Dulce de leche alfajores

Yummy note: I love dulce de leche or anything caramel really. It is one of those indulgences I don't enjoy very often, as my youngest is dairy-free, so I often try and live that lifestyle too when I can. Since it was Secret Recipe Club time, I figured I could pick something out that I WANTED this time around, aka something with caramel. The beauty of the recipe I made was partially diary-free so I was able to modify it for my kiddo. So back to the yummy caramel. Delicious things (cakes, cookies, ice cream, oh my!) kept screaming dulce de leche on Gloria's Canela Kitchen blog were too appetizing to pass up. Since it was just Independence Day here, I thought it was only fitting to make what Gloria noted several times on Canela Kitchen about the traditional Chilean dessert that she had posted for their Independence Day in Chile as well. This was a fun quick recipe to make some adorable cookie sandwiches. Next time, I make them, I think I need to watch out how I roll them out. Gloria notes to roll it very thin, like an 1/8 of an inch. I think mine were a bit thicker, as I only got a few of the crispier cookie-like sandwiches, as most of mine were thicker when they rose in the oven, and almost made like a shortbread cookie. I was pleasantly surprised how sweet the alfajores were without having sugar in the actual cookie dough, as the filling made up for the lack of sweetness in the cookie and balanced it out well.  

Dulce de leche alfajores

Original recipe here

Ingredients:

Cookies:

5 egg yolks

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 cup cornstarch or potatoes flour (chuño)

1/2 tsp of baking powder

2 tbsp of orange juice

Filling: 

Dulce de leche- prepared can or Gloria's homemade version (or a dairy-free coconut dulce de leche)

Shhh.. I took a shortcut and used already prepared dulce de leche. This is equally delicious if you don't have time to make your own like Gloria. 

Directions: 

Separate your eggs and reserve just the yellow yolks. In a mixing bowl, beat the yolks well. Add in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and orange juice. Then with your hands, work with the dough, almost kneading like, until it is smooth and more firm and no longer sticky. You might need to add in more flour if it is too sticky.  Then roll out dough very thin, as Canela’s Kitchen mentioned roll it to 1/8 of an inch thick. I think I did mine thicker as my dough puffed up a lot and I lost some of the thin crispier texture of these cookies. So make sure you do it thin to be more true to the original recipe.  Cut into circles using a floured 2 to 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter. Prink the cookies with a fork. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the cookie dough on a lightly floured or parchment covered baking sheet. Bake the alfajores for about 8 to 10 minutes, watching closing at the end, so they don't burn. Basically you want the tops of the cookies to be a light brown. Cool cookies completely and then spread the dulce de leche caramel filling between 2 cookies and sandwich together to enjoy! 

Let's get baking the alfajores. 

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