hello kitty alfajores - dulce de leche sandwich cookies

The first time I had alfajores, I was blown away. My best friend from college was in town visiting with her husband and kids, and we were at the Ferry Building when her husband, who is from Argentina, spotted a stand with goodies from Argentina! Needless to say, they bought a box of alfajores for us to snack on later.

At first glance, they just looked like sandwich cookies dusted with powdered sugar. I didn't know what to expect, but as soon as I bit into that cookie, I was hooked! The cookie itself wasn't too sweet, and had a delicate, tender, and deliciously crumbly texture. Combined with the dulce de leche filling and powdered sugar on top, it was the perfect balance of sweetness, and I HAD to learn how to make them!

The day after our house guests left, I began my quest to make these addictive cookies. I made dulce de leche for the first time (post to come on that later), and then I made the cookies using this recipe. When it came time to roll and cut out my cookies, I of course had to make them in the shape of Hello Kitty!

Once baked, I tried the cookies, and although they were super crumbly and had a fine texture, they were a bit too egg-y for my taste (maybe from the 4 egg yolks?). So I tried this recipe instead, and while I enjoyed the taste of the cookie much better, the texture was a little more coarse than the first recipe. So I'll have to do some more experiments and somehow combine the two recipes later on!

In any case, once I filled them with homemade dulce de leche, they still tasted delicious! (I used a piping bag and medium round tip to apply the dulce de leche filling, but you could just use an offset spatula, butter knife, or spoon).

I did a final dusting of powdered sugar, and then used the back of a toothpick to trace Hello Kitty's eyes, nose, whiskers, and bow, just to define her face through all of the powdered sugar.

While these cookies are best when eaten right away, they can also be stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days in an airtight container.

Just in time for for Argentina's semi-finals game in the World Cup tomorrow! Go Argentina!