Lately I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night (more than once) only to find my cheek stuck to my pillow. And I don’t think it’s from the humidity. In fact, I know it’s not. It’s from a freshly drooled pile of saliva. I’d like to think my pregnancy is a contributing factor to this disgusting new sleep habit of mine, but deep down, I know it’s my subconscious telling me to make these dulce de leche cakes – again.

Often times I’ll look through cookbooks or my Bon Appetit magazines and think “Wow, that looks amazing,” then possibly think about making it – one day. But this weekend, I was perusing my recent (August 2012) Bon Appetit and literally salivated, drooled, shook with what I call the “sugars”, and ripped out the page with the molten dulce de leche cake recipe in one fell swoop. I wrote down the ingredients – all FOUR of them. And headed to the store like the maniacal pregnant woman with an intense craving that I am.

These are absurdly delicious. Absurd I tell you!

Just go out right now, find August’s Bon Appetit, turn to page 100. Or just click here. You’ll see what I mean.

While they were baking, Sean was grilling the ribs from last month’s (July 2012) Bon Appetit and I composed the tomato and anchovy salad on page from this month’s (page 20).

A total of 17 minutes bake time, by the time we polished off our ribs and tomato salad, the cake was the perfect temperature for consumption inhaling.

Though it doesn’t utilize any of this season’s peak bounty of fruits, you won’t care. Throw on some mint and a few raspberries and you’ll feel less guilty about having a non-fruit summer dessert. I can see this dessert served any season of the year, but especially through the late summer to early fall when the thought of comfort food and crock pots on the counter sneak up on us.

I strongly encourage you to make this dessert. It is so, so, so, heavenly. And if your kids don’t finish their entire ramekin of cake, guess what you get to do?

Drool.

molten dulce de leche cakes (adapted from August 2012, Bon Appetit)

unsalted butter*
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour plus more for ramekins
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1 2/3 cups canned or jarred dulce de leche (preferably Nestle)*
vanilla or banana ice cream

Special equipment: six 4 ounce ceramic ramekins*

Preheat oven to 425. Butter and flour ramekins; transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. Using an electric mixer, beat egg yolks and egg in a medium bowl until doubled in volume and eggs hold a slight ribbon, about 2 1/2 minutes. Add dulce de leche, beat until well blended, then gradually add 2 1/2 tablespoons flour; beat well until blended. Divide batter among ramekins.

Transfer sheet to oven. Bake cakes until outsides are golden brown in color but the centers still jiggle, 12-14 minutes*.

Transfer sheet to a rack. Run a knife around edges of ramekins to loosen cakes; invert onto plates or into shallow bowls. Serve hot, with ice cream.

*NOTES:
I used a little shortcut by spraying my ramekins with PAM for Baking. I’m sure this is highly discouraged, but it still worked out beautifully. 

Rather than using 6 ramekins, I divided the batter into four ramekins. With this in mind, in my oven, it took 17 minutes bake time to get the cake the jiggly consistency (more batter, longer bake time). Check yours often, making sure not to burn the edges.

I couldn’t find the Nestle brand dulce de leche as called for in the Bon Appetit recipe, but I did find a jar of The Silver Palate Caramel Sauce with Pecans and ended up using the entire jar.  It was all I could do to NOT eat this stuff by the spoonful.

Banana ice cream? I hit the jack pot with the Talenti Banana Chocolate Swirl gelato. Use this if you can find it.