This is Week 2 of our Saveur Holiday Cookie Challenge: Cookies We Love. I chose to bake the Alfajores, a popular Latin-American dulce de leche sandwich cookie. 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…

Please be sure to visit my comrades in cookies to see what they chose to serve up!

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen

Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Michelle of Big Black Dog

RJ of Flamingo Musings (that’s me!)

Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench

Tiffany of The Nesting Project

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Dulce De Leche