Alfajores – Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies

Do you watch The Great British Baking Show? A new season just hit Netflix and I’m so excited because it’s refreshing to watch people bake politely. If you’ve never seen it, here’s the run down. Contestants bake in an amazingly-equipped outdoor tent surrounded by picture-perfect rolling hills, brooks, flowers, and sheep. It’s nothing like other competitive baking shows charged with meltdowns, yelling, and drama. There is already enough stress in my life, thank you very much. I’d much rather watch someone peacefully stare at their oven as the ducklings waddle by in the background. I always feel inspired to bake after watching the show and that’s how these cookies came to be. These, however, are not just ordinary cookies. Say hello to: Alfajores – Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies. They’re truly something special and easy to make too.

The Alfajor is the most popular cookie in South America, especially in countries like Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru where entire bakeries are devoted to this amazing little confection. Spain, where this cookie got its name, has an Alfajor too. However, that cookie has no similarities anymore to its Latin American descendant. The Spanish one is made with almonds, honey, and spiced with cinnamon. None of those ingredients are typically included in traditional South American Alfajores. In this post, we’ll focus on the decadent dulce de leche-filled ones.

Alfajores – Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies, are known for being tender and delicate. This amazing texture, which is lighter than shortbread, is achieved from its main ingredient – cornstarch. In fact, in many Latin American countries, these cookies are known as Alfajores de Maizena or Cornstarch Alfajores. The cornstarch, also known as corn flour, is what gives this cookie its unique crumb.

This tender cookie wants to fall apart at each bite, so it’s no surprise that pairing it with sticky dulce the leche is a genius move. It is held together by that creamy filling as it crumbles. A match made in heaven. This sandwich cookie is gaining popularity everywhere in the world. Watch out Macaron and Oreo! It seems you have some stiff competition.

Aside from the cornstarch and dulce de leche, which are the stars of the show here, other Alfajor ingredients include flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, egg yolks, lemon zest, brandy or cognac (just a tablespoon), and salt. The small amount of lemon zest used doesn’t really give this cookie a lemony flavor, but rather a very subtle hint of lemon that highlights the cookie’s delicate notes really well. The tablespoon of brandy/cognac is traditional, but optional. I used rum, since it’s what I had. Honestly, I couldn’t taste it in the end result, but I imagine it’s in there for depth of flavor.

This dough is so simple to make and so easy to work with. It comes together well and doesn’t crumble at all. After mixing up the ingredients, I divided the dough in half, kneaded it in my hands for a few seconds and rolled each dough ball to around 1/8 – 1/4 inch in thickness (but closer to 1/8 inch). I’ve made this recipe with the 1/4 inch thickness before and I feel it’s a little too thick once it’s assembled. Since two cookies are needed for the “cookie sandwich”, the dulce de leche has to be piled on too thick to be well-noticed. So, I prefer the cookies a bit thinner, but you can experiment with the thickness and go with what you like. Also, I like rolling cookie dough on plastic wrap and wax paper. It’s makes for easy transferring and clean-up.

Once I rolled out the dough, I refrigerated it for about 20 minutes to make it easier to handle. Then, I used a 2 inch round cookie cutter to cut out dough rounds and baked them for 10-12 minutes. I pulled them out of the oven as soon as the edges were slightly golden and the cookies were still light in color. Then, I just let them cool on a wire rack before filling them.

Traditional Alfajores are often dusted lightly with powdered sugar after being sandwiched with dulce de leche. When I was young, dulce de leche didn’t have the following it does today. I don’t remember it being as mainstream as it is now, where I’ve spotted it in things like pop-tarts, Cheerios, and even lipstick shades (I’d rather smear the real stuff on my lips and then lick it off). Anyway, thanks to its popularity, canned dulce de leche is relatively easy to find in stores these days, usually in the canned or boxed milk section near the evaporated and condensed milk.

Although I’ve made my own dulce de leche in the past for these, I wanted a quicker version this time, so I used store-bought. They were still amazing. My all-time favorite type of dulce de leche is cajeta, which I grew up on. It’s made from goat’s milk instead of cow’s milk and has a much richer flavor. If you find some, please gift it to yourself either to use in these cookies or to eat by the spoonful (or over ice cream).

To fill the cookies, just smear some dulce de leche on with a butter knife. If you want them to look more decorative, you can place the dulce de leche into a piping bag and pipe dots along the outside edge. It only takes an extra minute and makes the cookies look extra special. The last step is to dust the tops lightly with powdered sugar.

If you want to make a truly special treat for someone, give Alfajores a try. They are much easier than they appear and are always impressive. Be warned, though, these delicious little cookies are addictive and hard to resist. You may just change your mind about giving them away. Enjoy!

Another great filled cookie:

Strawberry & Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

Recipe adapted (slightly modified) from Saveur.com