I was going to say profiteroles! Here is a dessert I made to huge raves last Holiday season...or maybe the one before! LOL Don;t be put off by the instructions, it really sounds much worse than it is and several components can be made in advance. When served at a dinner party I plated with the sauce but when served as part of a dessert buffet I served the sauce as a dipping sauce...so d@mn good and so indulgent. Dulce De Leche Cream Puffs With Frangelico And Hazelnuts Puffs 1 c water 1/2 c unsalted butter 1/2 t salt 1 c AP flour 4 cold eggs 1/2 c chopped hazelnuts Filling 3/4 c dulce de leche at room temp 2 1/4 c 18% cream 4 T sugar,divided pinch salt 3 T AP flour 3 egg yolks 2 T Frangelico 1/2 t vanilla Sauce 3/4 c dulce de leche at room temp 2 T Frangelico 1/2 t vanilla 1/4 c chopped hazelnuts (optional) Preheat oven to 425. Place rack just below oven centre. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Heat water, butter and salt in a sauce pan over medium heat until water is quite hot and butter melts. Add flour and stir frequently for 3 to 5 minutes, or until mixture easily forms large smooth ball. Place ball in bowl of mixer , break up by mixing briefly with paddle. Cool 5 minutes then beat in eggs 1 at a time on low to medium speed until well mixed. Using a spatula fold in hazelnuts. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart on the prepared pan. Using wet hands shape into 2 inch rounds leaving the tops somewhat rough. Bake 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and bake another 25 minutes or until deeply golden. Turn off oven and open door, Let puffs cool in the oven for 15 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack. (can be made weeks ahead and frozen. To restore crispness reheat in a 350 oven for 10 minutes or until puffs feel dry and crisp) To make filling whisk room temp DDL (dulce de leche) while gradually adding cream until smooth. Stir in 2 TBSP sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat whisking occasionally. Meanwhile in a small bowl stir remaining 2 TBSP of sugar with flour, stir in egg yolks and Frangelico. When cream is quite hot to the touch stir 3 TBSP into the egg mixture to temper the egg mixture. Whisking briskly, pour egg mixture into hot cream. Stir constantly 3 minutes or until mixture thickens, becomes glossy and whisk leaves a trail in the filling. Stir in vanilla. Turn into a metal bowl. Cover with plastic wrap placed directly on the cream surface. Refrigerate immediately. Use when cold. Keeps 2 to 3 days. To make sauce, stir DDL in a small bowl until smooth. Stir in Frangelico 1 TBSP at a time. Stir in vanilla. Sauce can be made ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temp or heat until barley warm to serve. To assemble puffs. Cut each puff in half horizontally, Divide filling among bottom halves. Replace tops. Serve drizzled with the sauce and scattered with hazelnuts. Makes 12. Dulce de Leche 2 to 4 cans sweetened condensed milk (300 ml each) Preheat oven to 425 Remove labels and tops from cans. Cover each can with foil , pressing firmly about 1/2 way down outside of can. Place in a large flat bottom casserole dish. Pour boiling water into dish until 1/2 inch from the tops of the cans. Cover with casserole lid. Bake for 2 hours without disturbing except to check to see if you need to add water. Add more water if level drops dramatically. After 2 hours lift cans from water bath. Cool on a rack with foil still in place. The refrigerator for up to a week or freeze. Cold DDL is very thick so bring to room temp before stirring. Each can makes 1 1/4 cup DDL.

lizbeth-gardener- --Perfectly softened butter should still look solid, but "give" a little when you press it lightly with your finger and leave a slight indent, but shouldn't be soft in feel or appearance. You don't want partially-melted butter. Using butter that is too soft can cause cookie spread. --Instead of the touch test for butter, try taking the temperature (place the thermometer into the stick from the narrow end into the center of the length of the stick) . Optimal temperature for fat/butter is 65-67-degrees F when you measure it with an instant-read thermometer. Since butter warms quickly when it's beat, starting at this cooler temperature prevents it from getting too soft during mixing. --Cold-from-the-refrigerator butter will be soft in 30-40-minutes at room temperature. You can speed that up by grating the butter on a large hole box grater, and grating it is a better method than in the microwave. --Don't use butter that has been sitting out on the counter for hours/days because it will probably be too soft (aka "slack" butter) due to ambient kitchen temperatures. --Thoroughly chilled dough will help assure the fat is solid once again - although if the dough got overly-warm at any point, the texture can change because the moisture and the fat in butter can separate. There are all kinds of tests for the "perfect" amount of refrigerator time, but there are too many variables from recipe-to-recipe to make that determination without testing each one. I have recipes that work best mixed and baked immediately (especially low-fat, or if liquid fat is used in the recipe), others need to be chilled at least an hour or 12-hours works well. If I freeze the dough balls, I prefer thawing them in the refrigerator overnight rather than baking them frozen, although, that's just one more option. --If you have a large amount of cookie dough to bake, be sure to keep it in the refrigerator while waiting for use. The heat in the kitchen can cause the fat to melt and the dough to go "slack", especially towards the end of the batch. --Don't continue to stir the cookie dough between handling for portioning because mixing it will over-develop the gluten and you'll get tough cookies. Pilllog mentioned not aerating the dough..... It's not so much about aerating as it is about over-mixing and over-developing the gluten once the flour has been added, which will cause the cookies to be tough. Once the fat/sugar have been properly mixed, don't over-mix the dough once the eggs have been added or the fat/liquid can "break". --Avoid placing cookie dough on a hot/warm pan. Have at least 3-4 cookies sheets to use so you always have one that is completely cool before loading the dough on it. Even warm pans will begin melting the fat in the dough. --Other causes for cookie spread: too much sugar (be sure to measure carefully), large-grained sugar (fine-grained is a better choice), too much baking soda - which makes the pH too high, too much grease or fat residue on the pan (wipe off between batches - better yet, cover them with parchment paper), incorrect temperature or cold oven temperature (be sure to preheat and check your oven for actual temperature using an oven thermometer). --Another important, and often missed, point.... When mixing the fat and sugar, be sure to take your time. If you rush through this step you can cause cookie spread because the two ingredients haven't been properly incorporated and the sugar crystals will remain too large. Other points to consider: -Size of the cookies you make. -Use a portion scoop so you get like-sized cookies which bake in the same amount of time. -Use a timer, and remember, the first pan normally takes a little longer then the subsequent pans. -In a standard oven, only bake one pan of cookies at a time and turn the pan half-way through baking. If you have a convection oven, reduce the temperature by 25-degrees F, and half-way through turn the pans and move the pans top to bottom. On a personal note, I've used nothing but insulated baking sheets for over 30-years, however I don't bake directly on the pans, I always top them with parchment paper. Adding parchment paper will give slightly different results on ALL pan types, as would adding a silicon sheet. When judging cookies at Fairs I can usually tell which kind of pan was used by the bottom of the cookies. Each pan type will give different results and there are different hints and tips for baking on each of them successfully. -Grainlady

Oh heck no, it'll be fine. In fact, I have some in the freezer right now, I often freeze part of the dough to bake later, so I don't have quite so many to lead me astray! My next experiment will be this week. I'm going to make a batch with brown sugar Splenda and replace some of the white flour with whole wheat. Elery's stepmom is diabetic and has been in and out of the hospital for the past several months with heart issues. I want to take her a treat, but I want it to be better for her, something that will fit into her food plan. So, we'll see. I have regular whole wheat and whole wheat pastry flour, so it should be interesting. Annie

I freeze mine. I made a batch of SharonCB's Aunt Doe's shortbread..as soon as they were cool..in a ziplock into the freezer for a few days..even though....they stay perfect closed in a container on the counter...I wanted them ut most fresh...I then took them out...the night before I was going to chocolatize them...Everyone raved... It won't hurt to freeze most of them..but Lisa's right..2-3 days pre eating won't matter much with most cookies... ~part of the other reason I froze them...they wouldn't get eaten by my klan....~