First Apartment, First Kitchen: The Best Cookies You Won't Be Able to Stop Talking About... Alfajores :)

Martha Stewart's perfect-looking cookies,
mine will not look like these!

These cookies may be hard to pronounce, but they're so delicious you'll hardly be able to open your mouth to speak anyway! My mom was the first one to introduce me to these cookies. She gets them every time she and her business partner are at the editing company Red Car in NYC; the cookies are South American cookies, but they order them from Aroma in SOHO. My mom said they're so good that they all can't stop talking about them, so they looked up the recipe. Thankfully, I'm the benefactor in this situation and stumbled upon a potentially delicious recipe without having to do any of the hard work to find it!
The Outer Banks beach trip is finally here; we're celebrating several things this weekend: a birthday, a weekend, and my new job... so what better way to celebrate than with delicious cookies? I'm also baking an apple pie tonight for my coworker and friend M because he won a bet we had. I bet that he couldn't go 2 full weeks without eating Chipotle, and instead of eating out for lunch every day, he had to bring his lunch. Apparently I didn't challenge him enough because he passed with flying colors and now I owe him a pie of his choice, which is apple. Since I'm baking anyway, I wanted to do a trial run tonight to make sure they're beach-worthy, and boy are they EVER!

Alfajores
Makes about 30 cookies; 15 minutes prep time; 10-14 minutes baking time.
Ingredients:

This is what I normally do to my
jar of Nutella... mmmmmmmm

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (about 1.5 sticks)
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Dulce de Leche (store bought) or jam**
Confectioners' sugar (for serving)
** For half of the cookies, I used unsweetened raspberry preserves for a punch of tart flavor--delicious!! For the other half, I thought I was being super creative and used my favorite thing ever... NUTELLA!!! Turns out I wasn't that original, but it was HEAVEN IN MY MOUTH!**

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (or your Silpat if you have it) and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt -- set aside.
Use an electric mixer with a paddle attachment*** to cream together butter and sugar on medium speed until it's light and fluffy (about 1-2 minutes).
Add eggs one at a time and continue mixing for about 1 minute (until well combined).
Add flour mixture in batches, mixing until well combined before adding more.
Add milk, fresh orange juice, and vanilla; continue mixing until a dough forms (about 1-2 minutes).
Use a tablespoon or small ice cream scoop to drop dough onto the prepared baking sheets (about 2 inches apart).
Transfer to oven and bake until golden, 12-14 minutes. Make sure to rotate the baking sheets halfway through baking time.
Transfer the cookies to a wire rack until completely cool.
When the cookies have cooled completely, spread the bottoms of half the cookies with the dulce de leche (or jam). Sandwich together the halves with the remaining cookies.

Electric mixer w/ paddle attachment

***You don't really need a paddle attachment, but it's best if you have one. Otherwise, an electric mixer will do, just be wary of over-mixing. If you're really unprepared and don't have a working electric mixer, you can use a wooden spoon--it'll just get tough to mix at a certain point. I did it this time with a hand-held electric mixer and it was fine, just make sure to put it on low speed.***

You can store them in an airtight container for up to 2 days! Just before you want to serve them, for a "wowing" effect, sprinkle lightly with confectioners' sugar.

Other ideas for Alfajores:

1. Chocolate dough; 2. Roll in coconut; 3. Raspberry preserves;

4. Pistachio Butter; 5. and the way I tried, Nutella!