Dulce De Leche Cookies

Metal serving plate with jar of dulce de leche and sandwich cookies next to it.

4.50 from 2 votes

A creamy, gooey filling sandwiched between rich, butter shortbread cookies makes these Dulce de Leche Cookies an absolute delight. are sure to add them to your next cookie platter.

Prep Time20

Cook Time10

Chill Time30

Total Time1

Course: Cookies

Cuisine: South American

Servings:

Calories: 186kcal

Author: Emma Duckworth

Ingredients

Dulce de Leche

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14oz/ 307ml) or 350g/14oz dulce de leche

Cookies

200 g unsalted butter
150 g powdered icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar)
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
190 g plain flour (all-purpose)
255 g cornflour (corn starch)
1½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon powdered icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

To make the Dulce de Leche

Pour the condensed milk into a baking pan and cover with foil. A ceramic, metal or glass dish will all work. Wrap the foil all around the edge of the pan so that no steam or heat will escape. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
Make a water bath. Place your covered dish into a baking tray. Fill the dish with boiling water so that the water reaches half way up the side of the condensed milk dish.
Bake in the preheated oven, for 2 hours. Every 30 minutes, remove the foil, give the condensed milk a stir, replace the foil, top up the boiling water and put back in the oven to cook further.
You'll notice that each time you take it out to stir, it gets darker in colour starting off pale and ending up a deep tan. Add on another 30 minutes if you wanter an even deeper colour. The dulce de leche will have thickened and look quite lumpy. Remover the dish from the water bath and set it aside to cool. Once cooled whisk until it's smooth. Then transfer to jar and you'r good to go with your homemade dulce de leche.

Make the Cookies

Cream the butter and sugar. Use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium to high for no less than 3 minutes until pale and creamy.
Add in the eggs and vanilla extract. Add the yolks one at a time mixing well between each addition. Also add in the vanilla extract and mix well. Make sure to scrape the base and sides of the bowl.
Add the dry ingredients. Sift directly into the mixing bowl the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt. Then mix on low speed until it starts to clump and form a dough. Tip the dough onto a floured work surface and use your hands to bring it together to form it into a round disc.
Roll out the shortbread dough and stamp out cookie rounds. On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to a ½cm (¼in) thickness. If the dough is too soft to roll out, then wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until it is a better consistency to roll.
Use a 5cm (2-inches) diameter cookie cutter to stamp out as many rounds as possible. Use an offset spatula to lift them onto a lined cookie tray. You can bring the scraps of dough together, re-roll and stamp out more cookies.
Refrigerate, then bake. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Once all the cookies are on baking trays, pop the trays in the fridge for 30 minutes whilst the oven comes up to temperature. The butter needs to re-solidify, which will prevent the cookies from spreading.
Then bake for 8 to 10 minutes. The underside of the cookies needs to be just set and dried with a slight golden tinge. If you prefer them crisper, then bake them for a couple of minutes longer.
Fill with dulce de leche. Dollop a heaped teaspoon onto the underside of half the cookies, then press the remaining cookie onto the filling gently. Dust one side of the cookies with icing sugar and serve.

Notes

Step-by-Step Photos: My blog post includes helpful step-by-step photos to help guide you through making this recipe.

Yield: This makes 28 sandwich cookies. Depending on the thickness of the dough you roll out or the size of the cookie cutters, the yield may vary.

Store: Place cookies in an airtight container and store them at room temperature for up to 5 days.

TIP 1: Don't turn up the oven temp hoping for the dulce de leche to cook quicker- this will scorch it.

TIP 2: Whisk the cooled dulce de leche for a couple of minutes to smooth it out.

TIP 3: The butter and egg yolks should be at room temperature. This is so the butter can cream and aerate, and the yolks emulsify into the butter.

TIP 4: Don't over-mix the cookie dough causes tough cookies.

TIP 5: Refrigerate, refrigerate, refrigerate. This is essential to solidify the butter in the stamped-out cookie rounds before baking. It ensures no flat pancakes!!

Nutrition