Waffle "Cake": Eastern European crunch and sugary sweetness

A new shop opened near us, Senzi Aliment, a delightful combination of Eastern European (CIS: Commonwealth of Independent States), Italian, and Spanish ingredients. I spotted stacks of waffle-like crackers -- the texture you'd find inside KitKats, which I find irresistible -- and knew I had to figure out how to use them. They're the size of dinner plates, so looked like you might turn them into some cake-like dessert. I asked the proprietor and he grabbed me a can of Dulce de Leche, and pantomimed how you'd spread it on each waffle cracker, then layer them. 

I made a simple version with a quarter of the waffles I got and it was OK but not stunning. The waffles had lost their crunch, which was not surprising -- they sublimated into the sugary mass -- but I'd have preferred if they could have somehow retained a crunch. But it was fun and trivial to make, and introduced me to something I'd never heard of. 

Alternating cocoa and plain waffles, dulce de leche and sweetened condensed milk

Some web searching on the name on my receipt, "vafli tarta", resulted in a mix of recipes in English (8 waffles with butter and cognac and Peters Food Adventures with 5-10 waffles with several additions, good pictures), Bulgarian (adding walnuts, chocolate, cream), Ukrainian (5 waffles, variations with butter, or sour cream, or custard), Latvian (adding chocolate and mascarpone), Latvian (9 waffles, coffee powder, nut garnish), and others.

The approach is the same: spread the waffle crackers with Dulce de Leche and/or Sweetened Condensed Milk (with optional flavors), and layer them, then chill for a few hours in the fridge. Some make Dulce de Leche by boiling Sweetened Condensed Milk for three hours, but we can buy it here.

I expect the butter, cream, and booze make the Dulce de Leche easier to spread. Chocolate seems a natural addition, and the acidity of fruit would add a welcome balance. If the top or sides are spread, chopped nuts would make for an elegant presentation. 

My 90 g package of "Vafelu Plaksnes Tortem Ar Kakao Garsu" from Ukraine contains 9 waffles: 4 cocoa colored and 5 cream color, about 20 cm in diameter.

Even with additions, it sounds absurdly sweet, and the two of us couldn't finish the 9 waffles and 9 layers of sugary spread. At least not the full cake sized waffles! Peters Food Adventures says it can be cut then frozen for storage, but still, it's a lot. I think the height is attractive, so I'll cutting them into quarters so I can try variations. I had a can each of each spread, and for my 1/4 version, didn't use even a quarter of either can; I don't know how much I actually used, so can't give measures below.

My quartered preparation here made 4 generous slices; a full stack would provide 16.

1 90 g package Vafli Tarta waffle crackers (stack of 9)
1      can     Sweetened Condensed Milk
1      can     Dulce de Leche
               Toasted nuts (optional)

While still wrapped -- holding everything snugly --  use a bread knife to cut the stack of waffle crackers into 4 wedges; save three of the stacks for later flavor combinations.

Spread the Sweetened Condensed Milk on the 5 cream colored wafers.

Spread the Dulce de Leche on the 4 cocoa colored wafers.

Stack, alternating colors.

I ended up painting the top wafer by mistake, so I'll top it with chopped nuts for services.

Cover with cling film, add a weight, and let chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Top with toasted ground Almonds or other nuts you have on hand.

Slice with a bread knife, and serve -- ideally with big mugs of strong coffee.

The toasted almonds helped provide some of that crunch; I could mix some through the layers next time.

I'll probably add some tart jam (raspberry, cranberry, marmalade) in with the Dulce de Leche, or replace one of the spread layers. None of the cocoa flavor came through from the waffle; if you're looking for that, add some grated intense chocolate.

I've made further variations on this with subsequent 1/4 waffle sets.

The first used a couple layers of home made cranberry/ginger relish, which was a good bright accent, but made the waffles softer than I wanted. 

For the second, I finely grated 90% cocoa chocolate onto the inner Condensed Milk layers: the taste was good but the dryness of the chocolate dust caused the waffles to want to delaminate -- mix it through a bit next time.

For my final 1/4 package of waffles, I'm thinking of peanut butter and the remaining chocolate, or tart tamarind concentrate, or bitter marmalade.