsp (or more but it throws off the consistency) of dulce de leche and 1 cup of confectioners sugar to the butter. Add 1/2 tsp of vanilla. Mix until it's frosting. If it's too thick, you can add more dulce de leche or a little bit of milk. If it's too thin, you can add more confectioner's sugar a little at a time. I added too much milk and dulce de leche because I was playing with it, so it came out runny. I just stuck it in the fridge and it firmed up. This doesn't make that much frosting so if you're making a ton, I'd use a whole stick of butter and 2-3 cups of confectioner's sugar and play with the amount of dulce de leche.