What are Chocolate Alfajores Cookies?
Chocolate alfajores are sweet, rich sandwich cookies filled with smooth dulce de leche (caramel). If you love chocolate, these are a dream come true!
Traditional alfajores are made with two soft, delicate cookies pressed together with a sweet filling. While many versions are left plain or covered in coconut, dipping them in chocolate makes them extra special. These treats originally came from Spain and became super popular in South America, especially in Argentina.
If you love cookies, also try my recipe for Hojarascas.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe ❤️
- Amazing Flavor: You get rich chocolate cookies, sweet caramel, and a smooth chocolate coating all in one bite.
- Melt-in-Your-Mouth Texture: A special mix of ingredients makes these cookies super soft and crumbly.
- Make-Ahead Friendly: You can freeze the dough ahead of time or store the baked cookies for later.
- Bakery Style: They look like fancy treats from a bakery, but you can easily make them at home!
-Maggie
My Story With This Recipe
When I first moved to San Diego, I became part of a group of friends from all over the world. One of my closest friends was from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
One year, she went home to visit her family and brought back a box of alfajores. They were rich and so delicious. I could have eaten the whole box by myself! But my absolute favorites were these: chocolate alfajores!
I called my friend to ask for the recipe, and I’ve been making them ever since!
Ingredients
- Honey for sweetness and moisture.
- Sugar also for sweetness
- Egg to bind the cookie ingredients together.
- Corn Starch is what makes crumbly cookies.
- Baking Powder makes the cookies poof up slightly
- Baking Soda helps the cookies bake.
- Vanilla Extract adds warmth and depth.
- Cocoa Powder is what makes them chocolate.
- Flour – We are using all purpose flour.
- Unsalted Butter – Take it out of the fridge and bring to room temperature.
- Orange zest and lemon zest – be sure to only get the peel and not the white part or it will be bitter.
What you see here are the ingredients for the cookies, not the filling. We’ll discuss the filling in more detail below.
Alfajores de maicena is another popular version made with shortbread cookies. Here, we are making the chocolate version.
How to Make the Cookie Dough
- In a large bowl, cream the soft butter with the sugar.
- Add the honey, lemon and orange zest, egg, and vanilla. Mix until combined.
- In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients.
- Combine with the flour mix until a dough forms.
- Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl to fully mix everything together.
To do this in a kitchen mixer, use a medium speed and the paddle attachment.
How to soften butter hack
Pour two cups of water in a microwaveable bowl. Heat for 2 minutes on high. Take it out and dump the water. Put the butter in the hot bowl and place the bowl back in the microwave. The butter will be perfectly soft in 10 minutes.
- Wrap the chocolate cookie dough in plastic wrap.
- Place in the fridge for 30 minutes, up to 1 day.
You can also make the dough days ahead and freeze. Thaw overnight in the fridge before using.
The dough freezes well for up to 3 months. If freezing, place the dough in plastic wrap then add to a sealable freezer bag. Remove as much air as possible.
Rolling and Cutting the Dough
- Take out the dough, and using a rolling pin, roll it out.
- Cut out using a circular 3 inches cookie cutter.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.
- Bake cookies in a 350 degrees F oven for 10 minutes.
Keep in mind that these cookies are thin, not thick. The thicker the dough, the thicker the cookies.
You might need to let the dough sit on the counter for a few minutes before rolling.
If not using parchment paper, grease the sheet pan with butter.
Assembling the Cookies
To assemble the cookies, you will also need chocolate and dulce de leche.
This is semi-sweet chocolate. Or, look for semi-sweet chocolate chips.
The dulce de leche filling is what is commonly used. You might see other sweet fillings like jam or Nutella.
Can’t find it at the store, buy dulce de leche online or use Mexican cajeta.
- Let the cookies cool slightly.
- Add the dulce de leche to a piping bag.
- Then, pipe a thick layer onto the cookie.
- Don’t skimp on the amount of dulce de leche to add. Alfajores have a lot of dulce de leche in the center.
Do this gently. These are crumbly sandwich cookies, and they can break. I always make a few extra just for this reason.
You will need to refill the pastry bag from time to time.
- Place the top cookie and press down slightly.
- With a knife, smooth out the sides where the dulce de leche has come out.
- Once you are done assembling all the cookies, place them in the fridge for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, melt the chocolate.
- Using a spoon, dip the cookies into the melted chocolate, allowing the excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl.
- Then place them on wax paper.
- Let the dulce de leche cookies sit on wax paper until they harden. If need be, you might need to place them in the fridge to harden.
- Repeat until done.
The easiest way to melt chocolate is in the microwave. Do this for 10 second intervals until completely melted. With a spoon, mix the chocolate so it won’t burn.
🙋🏻♀️ Frequently Asked Questions
Chilling the dough for at least 30 minutes makes the butter hard again. This makes it much easier to roll out and cut into nice circle shapes without sticking.
These cookies are naturally very tender and crumbly. When you add the caramel and press the top cookie down, use a gentle touch. It’s always a good idea to bake a few extra just in case!
Yes! Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and put it in a freezer bag. It will stay good in the freezer for up to 3 months. Just thaw it in the fridge overnight before you are ready to bake.
Storing Instructions
Place the cookies in an airtight container. They will last for up 5 days at room temperature, or up to 7 days in the refrigerator.
More Cookie Recipes
- Mexican Wedding Cookies
- Mexican Spiced Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pan de Polvo
- Marranitos
- Mexican Sprinkle Cookies
- Gingerbread Reindeer Cookies
Rich and decadent, these Chocolate Alfajores are the ultimate dessert. Grab a cold glass of milk or a hot drink, and enjoy a delicious treat!
😋 Hungry for More?
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Did you make this recipe? Please rate the recipe below!
Chocolate Alfajores (Dulce de Leche Cookies)
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ stick butter (softened)
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 lemon zest
- 1 orange zest
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ cup corn starch
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoon cocoa powder (semi-sweet)
Also Need:
- 2 cups dulce de leche (can also use cajeta or caramel)
- 2 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate
Instructions
To Make the Cookies:
- In a large bowl, cream the softened butter with the sugar.
- Add the honey, lemon and orange zest, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
- In another large bowl, mix the dry ingredients.
- Combine the flour mixture with the butter mixture until a dough forms.
- Using a spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- If doing this in a kitchen mixer, use medium speed and the paddle attachment.
- Wrap the chocolate cookie dough in plastic wrap.
- Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, up to 1 day.
- Take out the dough from the fridge, and using a rolling pin, roll it out.
- Cut out cookies, using a circular 3-inches cookie cutter.
- Place them on a greased baking sheet, or line with wax paper.
- Bake cookies in a 350 degrees F oven for 10 minutes.
- Let cool slightly.
To Assemble:
- Add dulce de leche to a pastry piping bag.
- Then, pipe a thick layer of the dulce de leche onto the cookie.
- Place the top cookie and press down slightly.
- With a knife, smooth out the sides where the dulce de leche has come out.
- Repeat until there are no more cookies.
- Once you are done, place them in the fridge for 10 minutes.
- Melt the chocolate in 10 second intervals in the microwave.
- Stir after every 10 seconds so it won't burn.
- Dip the cookies in the chocolate and place on wax paper.
- Repeat until done.
- Place them in the fridge to harden for 10 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Is it 1 and 1/4 cups of butter?
No, 1 1/4 sticks of butter equals 5/8 of a cup (or 0.625 cups).
These are very professional-looking cookies. They look delicious too.
Yes, very yummy. 🙂 Thanks for your comment.
Wow, these look decadent! Your pictures were very helpful in how to assemble these cookies! Thanks for the recipe share!
Such an easy and delicious dessert to make for my guests this weekend.
I am pretty sure they will love this!
We love the dulce de leche flavor. These cookies sound delicious!
You’ll love this recipe. Super tasty!
These sounds amazing. I must check them out. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Hope you do. I know you’ll enjoy it.
This looks absolutely delicious and tasty I’m sure my niece are going to love this for sure!
Very delicious.
Wow! This chocolate cookie recipe looks so delicious. Full of flavor and taste which the cookie is coated with chocolate! Kids will definitely love it!
Okay, I am giving you 5-stars. These look delicious. Part of me is thanking you, however, part of me is cursing you because I definitely will not be able to zip my pants thanks to this recipe. 😆
lol. Yes, I know what you mean. These Chocolate Argentinian Alfajores are addictive.
I’m always trying to find an easy way to soften the butter because I always forget to leave it out for a recipe. I love this tip!
Glad you found it useful.
wow! I should try the chocolate version! It looks amazingly delicious!
Glad you liked it.
Thanks for sharing this scrumptious recipe. I love everything chocolate!
Me too! Hard not to love chocolate.
These look absolutely delicious and I want to make them immediately!
I hope you make these Chocolate Argentinian Alfajores. You’re gonna love them.
These sound really good. I may add these to my Christmas baking list.
Yes! So good. Hope you enjoy them.
Since I am allergic to caffeine I need to make the non-chocolate version of this delicious looking treat.
The non-chocolate alfajores are the original version. Hope you get a chance to try them. They’re really yummy!
Love this recipe! I’m collecting a bunch of unique recipes to make for Christmas cookies this year and this one is perfect!
Thank you!
The cookies came out nice and taste good.
Hi! Thanks for making the chocolate alfajores. They are a labor of love but so worth it!
I’ve made these twice, and my family loved them. But both times I had to double the flour to achieve anything like a dough-consistency. It was very soft and sticky, and didn’t look like the picture in the step-by step guide. But with more flour it worked great! Several of my family members have lived in Argentina, and said these were some of the best they’d ever had!
Love hearing this! So glad everyone enjoyed them.
These look so good. I bet they are rich though. I’ll have to give them a try and make a batch.
Happy to hear you liked it
I love dulce de leche on anything, I haven’t tried alfajores yet, and this is actually my first time reading of it but a similar treat I like also have marshmallow in the middle. Thank you for sharing.
These Chocolate Argentinian Alfajores are so yummy, you have to give them a try!
ALFAJORES are my favorite cookie but I have never had them as chocolate alfajores so now I do want this so badlyI I will try to make them this weekend!
Happy to hear you liked it. Hope you make this recipe soon.
I haven’t tried these cookies before. I am sure I’d enjoy them as I tend to enjoy all things with chocolate.
If you love chocolate, you’re going to love this recipe.