These cookies came about because I decided to test out making dulce de leche in my pressure cooker, and I ended needing to use said dulce de leche in a couple different recipes. So you can expect to see a few dulce de leche-based recipes in the horizon, with this being one of them! Alfajores(basically pronounced “alpha whore-ehs”, which can sound so so wrong for a cookie that tastes so so good) are a popular Peruvian cookies that consist of two shortbreads sandwiching dulce de leche. If you don’t know what dulce de leche is(after me mentioning it probably close to 8 times here already), it is made from taking a can of sweetened condensed milk and boiling it for hours until the sugars and fats in that caramelize, resulting in this rich, dense caramel situation. It is delicious, and it could be used as a filling, topping, or even a flavoring. To give my dulce de leche a salted caramel kick to them, I used sweet white miso paste, and I dub that mixture “miso de leche”. And a warning, that stuff is a FLAVOR BOMB. It takes sweet and salty to the next level. There’s nuttiness from the toasted milk solids, similar to brown butter, while the umami in the miso adds a complexity that does play off of the caramelized sugars too. It can be used to really enhance the taste of most desserts where caramel is a featured ingredient or flavor. For the shortbreads themselves, I went ahead and flavored them with hojicha, which is a toasted green tea. The warming, nutty flavor of the hojicha is something I like pairing with caramel to begin with, so using that with dulce de leche results in a gorgeous caramel-milk tea-type of combination!

In terms of this recipe’s difficulty level, it varies. If you make the dulce de leche from scratch, it will take anywhere from 1 hour(if you own a pressure cooker) to 4 hours(if you do not in which case, you have to boil a can of condensed milk in a pot of hot water for that long). If you do not want to do that, just buy a can of dulce de leche, mix miso paste into that, and you have the same end result in 5 minutes instead. This is one of the few instances where I will not judge someone for not making their own component from scratch, because making dulce de leche from scratch is an insane time commitment, and while it is delicious homemade, some people don’t own pressure cookers and others don’t want to spend 4 hours on just one thing. In both cases, totally get it. I will say, if you do own a pressure cooker, boil 3-4 of these sweetened condensed milk cans at a time to make your life easier(so that you have a stockpile of dulce de leche for the future). For the shortbreads, they do take a bit of time, but nowhere near the amount of time it would take for making dulce de leche. They do require some chilling time to ensure a firm textured dough, easier for shaping. For the hojicha, I love to make this roasted miso-hojicha sugar by blending roasted miso paste with hojicha powder and sugar, so I used that to flavor my shortbreads with! While the cookies look deceptively simple, they can take a lot of time to make(if you want to try the dulce de leche from scratch) or they could be a medium-low difficulty(the only other technical parts being making the miso-hojicha sugar and then making/baking the dough).

Makes 16-18 cookie sandwiches:
For the miso de leche:
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 tbsp white miso paste

Remove the paper labels on your condensed milk can(s) – since this process takes the longest time, I prefer to actually cook 3-4 cans of condensed milk at a time! Place the can(s) into a pressure cooker and fully submerge them with hot water. Heat up the pressure cooker(I used an electronic one, but if using a stovepot one, heat it on medium heat) for 1 hour. Allow the steam to slowly but completely release at this point before opening and removing the lid and retrieving your can(s). Allow the can(s) to cool fully at room temperature before attempting to open with a can opening – the change in temperature and pressure can cause the dulce de leche to explode if not careful. Scoop out the dulce de leche and mix with miso paste to finish.

For the miso-hojicha sugar:
1oz white miso paste
3 tbsp loosely packed hojicha leaves
1 cup granulated sugar

Spread the miso paste onto a silpat and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. The miso should be blackened at the edges and be easy to remove from the mat. Transfer the miso into a spice grinder or blender with the other ingredients and blend until a fine powder is formed. Store the powder in an airtight container at room temperature.

For the shortbread dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2oz miso-hojicha sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk

In a bowl, mix together the flour and sugar first. To that, add in the butter, mixing until a fine, crumbly dough forms. Mix that with the vanilla and egg yolk to form your cookie dough, and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut out 1.5-inch rounds. Refrigerate the cookies for 10 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a lined sheet tray and bake at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to fully cool before attempting sandwich two cookies with roughly 1 tsp of the miso de leche.