Alfajores – Dulce De Leche Biscuits

My sister Margaret, who lives in Canada, suggested these biscuits. I had seen them in my various searches but had never actually made any.

They are a big favourite in South America, in places like Argentia and Peru. The biscuits are shortbread and they are sandwiched together with dulce de leche.

This is a very easy recipe. Make some biscuits, open a can of dulce de leche, or caramel and you are almost done. The dulce de leche is sandwiched between two biscuits. An option to finish them off is a ring of desiccated coconut around the edge.

For mine I used some lemon zest to flavour the shortbread biscuits. I used a can of caramel, which is ready available in all stores. But it is possible to make the same thing by boiling a can of condensed milk in a saucepan for two hours. When is it cooled and open you will find it has turned into caramel.

The caramel is rather soft so the sandwiched biscuits will have a lovely gooey centre. That caramel goes so well with shortbread, so I am not surprised these biscuits are so popular.

My Bake

My shortbread baked perfectly and had a wonderful buttery flavour, enhanced by the taste of lemon too.

The sandwiched biscuits were simply wonderful. The caramel complemented the shortbread and, since I rolled the edge in coconut, I had an extra texture too. I had a hard time not eating too many.

Another very easy recipe is Highland Shortbread Biscuits.

Alfajores – Dulce De Leche Biscuits

Recipe by geoffcooCourse: Biscuits, CookiesCuisine: South AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

18

servings

Prep time

1

hour 

15

minutes

Cooking time

8

minutes

Ingredients

• 75g(1.2 cup, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cu) plain flour

• 120g(1 cup) cornflour

• 2g(1/2 tsp) baking powder

• 113g (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 88g(1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp) caster sugar

• 2 medium egg yolks(large in USA)

• pinch of salt

• grated zest from one lemon

• dulce de leche(I used 397g, but the amount is personal preference)

• desiccated coconut(optional) for rolling the edges of the alfajores

Directions

• Cream the butter and sugar together( I did this with my hand mixer)., in a large bowl.
• Add the egg yolks and zest and mix to combine.
• Mix the flour, cornflour, salt and baking powder together
• Sift the dry mixture onto the wet mixture and mix until it forms clumps.
• Tip the dough onto a work surface and squeeze to form a soft dough.
• Flatten the dough into a disc and place in some plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350 F.
• Line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.
• Roll the dough out, on a lightly floured surface, to a thickness of between 3mm and 5mm(1/8 – 1/4 inch).
• Cut out discs with a 50mm(2 inch) cookie cutter, and place them of the baking trays.
• Bake the biscuits in the oven for 8 minutes, until the edges just begin to change colour.
• Remove from the oven and allow the biscuits to cool.
• Turn half the biscuits upside down and pipe, or spoon, some dulce de leche on them.
• Gently press the remaining biscuits onto the tops, until the dulce de leche is just about oozing out of the side.
• Roll the edges of the sandwiched biscuit in desiccated coconut, if using.
• Leave the alfajores to set up a little. Maybe in the fridge the dulce de leche will becaome a little firmer.