Pavé - My Sweet Tooth goes Brazilian

You know how there’s always someone at a gathering who drops the bomb by saying, “Me meetha ni khati. (I don’t eat sweets.)”. Well, I don’t get such people. What do they have against sugar/sweet stuff? In my opinion, anyone who can’t handle a bit of a sweet thing isn’t worth my time or attention. It’s just as simple as that. All my friends are people who love eating, and they love eating sugary stuff. Hand one a pack of Galaxy Minies and they’d start dancing (albeit awkwardly) with joy.

I came by this post a few days back about a bunch of Brazilian dishes that should be tried out. And the one that caught my eye turned out to be layer-after-layer of pure sugary pleasure. It takes a little time to make, and since it has a lot of layers, you have to spend some time on your feet and there are a lot of dirty dishes in the sink in the end. But trust me, it’s all worth it.

The original recipe didn’t call for it but I added a cheesecake layer in the middle just to balance out the dulce de leche on top. Turned out amazing, if I don’t say so myself. :-P

8 Layers of Awesome

Ingredients

Dulce De Leche
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (lowfat or fat-free okay)

Cookie Layer
3 (7 ounce) packs Marie biscuits or plane tea biscuits
1 cup milk (I use skim or fat-free half & half)

Cheesecake Layer
1 sachet Whip Cream or 1 cup Whip Cream
½ cup Milk
1 cup Heavy Cream
6 Kiri Cheese squares

Pavé
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 ounces butter or 4 ounces margarine
4 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Maraschino cherries, for decoration

Directions

1. Remove label from condensed milk can. Place UNOPENED can in a large saucepan and cover it with water. Boil for 1 to 1. 5 hours, making sure that the top of the can is always covered with at least a half-inch of water to prevent an explosion (if the water level becomes too low, just add some more hot water to the pan until can is sufficiently covered). Remove can from water with tongs or a strainer and set aside to cool. Allow can to come to room temp before opening (WARNING: hot can is under pressure and will spray you if opened).

2. With a mixer, beat the butter/margarine and sugar until well-mixed (3-5 min. depending on strength of your mixer). Add yolks, one by one, beating well after each addition. Add cocoa powder. Beat in vanilla extract and heavy cream (beat only until mixture is homogeneous and fluffy- it will become grainy if over-mixed).

3. In another bowl, empty the sachet of whip cream, pour in the milk and beat until peaks form. Pour in the heavy cream and beat until well-mixed. Then put in the Kiri squares and beat until the cheese is mixed in with cream.

4. Pour milk or half-and-half in a shallow dish for moistening cookies.

5. In a 2-quart glass casserole or 8x8" dish, dip cookies one by one and form a layer to cover the bottom of the casserole. Next, spread half of the butter-cream mixture over the cookies. Top with a layer of softened cookies. Spread the whole cheesecake mixture. Top with another layer of moistened cookies and rest of the butter-cream mixture, ending with a layer of moistened cookies. Spread entire can of room-temp dulce de leche over the dessert.

6. Sprinkle with roasted peanuts, and decorate with maraschino cherries that have been patted dry.

7. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight to allow layers to fully blend.