Alfajores. A melt-in-your-mouth South American cookie sandwich with ooey gooey sticky dulce de leche in the center!
Every once in awhile I sit and daydream about our trip to Peru! Waking up to the sounds of the waves in Lima, gorging on the best ceviche I’ve ever had in my life and good strong coffee with mandatory Alfajores cookies.
I am no expert on the origin of Alfajores but from what I’ve read, they are found in several of South American countries as well as in Spain. Each country has their own little special tweak to make it their own. Some roll the cookies in coconut, others use just powdered sugar, others use spices.
The alfajores I am sharing are based on my favorites thus far that we tried at a little corner bakery in Lima, Peru. Theirs were bite sized meant to go with a cup of afternoon coffee. I remember the cookie just melting in my mouth before tasting the sticky sweet dulce de leche (which they call manjar blanco in Peru).
That was a good cookie my friends!
My alfajores are a bit bigger for 2 reasons. One, I like being able to have 1 and done. And two, it’s way easier to roll out andea sandwich larger cookies than 60 littles ones! I’m a busy lady and don’t have all day here!
Ok let’s talk filling. There are 2 routes you can take for the dulce de leche, store-bought and homemade. Both are delicious. The store-bought brand I like is La Lechera.
To make dulce de leche, all you really need is time. Basically if you have house stuff to do for an hour in a half, you can make dulce de leche. All you really need to do is open a can of sweetened condensed milk, pour water in a container and stick it in the oven. Then wait. Wait a little more. Check the water level of your container. Wait again. And DONE!
Dulce de leche is essentially baked sweetened condensed milk. Once done I like to had a sprinkle of salt and tiny dusting of cinnamon. If you are going to make your own, make it the day before making the cookie, and store in the closed jars in the fridge.
The alfajores cookies are pretty straight forward with the added step of refrigerating the dough before baking. This helps the dough holds its shape when rolled out. From there, you roll out, cut out, bake and cool. Then it’s sandwich time!
I will admit as far as a cookie go they take a little extra love, mainly when it comes to rolling and cutting each cookie out. But it’s totally worth the effort for a special occasion, birthday or holiday!
After the last batch of alfajores I made, the hubs and I have already decided this will be our Christmas cookies this year! Yep we are total nerds and have already chosen our Christmas cookie for our December cookie exchanges in June haha! I guess that’s the kind of things we talk about in our house… cookies.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar + ¼ cup for dusting
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 egg yolk
- 14 ounces dulce de leche, homemade or store-bought
Instructions
- Start off by making sure you have your dulce de leche, either store-bought or
- To make the cookies, sift together the all-purpose flour, sifted corn starch, powdered sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Mix to combine.
- In a stand-up mixer or hand-mixer, beat the softened butter and vanilla extract until smooth. Then add egg yolk and mix.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix for 1 minute.
- Form the dough into a ball then flatten to make a roughly 2 inch round. Refrigerate the round covered for 30 minutes to an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
- Remove dough from the fridge. On a lightly floured surface roll the dough out until it’s about 1/2 to 1/4-inch thick.
- Using a 2 or 3-inch cookie cutters or glass, cut out cookies. Place cookies on a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet, spacing them 2-inches apart. Keep the completed cookies in the fridge while you roll out the rest of the dough.
- Poke the tops of the cookies with a fork. This step is optional.
- Bake cookies 12 to 13 minutes, or until they are firm to the touch. The cookies will be done right before you see any browning.
- Allow cookies to cool completely.
- Very gently spread a little dulce de leche on the cookies. Then make cookie sandwiches by joining 2 cookies together, again gently. Dust each cookie top with powdered sugar through a sieve.
Notes
Store in an air-tight container or bag for up to 3 to 5 days.
Recipe very slightly adapted from A Cozy Kitchen.
Originally posted 2019-06-21 05:53:59.
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