Chilean Alfajores (Soft Dulce de Leche Cookie Sandwiches)

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cornstarch, and orange zest. Orange zest adds a lovely fresh citrus flavor to the cookies.

In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolks until pale yellow.

Add the dry ingredients to egg yolks in three parts, mixing in the orange juice in between.

I used orange juice with extra pulp, for extra goodness.

If the dough seems sticky, add extra cornstarch one tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.

Roll the dough out thinly – maybe 1/16th of an inch. Only roll one side of the dough or else it won’t curl when baked.

You’ll see pretty orange flecks from the orange zest.

Cut out the cookies. I used circle and heart shaped cutters. Make sure you have an even number of each, in order to make the sandwiches.

Prick the cookies with a fork so that they won’t puff up.

Bake for 4-7 minutes. Do not let them brown. They should remain soft and tender – doughy, even.

Let cool. Then, spread half of the cookies (the bottom sides) with dulce de leche.

Place another matching cookie on top of the dulce de leche and enjoy, sticky fingers and all.

Unless, that is, you would like some powdered sugar.

Powdered sugar makes every thing better. Even pretty little sweethearts.