These dulce de leche cookies are soft shortbread cookies filled with caramel-like dulce de leche, dipped in shredded coconut and powder sugar. These alfajores cookies are addictive and melt in your mouth delicious.
We love making chocolate chip cookies with different flavors, you should try our brown butter pecan cookies, biscoff butter cookies, brookies cookies, chewy chocolate cookies, and our brown butter chocolate chunk cookies.
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What are alfajores?
Alfajores is a popular South American sandwich cookie filled with dulce de leche. They are made with a shortbread dough that is filled with plenty of cornstarch and egg yolks, which makes this dough soft and rich.
These cookies will melt in your mouth, you will instantly fall in love with these cookies.
Ingredients
Before you start to make this recipe, measure and prepare your ingredients so the cooking process will go smoothly and easily.
Butter- use unsalted butter for this recipe. Only butter will work for this recipe, no margarine, and no coconut oil. Margarine has a weird taste and can ruin the flavor of these delicious cookies.
Flour– we used all-purpose flour for this recipe. cake flour will work great as well.
Baking powder – baking powder helps the cookies rise a bit. Make sure that your baking powder isn’t expired. Don’t replace the baking powder with baking soda!
Cornstarch- cornstarch helps to create a crumbly and tender texture for these cookies, plus, it keeps the cookie thick and soft.
Powder sugar- you will need powder sugar for this recipe. you don't have to buy powder sugar, you can simply make it at home by blending granulated sugar in a blender or food processor.
Egg yolks- you will need 4 large egg yolks for this recipe. The egg yolks will make this dough rich in flavor. Make sure that your egg is at room temperature.
Vanilla extract- adds extra flavor.
Kosher salt- you will need about ½ teaspoon of kosher salt for this recipe.
Dulce de leche- dulce de leche is a caramel-like spread that you can find in any supermarket in the baking aisle. You can make dulce de leche by yourself as well! Here are instructions for making dulce de leche.
Shredded coconut- you will need unsweetened finely shredded coconut for this recipe. If you don't like coconut, you can simply skip this step, or replace it with powder sugar, but it adds a lot to the cookies.
Instructions
In a big mixing bowl, add the flour, cornstarch, salt, and powder sugar. Mix with a whisk until combined and set aside.
Into a big mixing bowl, or in a bowl of a stand mixer, add the room temperature butter, and cream it for 2-3 minutes or until it’s creamy and light in color.
Add the egg yolks, and vanilla extract. Cream the butter until the mixture is creamy and light.
Add half of the dry ingredients and mix until almost combined. Add the other half of the dry ingredients and add the baking powder. Mix until the mixture is just combined and you cant see pockets of flour.
Divide the dough in half and cover each dough square with plastic wrap and let the dough rest in the fridge for at least an hour. We let the dough rest in the fridge overnight but it's not a must.
After letting the dough chill in the fridge for at least an hour, take one dough half out of the fridge. Start rolling the dough on a floured clean surface to about ¼ inch thick.
Cut into circles with a round cutter, we use a small one, but you can make them bigger. Carefully transfer the cookies onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake in a 180c (350f) preheated oven for 11-12 minutes or until the edges are turning golden.
Let the cookies cool to room temp and fill each cookie with about 1 teaspoon of dulce de leche. Dip each cookie in the shredded coconut if needed and serve!
Expert tips
- Use room temperature ingredients. It is important that you use room-temperature ingredients like eggs and butter. This step ensures that your mixture mixes into a homogenous mixture and bakes perfectly.
- Don’t overmix the batter, you don’t want to develop the gluten in the flour. This step ensures you have moist and tender cookies and not dense and dry cookies.
- Make sure that your butter is at room temperature. An hour or two before making these cookies, take the butter out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. The butter should be soft to the touch. If your butter is too cold, it will be harder to mix and there will be lumps of butter in the dough.
- Measure your flour correctly! When measuring your flour, avoid scooping it with a measuring cup. Instead, stir the flour with a spoon to create as many air pockets as possible, and spoon it into your measuring cup. Finally, level it with a back of a knife.
- Line your sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat! This step helps the cookies to bake evenly, and it makes sure that your cookies release easily from the pan.
- Before you start to make this recipe, measure and prepare your ingredients so the cooking process will go smoothly and easily.
- Chill the dough! This step is crucial and prevents the cookies to spread out too much. After making the cookie dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean towel, and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Be patient! I know it’s extremely tempting to fill these cookies with dulce de leche as they are pulled out of the oven, but let these cookies cool for at least 30 minutes so the dulce de leche won't melt.
- If your dough is starting to get soft, cover it with plastic wrap and freeze it for 15 minutes to let it firm up. We repeat this step until we are out of dough and we baked all the cookies.
Faq's
It’s okay to store these cookies at room temperature. Make sure that you store them in an airtight container.
These cookies will last for up to 5 days stored at room temperature in an airtight container.
Do I have to chill the dough?
Yes! Here is why you should chill your cookie dough:
- The first and the most important reason to chill the cookie dough is to let it cool. This step stops the cookies from spreading too much in the oven. Cold dough results in thicker cookies.
- The second important reason to chill the cookie dough is to let all the amazing flavors come together and create a rich cookie flavor.
- The third important reason to chill the dough is that when you are rolling cold dough, it most likely won't stick to the rolling pin and the surface. But if you won't chill the dough, you will have a mushy mess.
Freezing
To freeze this cookie dough, follow the instructions as written and make the dough, then cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it into a freezer-friendly airtight ziplock bag, and freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months.
When ready to make these cookies, thaw them in the fridge overnight and follow the instructions as written.
The second way you can freeze these cookies is by baking them according to the instructions, letting the cookies cool completely, and freezing them in an airtight freezer-friendly container for up to 2 months.
To thaw, place them at room temperature for 1-2 hours to defrost.
Substitutions
You can change this recipe in a few ways. Here is our most popular option:
- Dairy-free - If you are dairy-free, replace the butter with vegan butter or plant-based butter. Do not use margarine. It will change the flavor of these cookies and leave a weird taste.
More cookie recipes to try:
Chewy chocolate chip cookies- These chewy chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy and loaded with chocolate chips. This chewy chocolate chip cookies recipe is our dream dessert that we never get sick of.
Brown butter chocolate chunk cookies- These brown butter chocolate chunk cookies are the most amazing cookies. They are filled with nutty brown butter, chocolate chunks, and topped with flaky salt.
Kinder bueno cookies- These soft and chewy kinder bueno cookies are made with chocolate chips, kinder chocolate, and kinder bueno.
Chocolate crinkle cookies- Chocolate crinkle cookies are soft and fudgy chocolate cookies covered with crispy powder sugar outer layer.
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Dulce De Leche Cookies (Alfajores)
Ingredients
- 210 g Flour
- 180 g Cornstarch
- 120 g Powder sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- 5 Egg Yolks
- 200 g Butter soft
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 27 teaspoon Dulce de leche
Instructions
- In a big mixing bowl, add the flour, cornstarch, salt, and powder sugar. Mix with a whisk until combined and set aside.
- Into a big mixing bowl, or in a bowl of a stand mixer, add the room temperature butter, and cream it for 2-3 minutes or until it’s creamy and light in color.
- Add the egg yolks, and vanilla extract. Cream the butter until the mixture is creamy and light.
- Add half of the dry ingredients and mix until almost combined. Add the other half of the dry ingredients and add the baking powder. Mix until the mixture is just combined and you cant see pockets of flour.
- Divide the dough in half and cover each dough square with plastic wrap and let the dough rest in the fridge for at least an hour. We let the dough rest in the fridge overnight but it’s not a must.
- After letting the dough chill in the fridge for at least an hour, take one dough half out of the fridge. Start rolling the dough on a floured clean surface to about ¼ inch thick.
- Cut into circles with a round cutter, we use a small one, but you can make them bigger. Carefully transfer the cookies onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake in a 180c (350f) preheated oven for 11-12 minutes or until the edges are turning golden.
- Let the cookies cool to room temp and fill each cookie with about 1 teaspoon of dulce de leche. Dip each cookie in the shredded coconut if needed and serve!
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