Dulce de Leche Half-Moons
Known as pepitorias, these tasty caramel-filled wafer "tacos" embellished with toasted pumpkin seeds are a regular offering at Mexican markets and sweets shops, especially in the city of Puebla, which is famous for so many confections. The wafers are traditionally brightly colored, but we chose to stick with a more seasonal white-and-gold motif. Since tinted edible wafer paper is hard to come by in the United States, we used precut white Back-Oblaten, imported from Germany, and we explain how to color them. Painting them with food coloring or water softens them enough to fold around the caramel.
•Confections keep, stacked in an airtight container at room temperature, 1 week.
•Mixed colored half-moons can be packaged in clear cellophane bags tied with ribbon.
Recipe information
Total Time
5 hr
Yield
Makes about 50 cookies
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. 3Spread seeds in a 4-sided sheet pan and toast in oven until puffed and slightly golden (but not browned), 6 to 8 minutes. Cool completely on a plate.
Step 2
Stir 1/4 teaspoon colored powder into 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl until dissolved.
Step 3
Spread 10 wafers in 1 layer on a rack. Paint tops of wafers lightly with coloring using a pastry brush (for white wafers, brush with water). Let stand until pliable, 3 to 5 minutes (if too wet to lift, let stand until slightly drier). Invert wafers, then spoon a level teaspoon dulce de leche onto unpainted side of each. Fold each in half, pressing to spread dulce de leche just to edge. Insert 8 seeds halfway into _dulce de leche_dulce de leche is firm enough to hold seeds in place, 1 to 4 hours.
Step 4
Meanwhile, paint remaining wafers with remaining colors, 1 color at a time. Make more confections in same manner.
