Happy Friday! First of all, I would like to say thank you to everyone who voted for me during the last couple of weeks. A special thank you to everyone who voted everyday and to the ones who bought hero votes. Sadly, I did not pass to the next round because I ended up third and I had to be first of my group. I am still very thankful to see how many people voted for me! Maybe, I will try again next year.

Now, let’s talk about this recipe. As you might know, I am a BIG FAN of alfajores. Alfajores are very popular cookies in South America and each country has their own version. They are filled with dulce de leche which is a milk-based caramel. You can buy dulce de leche at the store or you can make your own. This time I could not find dulce de leche cans at my grocery store so I got a can of sweetened condensed milk and cook it in my instant pot. It took 40 minutes to cook and voila! I had dulce de leche. Also, you can find this milk-based caramel under different names like manjar, manjar blanco, cajeta or arequipe.

This recipe is my collaboration for the collab I’m hosting on Instagram #dulcedelechecollabfriends so I wanted to give my alfajores a twist from the regular ones. I decided to make 2 cookie doughs and make a pinwheel effect. The result of this experiment is delicious! Just ask my husband, he can eat like 5 of these with coffee.

Check out my video of how I made these alfajores on my Instagram @pastry_tales

Let’s start with the recipe!!

Yield about 25 alfajores

Ingredients

For the cookie part

14 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar/icing sugar (not granulated)

1 large egg at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups of all-purpose flour. Divided (1c+1c)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 and 1/4 tablespoons dark cocoa powder

Also, you will need an egg white at room temperature to brush.

For the filling

Dulce de Leche

1 can of dulce de leche or 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (if you make your own)

Directions

For the cookie part

1.- In a bowl, cream just your butter for about 3-4 minutes. Then, add the powdered sugar for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add egg, keep mixing in medium-high speed. Add vanilla extract, mix.

2.- Now, in a bowl, mix flour, salt and baking powder. Divide this dry mixture in 2 equal parts. To one of the mixtures, add the cocoa powder, mix.

3.- Divide your butter-sugar mixture and add one half to the regular mixture and the second half to the chocolate mixture. Mix each cookie dough. You will have one chocolate and one vanilla.

4.- Now, roll out each cookie dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Grab one layer of cookie dough and brush the top. This egg white will be like a glue to stick both cookie dough layers well so they don’t separate while baking. Now, place the other layer on top carefully (without the plastic wrap) and tap down slowly. Roll it into a log. Cover it with plastic wrap and place it in the FREEZER FOR ABOUT 1 HOUR.

5.- This dough has to get super hard so you can slice it with a knife.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

6.- Take the log dough from the fridge and get sharp knife. Slice dough into 0.15 inches and place them on your prepared baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes until the vanilla dough is slightly golden. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

For the dulce de leche

This time, I made my own so I bought one can of sweetened condensed milk, took of the paper label, take of the lid and cover it with a piece of foil and place it in the instant pot with water. The water should reach half the height of the can. Cook it for about 40 minutes. After cooking be very careful because the it will be boiling and super hot. Take it out carefully from the pot and let it cool room temperature.

Also, you have other methods of how to make your dulce de leche that you can find on my blog. You can use the oven method if you are concerned in boiling a can.

If you make your own dulce de leche I recommend that you make it before preparing the cookie dough.

Now that you have your cookies and dulce de leche:

• Count how many cookies you have and pair them. Some of them might be a little bigger than others so take a minute to pair them.
• Spread some dulce de leche on half of the cookies (bottom part up). I like to use a pastry bag fitted with a big round tip to do this or you can spread it with a knife or a spoon. Place the other half on top and press down a little.

Alfajores can last for days if you keep them at room temperature in a airtight container.

Enjoy! If you make this recipe, let me know!