These Dark Chocolate Alfajores feature light as air butter cookies filled with homemade dulce de leche, covered with dark chocolate and finished with a sprinkling of sea salt. This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BakeHolidayGoodness #CollectiveBias

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Alfajores, but they’ve been a holiday staple for my Peruvian family ever since I can remember. They’re basically these amazingly light and crumbly butter sandwich cookies that have dulce de leche in the middle. There is always a plate of them out at our Christmas Eve dinner so they definitely have that holiday association for me.

Usually alfajores are covered in a dusting of powdered sugar, but I’ve also seen them covered in chocolate, so this year I wanted to make dark chocolate alfajores with sea salt for a new twist on our tradition. I used NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk and  NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Condensed Milk to make a killer dulce de leche from scratch.

It couldn’t have been easier because you just pour the cans into a pot and simmer for about an hour, stirring often until you wind up with a thick, golden paste.

The only thing I’ll say is to keep an eye on it, because if it scalds you’ll wind up with brown bits in your dulce de leche, which is so not cute.

The cookies come together really easily too, but they tend to be on the fragile side, so just take care when spreading the dulce de leche on.

The last component of these dark chocolate alfajores is the finishing touch: I dipped half of each cookie into melted dark chocolate that I made using NESTLÉ® Tollhouse Morsels. Most other alfajores I have seen with chocolate are completely covered in it, but I wanted the sandwich cookie to still be somewhat visible because of that gorgeous layer of dulce de leche, so that’s why I opted to do just half, and I love how they turned out!

Then a bit of crunchy sea salt to seal the deal and balance out all the sweetness going on!

I love keeping old holiday traditions alive by just doing a little something different, like I did with these dark chocolate alfajores, and NESTLÉ® products make it so easy to do that with all of their baking goods that contain no artificial colors or flavors, such as:

• NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Holiday Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Holiday Morsels
• NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
• NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Brownies & More

You can pick up all these items and more for all your holiday baking needs at your local Walmart, which is where I purchased mine.

5 from 1 vote

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Dark Chocolate Alfajores with Sea Salt

These Dark Chocolate Alfajores feature light as air butter cookies filled with homemade dulce de leche, covered with dark chocolate and finished with a sprinkling of sea salt. 

Course Dessert

Cuisine Argentina

Keyword caramel sandwich cookies, cookies recipe, dulce de leche cookies

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 2 dozen

Calories 110 kcal

Author Denisse Salinas

Ingredients

For the dulce de leche:

• 1 14 ounce can NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 12 ounce can NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

For the cookies:

• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour
• 3/4 cup tapioca starch
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 ounces cold unsalted butter 1 stick, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 2 large egg yolks cold
• 12 ounces NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Dark Chocolate Morsels
• Flaky sea salt

Instructions

1. Place sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk in a large saucepan. Simmer on low, stirring often, for about one hour or until light brown.
2. Pass mixture through a fine mesh strainer and whisk well until smooth. Store in a glass jar with lid.

3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine flour, tapioca starch, powdered sugar, salt, baking powder and butter in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to form a fine and sandy meal, then add egg yolks and continue processing until the dough balls up around the blade. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into two balls.

4. Roll dough until roughly 1/4 inch thick. Cut dough into 2-inch rounds and slide a thin offset spatula under dough to loosen any places that might have stuck. Arrange cutouts on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about 1/2 inch between cookies. Gather the scraps, briefly knead, and re-roll and cut as before. Repeat with remaining dough, for about 48 cookies.
5. Bake until just beginning to brown around the edges, about 15 minutes, and cool to room temperature directly on baking sheet.
6. Flip half the cookies bottom side up and gently spread a dollop of dulce de leche into the very center. Top with remaining cookies, twisting and pressing gently to secure.
7. Place chocolate morsels in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second increments, stirring in between each increment, until chocolate is smooth and melted.
8. Dip half of each cookie into melted chocolate and place on a parchment lined baking sheet to set. Sprinkle immediately with sea salt and allow chocolate to harden and set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Thank you to NESTLÉ® for sponsoring this post. Make sure to visit the NESTLÉ® Social Hub and Flavorful Moments Pinterest board for tons of inspiration for you to #BakeHolidayGoodness!