Dulce de Leche Sammies Part 2

If you haven’t eaten all the yummy Dulce de Leche that you made yesterday, it’s time to bake some cookies to turn into alfajores.

These basic cookies are fantastic, flaky morsels of delight that work perfectly as the “bread” in any kind of cookie sandwich.  The dough doesn’t rise much when you cook it, so as long as you are precise in rolling and cutting it, your cookies will be completely consistent in size and shape.  Also, if you let the sammies sit over night, the cookies start to absorb the filling and this amazing blending of flavors and textures occurs.

You’ll notice in my pictures that this batch of Dulce de Leche turned out a bit thinner than is ideal.  Hopefully the filling you made will be nice and thick and won’t ooze out the sides of your sammies too much.  It’s best to work with the Dulce de Leche while it’s cold, as it can be hard to keep the tops of your sandwiches from sliding off if the filling isn’t stiff enough.

So let’s do it!

Sandwich Cookies

Recipe found on Epicurious, originally from Gourmet, May 2005

Hardware:  Cookie sheet, electric mixer, rolling pin, and circle cutter

Go Buy This Stuff!

3/4 stick Unsalted Butter

1/3 cup Cornstarch

3/4 plus some extra All Purpose Flour

1/4 tsp Baking Powder

pinch o’ salt

1/4 cup Sugar

2 Large Egg Yolks

1 Tbsp Brandy (or Pisco if you want to be authentic)

1/4 tsp Vanilla

1/4 cup Dulce de Leche

Preheat to 350 and lube up a baking sheet or two.

Whisk together cornstarch, 3/4 cup of flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Beat butter and sugar in mixer until light and fluffy.

Add yolks, brandy, and vanilla

Stir in dry ingredients until combined.  You should have a really good looking, smooth dough, but if it’s a little sticky add more flour a tablespoon at a time.

Form dough into a disk.  Lightly flour a counter top or cutting board and roll the dough to about 1/8″ thickness with a floured rolling pin.  Keep in mind that there will be two of these cookies per sandwich, so you want them really thin.

Cut out 32 rounds that are around 1 1/2 inches in diameter. A Champagne glass works perfectly. Arrange 1/2 an inch apart on a baking sheet. These don’t expand when cooked so you can put them super close together.  Make sure that the tops of the cookies are flat and smooth and that all cookies are “exactly” the same thickness and “perfect” circles.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes… until firm and just starting to brown on the edges.  The tops won’t darken, and these are better on the side of undercooked than overcooked.

Cool those babies down.

Once all the cookies are cool, turn half of them over.  These will be the bottoms.  Spoon your Dulce de Leche on, making a small mound in the center.  Place another cookie on top and gently smoosh together. Use your (clean!) finger to remove any excess filling that might have oozed out the sides.  Repeat for all the cookies.

If your Dulce de Leche is too thin, like mine was, the tops won’t want to stay on the sammies. To keep them from getting all slippy and slidey, first make sure that your Dulce de Leche is really cold. Then, after assembling each cookie, put it in the freezer to help the filling set and stick to the cookies quicker.

Alfajores are great cookie gifts, since they last for about a week, and the longer they sit the more absorbed the filling gets into the cookies.  And since these are all the same size they look really good when you stack them about 4 or 5 high, then wrap them in plastic and tie a bow on top.

Speaking of sammie cookies and cookie gifts… Easter is coming up and I am hell bent on making French Macarons, like these.  However, these cookies are notoriously difficult…. so I’m off to the Naked Baker Test Kitchen! I hope to have a perfect recipe and dainty little Easter cookies for you soon!

Also, tonight is the last night to post a comment on last Sunday’s Apron Tutorial post and enter to win the displayed apron.  Go leave me some love and you might get something bad ass out of it!