Baking cookies and cakes isn’t really my forte, but if I can manage to get these Shortbread Cookie Sandwiches ready for the oven in 10 minutes, I’m pretty sure you could speed through it in just 8 minutes! The best part? No mixer required and only 3 simple ingredients.
These utterly irresistible treats draw inspiration from a South American delight known as Alfajores. Traditionally, Alfajores are shortbread cookies smeared with luscious Dulce De Leche (caramel) and then paired up as sandwich cookies. Although crafting the original Alfajores shortbread isn’t particularly tricky, to be perfectly candid, when I was gearing up to bake the cookies, I simply couldn’t muster the energy for the full-blown, authentic shortbread required for Alfajores. It demanded my Kitchen Aid mixer, 20 minutes of prep instead of my usual 10, and an additional 6 ingredients. Given the weariness of the day, I whipped up these cookies at the ungodly hour of 9:30 pm so I could photograph them the next morning!
After a mere moment of hesitation, I resolved to rely on my trusty “go-to” shortbread recipe instead. In all honesty, these cookies are so delectable that I’m not entirely convinced I’ll ever revisit making traditional Alfajores again. This particular recipe has accompanied me since I ventured out on my own at the tender age of 18 (I’ll keep the number of years hidden!). The beauty is, it doesn’t necessitate a mixer and you can have the dough ready in a lightning-fast 3 minutes. The dough maintains a soft, manageable consistency—neither too sticky for rolling out nor for transferring the cut rounds onto the baking tray.
And the kicker? When they emerge from the oven, their surface is remarkably smooth and velvety. They look as though they required more than a mere 10 minutes of effort. Now, that’s the kind of baking I can get behind!
For these delightful cookie sandwiches, the filling consists of homemade Dulce De Leche concocted in a slow cooker. This process calls for just 1 ingredient and a mere 15 seconds of preparation. All you do is submerge sealed cans (sans label removal) into the slow cooker, cover them with water, and then let it do its magic. When you eventually crack open the can, you’ll be greeted by an incredibly lush, dense caramel that’s incredibly smooth—no stirring required. It’s nothing short of miraculous.
