Alfajores

Alfajores are the most delicious little cookies.  They're two subtly sweet cookies which have dulce de leche in between and then topped with powdered sugar.  If you've never had an alfajor, you must try them- you won't regret it, or maybe you will after cookie #9- lol.  My personal preference is to make a thin cookie so that you have a nice crunch when you bite into them, coupled with the smooth texture of the dulce de leche... bliss, total and utter bliss.   So here's my recipe:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup cornstarch
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 can condensed milk

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar together on high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy and has turned about two shades paler.  Next crack in the the eggs, add the vanilla, and blend well for about 2 minutes on high speed. Once blended well, add the milk and blend once again.  In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, cornstarch and baking powder and then add to the wet mixture in thirds, blending evenly each time.  Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl every now and again. You should have a semi firm dough.  Sprinkle a little flour onto your work surface and begin gently kneading the dough, adding more flour as needed to prevent it from sticking.  Cut a piece about the size of your palm and begin gently rolling out the dough.  I like the alfajores to have really thin cookies so I rolled the dough out quite a bit to achieve this. Using cookie cutter, begin cutting your shapes. I put a silicone mat on my cookie sheet and then transferred the cut-out shapes to the sheet.  Put the pan in the oven and let the cookies bake for about 10-12 minutes. Once baked, remove the cookies from the tray and let them cool completley.

For the dulce de leche- all you'll have to do is cook the can of condensed milk in water.  I added water to my crock pot (about 6 cups) and put the can into the water. Just let it cook on the high setting for about 3 hours.  You could also do the same thing in a pressure cooker for about one hour.  Just a warning though, let the can cool a bit before opening it, otherwise the heat will expel the contents out like a volcano and you'll have dulce de leche everywhere.  I learned the hard way!

To assemble, add a little dollop of dulce de leche on one side of the cookie and top it with another.  Sprinkle the top of the cookies with powdered sugar.

P.S.  There is no easy way to eat this... they're messy and gooey and you'll have stuff all over your hands, but it's so worth it!