*This is an older post that was originally written as part of a holiday cookie series. I offer it to you again in honor of the election of His Holiness Pope Francis of Argentina. Enjoy!*
This is Week 2 of our Saveur Holiday Cookie Challenge: Cookies We Love. I chose to bake the Alfajores, a Latin-American dulce de leche sandwich cookie, popular in the cafés of Argentina. Here’s the recipe from Saveur, with my notes following:
Alfajores (Latin-American Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies)
(makes about 20 sandwich cookies)
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups cornstarch
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
10 tbsp. unsalted butter,
softened
1 tbsp. cognac or brandy
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
4 egg yolks
Canned dulce de leche, for filling
cookies
Preparation:
Heat oven to 350°.
In a bowl, sift together cornstarch, flour, and baking powder; set aside. In a mixer fitted with a paddle, beat together sugar and butter until fluffy. Add cognac and zest; beat. Add yolks one at a time; beat. Add dry ingredients; mix.
Transfer dough to a floured surface, knead briefly; divide into 3 pieces. Working with 1 dough piece at a time, roll dough to 1/4″ thickness. Using a 2 1/2″ round cookie cutter, cut out cookies; transfer to parchment paper—lined baking sheets, spaced 1″ apart. Reroll scraps and repeat.
Bake until golden, 12–15 minutes. Let cool. Flip half the cookies over; top each with 1 heaping tsp. dulce de leche. Top with remaining cookies.
Notes:
I have to say one thing, right off the bat: Really, Saveur?!? Canned dulce de leche?!? Dulce de leche is the easiest thing ever to make at home, provided you give it the proper time and attention. See my instructions on making dulce de leche of a few weeks ago, here. Please don’t use ready-made dulce de leche if you can avoid it. Real dulce de leche should only contain milk and sugar. The ready-made variety in cans and squeeze bottles has loads of other stuff in it. Make it yourself. It lasts for-freaking-ever in the fridge.
This is a nice, sturdy, crispy butter cookie. I used Orange Curacao instead of the brandy, and I honestly believe I could have skipped the liqueur and just used a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
This is a serious question for you guys, and I want you to be honest: Have you ever filled a sandwich cookie where the filling didn’t just goosh out? Or the top cookie slide off the filling? *Postscript – A day later, the dulce de leche filling set up. The tops are now firmly attached and no sliding. Guess I was impatient. The moral? Fill the cookies and leave them on a level surface for a couple of hours before storing!
The verdict? This is a very quick and easy to work with cookie. Except for the filling part. And it’s delicious. But, despite the elegant dulce de leche, unless you dump a boatload of holly on the plate, it just isn’t fancy or seasonal enough for the holidays, in my opinion. The search continues…
Dulce De Leche
These look divine.
I do love your 'freaking' honesty! And you hit it square on the head…too often sandwich fillings are just not heavy enough to warrant being squished between two cookies…so I would just make them dip cookies. Dip in the Dulce de Leche preferably!
These are on my list and have been well before anyone decided to get together to bake holiday cookies. I've made similar before but not the real McCoy. As far as the dulce de leech goes, I have made it at home more than one way, and it's turned out so differently just because of the method. Plus, it's never been thick enough to sandwich between two cookies, so I did buy some Argentinian dulce de leech that is quite thick and have my fingers crossed.
Oh yum, I once ate these cookies and went absolutely nuts for them. Great pick this week.
I have that trouble with sandwich cookies all the time. When we made some with dulce de leche for one of my other groups, I ended up mixing the DDL with peanut butter to get something thick enough to stay put. Very tasty, but probably not appropriate for a Christmas cookie. =)
I'd eat a dozen or so! Just saying… 😀
The texture of that cake looks just perfect!
They look perfect even if you do think they are plain.
I haven't attempted dulce de leche.. I should. Gosh this looks good so does your previous dulce de leche! YUM!
OH my…but these cookies look incredibly delicious Renee! So happy these are on my list to make now I am excited to taste them too!
Beautiful! I think they're perfect! Stumbled. 🙂
Plain perhaps, but they still look good enough to eat 🙂 Pass the plate please!
I'm debating on making these. if I do I will make the homemade dulce de leche. They look perfect!
I’m from Argentina and this is from my country! if you have a latin american super market near by you can just buy Dulce de Leche ready just make sure it says that it is made in Argentina and you wont have to cooke the condensed milk for hrs.
Hi, Natalia! Yes, I know. I live in Miami and can get ready-made dulce de leche anytime. But the object was to try to make my own, and it’s very easy – just takes a long time to cook. Also, ready-made dulce de leche contains a lot more sugar & other additives than just boiling the can of condensed milk, and I think home-made tastes better. But if someone wants to just buy it to fill these wonderful cookies, I don’t judge. 🙂 Thank you for commenting!