To serve with chicken, pig, or beef as a light side dish.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Servings: | 36 |
| Yield: | 3 dozen cookies |
Ingredients
- 1 ⅔ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla rum
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 (11.5 ounce) jar dulce de leche
- ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.
- Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, allowing each yolk to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla rum, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and lemon zest with the last egg. Gently fold in the flour mixture with a spoon, making a crumbly dough. When the dough becomes cohesive enough, press it together into a ball with your hands. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Roll out the dough, using as little flour as possible, about 1/4 inch thick. The dough will have an unusual consistency. Cut with a small round cookie cutter. Continue pressing the dough together, rolling it out, and cutting until you have used it all. Place cookies 1/2 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake in the preheated oven until set but not browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove the cookies immediately to cool on a wire rack.
- Spread the underside of a cooled cookie with a teaspoon of dulce de leche, then sandwich together with another cookie until the caramel oozes out the sides. Roll the sides in the shredded coconut.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 157 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 23 g |
| Cholesterol | 32 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 65 mg |
| Sugars | 8 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I made these for a country project at school and they were gone by the end of the day! They took all morning to make but they were so delicious! I even tried a different Alfajore recipe but this one turned out so much better! Now I make these for company as my specialty and it’s always a big hit! Thank you!
This recipe is so good that I ended up making if as a friend’s wedding gift. Everyone loved this recipe!
Really good. Takes a bit long to make but well worth it. I accidentally made the cookies too large so think that is why some of them cracked while applying the dulce de leche (milk based caramel sauce, bought at Walmart). I ended up carefully spreading the dulce on a cookie then adding the top cookie. I then painted the sides of the cookies with the dulce and rolled in coconut. Definitely need to make these again
Love it!!!
This recipe is legit as—is! C Crumbly, delecate, delightful! I did divide the lemon zest and extract in half and replace the missing half with tangerine zest and extract. Next time will add 1 more egg yolk with the aim of making them stiffer. And 1 more stick of butter aiming to make the dough more workable. But excellent as called for by this recipe!
They turned out amazing. However I did add on top of it all 2 whole eggs as it was too crumbly which may have been due to me using lard rather than butter also.
Followed the recipe to tee. Never had these cookies before so I’m not sure what they are supposed to be like, but I find them quite dry. Also the filling, while delicious, is too fluid to hold the top cookie in place, so it slides, I don’t think I’ll make them again as they are rather labor intensive. Anybody want some left over dulce de leche?
I tried making it exactly as written, but the dough does not hold together, I even tried chilling it overnight. I was able to salvage my dough by bringing it back to room temperature and adding a whole egg and another 1/2 stick of butter. The flavor was great, but I found the cookies to be very dry and messy to eat. I recently came back from Argentina and most of the alfajores we had down there were more of a cakey texture. I will still make again because once covered in chocolate these are quite delicious.
This recipe is very good, but i would recommend using 3 whole eggs rather than just the egg yolks so that the dough is more manageable. I rolled the dough very thin so that it was only 4mm thick and this meant there were alot more cookies and they still were a little bit crumbly when you bite into them
This recipe was pretty easy to follow. I didn’t roll. it in coconut but sprinkled powdered sugar over it instead. The dough will come out pretty crumbly feeling. Don’t freak out, it’s just a weird consistency. If you need to, sprinkle and knead in some cool water.
I made these for my husbands job and everyone loved it!
This dough was much too crumbly. Only after reading other people’s suggestions was I able to rescue the dough. I added one more whole egg, 1/4 cup more butter and a little water. It then held together. The flavor is good but the actual recipe was not good to use unless the measurements are corrected.
I am having a bit of a crumble issue after the cookies come out of the oven, I really tried all the tricks the other reviewers gave and the dough is great right after is made, however after i refrigerated it it became hard. Next time I will bake right after making the dough and see if that makes a difference. They taste great but very delicate to assemble and put together. I didn’t use any vanilla rum or vanilla extract, instead I used a bit of rum lemon and orange zest. Did add more more and more eggs to the recipe so it would be softer and not as crumbly.
Delicious!!!!! and so easy to prepare
I found the batter extremely dry to work with. In frustration, I added some olive oil to the dry crumbs at the end that would not stick together. Because of this, I couldn’t roll thin enough to my satisfaction. I was a bit disappointed. Even the cookies themselves were a bit dry. Maybe that’s how they’re supposed to be? Not a favourite, unfortunately
These cookies were amazing. I used 1 egg and 2 yolks, white rum and I needed just 1/2 can dulce de leche for my cookies. The taste was fantastic, they look festive too (I sprinkled with confectioners` sugar) and I will use this recipe again and again.
I wanted to give this recipe a 5 stars, but after reading a few reviews I decided to modify the recipe by adding 3 eggs (not just the yolks). The dough had a perfect texture after this modification. I added only 1/2 tsp of lemon extract and I am glad I did NOT add the 2 tsps of lemon zest which would give a strong lemon flavor. Also, I used the Nestle’s La Lechera Dulce de Leche, which is more a caramel flavor than the good old doce de leite used in Latin America. Next time I will use the Williams Sonoma’s dulce de leche from Argentina. I am sure it will be even more delicious. I also used finely shredded unsweetened coconut. Thank you for sharing this recipe! 🙂
I would make it again, but also i had trouble with the texture. it was too crumbly. i say add more butter and a bit more flour. thanks guys!
These looked and tasted almost exactly the same as the ones from my family’s favourite coffee shop in Honduras. Now that we have moved to Canada, they were a very special nostalgic treat for my family! I did add 1/4 cup melted butter to the dough when I could not roll it. Turned out fabulous!
I am in the process of making these and will update again once I have completed the process. However, as it stands, I am on round two of these cookies and at my wits end. I have now adjusted this recipe to include an additional half cup of butter and two more egg yolks. NOW the “dough” (if one could even call it that) is workable. It is in my fridge for the second time since I started this round. I’m still hopeful….
I tried to make alfajores before but I ended up with a brown and tough cookie. Let me tell you that this recipe is awesome! It has a nice texture and flavor!! Really easy to make with kids too