These dulce de leche cookies, also known as alfajores, are buttery, sweet, and somewhat vanilla-flavored. They are incredible! Given to me by a chef who got the recipe from a street seller in Peru using sweet talk.
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 24 sandwich cookies |
Ingredients
- 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ cup sifted cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 (11.5 ounce) jar dulce de leche
- ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar, or as needed for dusting
Instructions
- Mix flour, 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a bowl.
- Beat butter with an electric mixer in a separate bowl until soft and fluffy. Mix in white sugar and vanilla until well combined.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in 3 batches, beating until just blended after each addition. Divide dough in half, roll each half into a log, and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Slice dough logs into forty-eight 1/4-inch-thick cookies and place onto ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake in the preheated oven until just starting to turn golden around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 1 minute on the baking sheet. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Use a knife to generously spread dulce de leche onto 1/2 of the cooled cookies. Sandwich remaining cookies on top and place onto a serving tray.
- Lightly dust finished cookies with remaining confectioners’ sugar.
Reviews
July2022 These Alfajores (Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies) are good with an asterisk. I LOVE SHORTBREAD. I’m a big fan of dulce de leche. This is good shortbread, but I didn’t find the combination worth all the work for a couple dozen cookies.
I followed this recipe just as written except baked them a little longer than it said to. The cookies were awesome. They looked just like the picture. I would not change a thing on the recipe. The cookies are so tender they just melt in your mouth. I will definitely be making them again.
Very good recipe. Clear and concise. Cookies taste great!! Chilling dough for 2 hours was perfect time to watch a family movie and enjoy hot cocoa.
it tastes great !! but i failed to shape it as it should be 🙁
I followed this recipe exactly except for the 2 hours of chilling part. I chilled for maybe 20 min then accelerated it by putting the dough in the freezer for 15 min. MISTAKE! This was too long so I had to wait for them to soften for cutting. This recipe is similar to another Alfajores recipe I’ve used. This one adds 1/4c sugar. After combining the flour to the butter mixture, the dough will be crumbly, this is OK. You can work it by hand on a lightly floured surface into 2 logs. Mine were 1.75″ diameter. The dough was easy to cut and may be placed fairly close to each other on the cookie sheet. They expand but not that much. In the past I’ve worked the dough into a disc, Saran wrapped, chilled, then rolled to 1/4″. I use a small, round cookie cutter dipped in flour to get consistent-shaped cookies. These cookies are good but I’ll stick to my old recipe that stay more crisp/crunchy; a personal preference. Like another reviewer said, don’t overbake; they’ll stay the light, pale colour when done.
You have to be careful not to cut dough logs in slices that are too thick. Also watch the cookies while in the oven to take them out at right moment—when they are done but not brown yet!
These were fabulous! The cookie part was like a slightly crunchy, but, delicate shortbread . The dulce de leche was the perfect filling! I will make these over and over again. The shortbread cookie would be perfect with a variety of fillings.