The Sweetest Alfajores

Last year, my high schooler had to make traditional foods of Chile for his Spanish class. He shared that with me the night before his group’s presentation. Yay. Anyway, he did a little Google research and found some amazing (and easy) beef and cheese empanadas, as well as a cookie called Alfajores. We had the ingredients, so that was the choice!

Alfajores taste like shortbread, but are even more tender. They’re sandwich cookies, and the center is dulce de leche (like caramel, but different!), which I tend to keep on hand and eat with a spoon. Sometimes I use apple slices instead of a spoon. But I digress. The ones we made last year were just round, but I thought some small heart-shaped ones would be fun for Valentine’s Day (or other romantic days, such as our anniversary, which is today!).

The dough is pretty standard…cream your butter and sugar, add the dry ingredients and other wet ones, then chill for an hour or so. What’s different is that it has egg yolks, which makes it more golden than some doughs, and it has cornstarch (that’s the secret to the tenderness). Also a bit of liquor, but who counts that?

This rolls out really beautifully, and using a small heart cutter (about 2″ at the widest part), I cut 40 cookies. Try to minimize the number of times you roll the dough, as overworking will make it tough. I squeeze those cutouts as close together as I can! They’re not going to spread much, so they only need to be about 1″ apart on the cookie sheets.

Watch them pretty closely after about 10 minutes. You want the bottoms just beginning to brown, and the cookies to be firm. Cool them completely on a wire rack. When they’re cool, I match them up for the sandwiches. Even though they were cut with the same cutter, the thickness of the dough will mean they’re just a little different in size. But you can skip that step if you want!

Now the fun part…filling them! I use La Lechera Dulce de Leche straight from a can. It’s heavenly. Unfortunately, every store in my town was sold out, for some reason. I used up the cans I had over the holidays. Not to worry, I just made my own. And it is so simple…canned sweetened condensed milk, water, and slow cooker are all you need. Here’s a link to a post I did a few years ago…it’s a nifty trick to know for caramel!

So, when you have your dulce de leche, spread about a tablespoon on one cookie, then top it with a matching one. When they’re all filled, dust them with powdered sugar, and enjoy!

What’s the difference between dulce de leche and caramel, you ask? Well, as I understand it, dulce de leche is milk with sugar added, while caramel is sugar with a little milk added. The dulce de leche is thicker than caramel, which is a good thing for these cookies, so they don’t lose their filling!

Alfajores

(adapted from Chowhound.com)

• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar bourbon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup dulce de leche, room temp
• Powdered sugar for dusting

1. Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
2. In the bowl of your mixer, cream butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes), then mix in egg yolks, bourbon, and vanilla.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then gradually add dry ingredients, just until dough is well blended. Pat into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least an hour, or until it’s hard to the touch.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Sprinkle your rolling surface with flour or powdered sugar, and roll to ¼” thickness. Cut out with 2” heart-shaped (or whatever you’d like!) cookie cutter and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Leave 1” between cookies.
5. Bake 12 to 14 minutes, until the cookies are firm on top and beginning to turn golden on bottom.  Cool completely on a wire rack. If you’d like, match cookies together by size for your sandwiches.
6. When cool, spread about a tablespoon of dulce de leche on the bottom cookie, then top with a matching one.
7. When all cookies are filled, dust heavily with powdered sugar and enjoy!