Alfajores are a popular type of cookie with Spanish origins that are found all over South America. Argentina is the top consumer in the world of these delightful little cookies, so you know their recipe must be good. In Argentina, the cookies are typically filled with a dulce de leche filling and rolled in shredded coconut or chocolate. I’m all about those flavors! Honestly, if you put dulce de leche on anything, I’m probably there.
You can often find pre-packaged Alfajores at some of the Hispanic grocery stores (i.e. Fiesta), and while they may be way better than Oreos, nothing beats homemade cookies. With the help of some family, we put together this recipe to make your own dulce de leche sandwich cookies at home.
Alfajores in the Making
While you may never have baked with cornstarch in this quantity in the past, it is actually key to achieving a lighter-than-air, soft cookie. We added a bit of vanilla extract, but a traditional recipe typically calls for some lemon zest in the cookie. We somehow left the grocery store this weekend with no citrus, so we opted for the vanilla extract – it worked perfectly too. For cutting the cookies out, we’ve realized that having cookie cutters is really not necessary. Find a cup or mug with a diameter of about 2 inches, and you’re set.
Once the cookies have been baked, they are ready for filling! You can choose to make your own dulce de leche if you have the time, but luckily, living in Dallas, we are always close to a Fiesta, where they carry several imported Argentinian-style dulce de leche products. We selected La Serenisima Colonial Style Dulce de Leche (available for purchase on Amazon here). In order to make the filling process less sticky, we opted for an icing bag to fill the cookies, but this is also totally unnecessary. You can absolutely just use a teaspoon to spread some of the filling onto the “bottoms”. FYI – We try to separate the prettiest cookies to be the “tops” and the ones that may be cracked or misshapen to be the “bottoms”.
Once the cookies are filled, the fun part starts. You want to twist the tops onto the cookies to help spread the filling out as much as possible towards the edges. If the filling is not oozing towards the edges, you won’t be able to get any of the shredded coconut to stick to the edges. You simply roll the cookie gently into the shredded coconut and you are done! These babies are ready for some coffee dunking action.
What is great about this recipe is that it is easily adaptable. You can fill the cookies with anything you like – jam or fruit pastes would likely be great too. You can also skip the coconut on the edges and roll it in sprinkles or chocolate shavings, etc. You can really get crazy with them! I do highly recommend the dulce de leche combination at some point though, because they are really addictive, especially with your coffee or tea – so good for dunking!
The recipe makes about 30 cookies – perfect for your next party or get together. Happy baking!
Dulce de Leche Shortbread Cookie Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 1.25 cups All-purpose flour Plus additional for rolling out dough
- 1.25 cups Cornstarch
- 1 tablespoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 cup Butter Softened
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1.5 cups Dulce de Leche we used La Serenisima Dulce de Leche
- 1/4 cup Shredded Coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Add butter and sugar into large mixing bowl. Mix well using stand mixer or electric mixer, until sugar is incorporated.
- Next, add in egg and vanilla. Mix until pale yellow. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, mix together all of the remaining dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, and baking powder).
- Slowly add in, little by little, the dry ingredients into the butter, sugar, and egg mix, until a ball of dough begins to form.
- Add additional flour, if needed, to prevent the dough from being too sticky.
- Roll the dough out on a floured surface using a rolling pin until about 1/4 inch thick.
- Use a cookie cutter to make rounds approximately 2 inches in diameter.
- Make a ball with leftover dough, roll back out until about 1/4 inch thick and repeat cookie cutter process.
- Repeat last 2 steps until all the dough has been used.
- Next, place cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350F for about 10 minutes or until cookies start to turn a light golden brown at the edges.
- Remove from oven and let cool. Set aside.
- Once cookies have cooled, flip half of the cookies upside down to be the "bottoms".
- Fill a plastic icing bag with the dulce de leche. (If you do not have a plastic icing bag, you can simply use a butter knife to apply the dulce de leche.)
- Cover each cookie bottom with a thin layer of dulce de leche. Pipe about 1 teaspoon of dulce de leche in circular motion to fill each cookie "bottom". Repeat until half of the cookies have filling.
- Complete the alfajor by slowly twisting the top cookie on to the "bottoms" in order to spread the filling evenly. Be careful not to press too hard or the dulce de leche will ooze out. Use a knife to wipe off excess. Next top the "bottoms" with the remaining cookies. Slowly twist the top cookie on to spread out the filling evenly inside.
- Add 1/4 cup shredded coconut into a shallow bowl.
- Roll the alfajor along its edge into the shredded coconut, allowing the dulce de leche to stick to the coconut and create a coconut lined edge.
- Repeat process with remaining cookies.
- Cookies can be made ahead and stored in covered container for 3-5 days!