These delicate little sandwich cookies are delicious right away and even better the next day.

These traditional South American cookies are often used to sandwich a layer of dulce de leche, but ours are yummy enough to be filled with anything from jam to cheese and still hold their own. Scrumptious and versatile, they’ll be this year’s go-to holiday treat – don’t say we didn’t warn you!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup unsalted butter 
• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup thick dulce de leche

DIRECTIONS

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and then the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

2 In a small bowl, stir together the flour, cornstarch and baking powder. Using a spatula, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well combined. Roll the dough into a ball, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

3 Using as little flour as possible, roll out the chilled dough onto a clean surface to 1/4" thickness. With a 2 1/2"  uted cookie cutter, cut out 60 cookies. Place the cookies 1" apart on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake on the centre rack of the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until set but still pale in colour.

4 Allow the cookies to cool slightly before using a metal spatula to carefully move them to a cooling rack. Let cool completely.

5 Spread about 2 teaspoons of the dulce de leche in the centre of the underside of 1 cookie. Sandwich with another cookie, pressing gently to spread the dulce de leche to the edges of the cookies. Repeat with remaining dulce de leche and cookies.

6 Dust the cookies lightly with extra icing sugar if desired; serve.

Makes: 30 sandwich cookies

TIP

If your dulce de leche is too thin and runny, heat it in a saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened.