The traditional South American honey-almond cookie gets a tropical twist thanks to a decadent yet shockingly easy coconut dulce de leche, oozing between two shortbread cookies. Top it with a blanket of brightly dyed coconut flakes and suddenly you’re on a beach far, far away.
Ingredients
Makes about 24
1
1
2
½
2¼
1
⅓
1
1
¼
1½
1
1
Special Equipment
Preparation
Step 1
Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 375°. Bring condensed milk, coconut milk, and ½ tsp. salt to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Scrape mixture into a 13x9" baking dish and bake, stirring every 15 minutes or so, until very thick and a light caramel color, 40–50 minutes. Mixture will look lumpy, broken, and very pasty—that’s exactly what you want. Let cool in dish 1 hour, then transfer to a food processor and process until smooth. Set dulce de leche aside for serving.
Step 2
Meanwhile, whisk almond flour and 2¼ cups all-purpose flour in a medium bowl to combine. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, sugar, and 1½ tsp. salt in a large bowl, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl as needed, until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolk, vanilla, and ¼ cup honey and beat until combined, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients, and mix, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl, until incorporated. Divide dough in half and pat each piece into a 1"-thick disk. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, at least 2 hours.
Step 3
Preheat oven to 350°. Roll out 1 disk of dough on a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper, dusting with more flour as needed to keep dough from sticking, to about ⅛" thick. Punch out shapes with lightly floured cookie cutters and transfer to 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1" apart. Pat scraps into a 1"-thick disk, wrap with plastic, and chill 10 minutes if soft.
Step 4
Bake a sheet of cookies, rotating halfway through, until edges are lightly browned, 7–9 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Bake remaining sheet of cookies. Line baking sheets with fresh sheets of parchment paper and repeat process with remaining disk of dough.
Step 5
Divide coconut evenly among 3 bowls. Add 1 Tbsp. food-coloring powder (sift if needed) to a bowl of coconut and toss until coconut is coated; add more powder if a more intense color is desired. Repeat with remaining food-coloring powder and another bowl of coconut. Leave 1 bowl of coconut white. If using, add some luster dust to all 3 bowls and toss to combine.
Step 6
Turn half of the cookies over to expose flat side; spread 1 tsp. dulce de leche over (this will be the inside of the sandwiches); set aside.
Step 7
Heat remaining 2 Tbsp. honey in a small bowl in the microwave just until warm (you want it to be loose), then stir in 2 tsp. warm water. Working one at a time, lightly brush honey over the top of remaining cookies (the ones that have not been filled with dulce de leche). Immediately dip tops into a bowl of coconut; press additional coconut onto cookie to cover any bald spots. Close up cookie sandwiches, coconut side up.
Step 8
Do Ahead: Dulce de leche can be made 1 month ahead; place in an airtight container and freeze. Thaw in refrigerator overnight before using. Dough can be made 3 days ahead; keep chilled. Cookies can be baked (but not assembled) 2 days ahead; store airtight at room temperature.
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Reviews (18)
Back to TopHow sad that the hunger for money trumps what could be invaluable public relations tool!
Belen Lee
Hillsborough NH and Puerto Rico
3/7/2022
I make these as a holiday special! Everybody gets a kick out of this “remix” on the traditional South American cookie. Yum yum yum, YUM ¡Delicioso!
Anonymous
Long Beach, CA
10/18/2021
A friend gave me a gift of this dulce de leche, which was wonderful, but when I tried making it myself, it was a disaster! I think I took a wrong turn at the first step, bringing the milk to a boil, as I spent about 20 minutes doing this while I stirred so as not to burn the milk. That, on top of the 40 minutes in the oven, turned it into a very solid toffee. Sadly, after taking it out of the oven and letting it cool as directed, I was able to get it into my food processor, but as it continued to cool it became quite solid and totally wrecked the food processor blade and plastic container :( A new one was just delivered today but I am not sure I want to try making it again. My friend is promising to send more gifts of dulce de leche my way :) It would have been helpful to have had a few more details about that first step.
Anonymous
12/19/2020
Yummy but super, super sweet. You really only want one, but the flavor is delicious and the cookie is soft and crumbly. I used the extra coconut dulce de leche to coat the cookies with coconut flakes instead of honey, and I enjoyed that more. Unlike another poster, I actually do think you need the coconut flake for a variation in texture. Once the cookies had been cooled, filled, and mostly dried, I kept them in the fridge and the dulce de leche stayed smooth and soft.
Alex the Baker
Dallas, TX
12/7/2020
These were excellent. The cookie and dulce de leche were really well balanced together and delicious. I would probably skip the coconut topping because the rest of the cookie was so good and it's harder to taste with the coconut on top. One of the best cookies I've made in years.
Anonymous
5/10/2020
These are really excellent alfajores, but I thought the shredded coconut was unnecessary and detracted texturally, so I skipped it for most of my batch. The cookies themselves are pleasantly buttery with a melt-away quality and a tiny bit of nuttiness from the almond flour. I forgot to pick up some of the cheaper generic honey I normally use for baking, so I ended up using fancy wildflower honey, and the floral honey note really came through nicely. The coconut dulce de leche was a delicious mess to make, and the complexity from the coconut helps avoid the cloying one-note sweetness that dulce de leche sometimes has. I used nearly all of it for filling the cookies, putting a generous half table-spoon each on each cookie sandwich--mine were a bit larger than called for since I used a 2.5-inch biscuit cutter to cut the dough. They oozed a little, but seemed fine as long as they didn't sit tilted for any length of time.
Anonymous
1/27/2020
I just made these today. I made the dough one day ahead. I had half of the dulce de leche left over since it called for only ONE teaspoon per cookie. (between top and bottom cookie) I was concerned if I put more dulce in between it would ooze out when someone took a bite. My niece had a good idea. Instead of using the honey/water mixture so that the coconut would adhere to the top cookie, use more dulce de leche on top and the coconut would not fall off. Also the cookies would taste more delicious and not dry. Please comment if you were able to use all the dulce in the filling of the cookies.
Anonymous
Vashon Island, WA
12/26/2019
What in the tarnation, I'm so confused! We spent six hours making these cookies, following very confusing instructions. Afterwards, my partner was the first to eat one and almost immediately fell ill from all the sugar. You are likely thinking we didn't properly follow the instructions. Nope, I know for a fact that is incorrect. How, you ask? My profession is authoring IKEA furniture assembly instructions - that's why. This recipe also calls for luster dust, what in all that is holy is luster dust?! We were going to gift some to our friends, but we wisely decided to do otherwise. Why you ask - because it would make them sick. These are the gateway drug for diabetes and extensive visits to your dentist.
Anonymous
Diabetes Town
12/24/2019
Really, really delicious. Very time consuming if you’re making it all in one day. I think it’s probably better to split up the work over a few so that it’s not so intrusive. But still, VERY delicious!
Anonymous
DC
12/24/2019
This will soon become a family favorite. The Dulce was soo easy to make . Why should you spend $$$ at Williams and Sonoma for a jar when it is this easy to make! It is key to not roll the dough too thin. Also who can afford the expensive food dye? I used regular dye in the shredded coconut
Anonymous
NJ
12/24/2019
They changed the recipe from 133 g sugar to 76, but when I made them last week, I used 133 grams and they came out perfect, so I have no idea which is correct.
introcourse
Lincoln, Nebraska
12/19/2019
THESE. ARE. SO. DELICIOUS. Coconut dulce is a brilliant touch, and surprisingly easy.
Anonymous
Brooklyn
12/18/2019
Granulated sugar in the cookies. One third of a cup does not weigh 133g. Two thirds does. Which is it?
nataliematz88
Omaha, Ne
12/14/2019