Vanilla alfajores

Name: Vanilla alfajores
Prep time: 11 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 31 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Uruguayan
Ingredients: 150g Dulce de leche; 50g Coconut Flakes; 100g Butter; 100g Sugar; 1 Egg; 1 Egg Yolks; 200g Cornstarch; 100g All purpose flour; 1 tsp Baking Powder; 1 tsp Vanilla Extract; 150g Dulce de leche; 50g Coconut Flakes

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Dessert recipe with Uruguayan flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 45 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · 31 min total

150g Dulce De Leche
50g Coconut Flakes
100g Butter
100g Sugar
1 Egg
1 Egg Yolks
200g Cornstarch
100g All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
150g Dulce De Leche
50g Coconut Flakes

Step-by-step instructions

For the sandwich cookie cream the soft butter for about a minute, then add the sugar and cream for another two minutes. Incorporate the egg fully before mixing in the egg yolk. Once everything is nicely combined, add all remaining ingredients and mix one more time. Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least half an hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Divide dough in half, put one back in the fridge and roll out the other thickly on a lightly floured surface. Cut out cookies with either the bottom of a glass or a cookie cutter around 6cm in diameter. Repeat with all the dough.
Bake for about 8-10min, the cookies will look very pale. Let cool off before filling half with each a teaspoon of dulce de leche. Place other half of cookies on top and roll the sides of each cookie in the coconut flakes (it helps if the dulce de leche was pressed down to the sides of the cookie). Enjoy.

Why this works on a weeknight

Vanilla alfajores lands at about 31 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Sweet Finishes collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Vanilla alfajores actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🍮 Sweet Finishes Dessert Uruguayan