The most delicious cookie sandwiches! Alfajores, a Spanish/ Latin American treat popular in countries like Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and other countries around the world. (I read that there are versions of Alfajores in countries like the Philippines – most likely due to Spanish influence during their Spanish colonial period).
They are light, melt in your moth shortbread cookies made from cornstarch and flour and filled with dulce de Leche. The ration of the flour to cornstarch change the texture of the cookie, I like mine with more flour than cornstarch but several recipes call for a 50:50 ratio of flour and cornstarch. I made my own by boiling a can of condensed milk for 3 and a half hours.
Alfajores
Ingredients
Cookie
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup corn starch sifted
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar sifted
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 teaspons vanilla extract or vanilla paste optional
- 1 large egg yolk optional
Filling
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk or 1 cup of Dulce de leche
Coating
- Unseweetenetened desiccated dried shredded coconut
Instructions
Make dulce de Leche
- Completely submerge a can of condensed milk, unopened, labels removed, in a pot of water cold water. Bring to boil then lower to simmer.
- Simmeri or 3 and a half hours. Make sure to always keep the can completely submerged and don’t open the can until it has fully cooled. You can also use store bought dulce de Leche
Make Cookies
- Make your cookies by mixing your butter, with vanilla and egg yolk and sifting your flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt into the mixture and mix until combined.
- Form dough into disk, wrap and plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least an hour.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- When ready, roll out dough between two pieces of parchment paper to help prevent sticking, to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and cut into small to medium sized circles. The number of cookies you get will depend on size. I used a small 1 1/2 inch cutter to make these cut outs.
- If there are scraps, bring them together, roll it out again and cut out your circles.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-13 minutes depending on the size of your circles and how thick they are. Let cool completely before filling and rolling in coconut. You can add as much of as little dulce delete as you want. I used a piping bag to pipe mine but you can simple spread on the filling with a knife, gently, or perhaps pipe using a ziplock (plastic sandwich) bag.
Notes
Number of cookies you get varies depending on size and thickness of your cookies.
