Dulce De Leche Stuffed Cookies

These dulce de leche stuffed cookies may look quite simple and plain, but there is nothing plain about them! The cookie dough is made with brown butter for an extra depth of flavour, and they have hidden pools of sweet and luxurious dulce de leche inside them. If you enjoy mellow, buttery and caramelised flavours, you will love these!

Quick and easy to make, with crispy and crunchy edges and soft and gooey centres, they tick all of the boxes! One of the best things about this recipe, is the fact that you don't even need an electric mixer to make it!

The cookies are tried and tested crowd pleasers, and will also make a great gift for the loved ones during the festive season!

These stuffed cookies are one of my favourite bakes, and have been in the top 3 cookie recipes loved by the readers for some time, along with my Chocolate Brownie Cookies recipe and Danish Butter Cookies.

I love baking them all year round, but especially during the festive season. That buttery, caramel- like dulce de leche filling is just so extra-special and luxurious, and perfect for an extra indulgence during that time of the year!

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Storage
• Top tip
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Ingredients

There are only 9 ingredients needed to make these utterly delicious cookies. Here's what you will need to gather together for this recipe:

• Dry ingredients - plain flour, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt flakes (optional), salt and soft light brown sugar
• Wet ingredients - eggs, butter, vanilla extract and dulce de leche (or condensed milk if you are making your own).

Instructions

Firstly, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Once it's melted, you want to cook it for further 3 minutes, until it starts browning up a bit. When it's done, set it aside for about 10 minutes to cool.

Add the sugar into melted butter, followed by eggs and vanilla. Stir it all until well combined. Add all of the dry ingredients and mix it all until JUST combined. Do not over mix it.

Divide the dough between two bowls, then cover each bowl with some cling film and place it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Hint: Chilling the cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in cookies (butter, in this case). As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough will take longer to melt than room temperature fat. The longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies will spread. It will also produce the cookies with a deeper flavour.

Remove one of the bowls with cookie dough from the fridge, keeping the other bowl in the refrigerator until you need it.

Scoop about one tablespoon of chilled cookie dough and form a little ball with it. Place on the prepared baking sheet, about 5 cm apart (the cookies will spread while baking).

Using the back of the spoon or your finger, create a little well/ indent in top of the ball. (not too deep). Fill it up with ½ teaspoon of dulce de leche then scoop another tablespoon of cookie dough, shape in exact same way and cover the top of dulce de leche filled cookie with it, sealing the edges gently.

Bake cookies in small batches (I place no more than 5 cookies on the baking tray per batch) for about 10 minutes, turning them half way through. The edges of the cookies should be almost golden, but the middle should be still soft. They will set more while they're cooling.

Substitutions

I haven't tested this recipe with any type of glute-free flour, but I believe that it will work absolutely fine.

I use shop-bought dulce de leche for the convenience. Most of the supermarkets sell it these days, and you can find it in the baking aisle. However, if you prefer, you can also make your own, using sweetened condensed milk. Here's how:

Remove the label from the can of condensed milk. Place an old kitchen towel in a small saucepan and beneath the can of condensed milk (this will stop the can from rattling). Fill the saucepan with cold water, making sure it comes up to one inch (2.5 cm) from the top of the pan.

Hint: Make sure to keep an eye on the water level at all times. Some of the water will evaporate during the simmering and cooking process, so it's super important to make sure it stays at the required level.

Bring the water to simmer over medium heat, then lower the heat to small and allow it to simmer for 2 hours 30 minutes. Remove the can from the saucepan using the tongs or an oven mitt, being super careful as the can will be VERY HOT!

Allow it to cool completely before opening the can with can opener. Use your homemade dulce de leche as desired!

For some extra tips and methods of making your own dulce de leche, make sure to read this How To Make Dulce De Leche post from Bigger Bolder Baking blog.

Variations

Here are few ideas on how you can change this recipe slightly and add some extra flavours and textures:

• Chocolate cookies - replace about 40 grams of flour with same amount of good quality cocoa powder.
• Chocolate chip cookies - add dark or milk chocolate chips to the cookie dough at the very end. For best chocolate chip cookie, use the mini chocolate chips.
• Peanut butter or biscoff stuffed cookies - if you are not a fan of dulce de leche, you can use peanut butter or biscoff spread instead. Check out this Biscoff Stuffed Cookies recipe from Modest Munchies blog!
• Add some chopped pecans - for an extra crunch and nutty flavour, you can sprinkle the cookies with chopped pecans before baking them.
• Nutella and dulce de leche stuffed cookies - use the combination of ¼ teaspoon of Nutella and ¼ teaspoon of dulce de leche.

I love sprinkling some sea salt flakes on top of these cookies. Sea salt flakes along with sweet dulce de leche compliment each other beautifully. Adding a sprinkle of salt will also balance out the sweetness of that caramel-like filling.

Storage

These dulce de leche filled cookies will taste best on the same day they are made. You can store any leftovers in the airtight container for up to 2-3 days, but they will become softer with time.

You can also freeze shaped, unbaked cookie dough for up to 3 months. To freeze, place the baking tray with cookies in the freezer overnight. Next day, transfer the frozen cookies from baking tray to freezer-friendly bag or container.

If baking from frozen, add 2-3 minutes to the baking time.

Top tip

When making these stuffed dulce de leche cookies, make sure to chill the dough as much as possible. I normally split it into 2-3 batches, keeping the remaining cookie dough in the fridge until I need it.

The dough will soften as soon as you start rolling it into balls when shaping the cookies. Once you rolled and stuffed the cookies, you can place them in the fridge for an extra half an hour. This will solidify the butter more, preventing them from spreading too much while baking.

I would also recommend to use chilled dulce de leche. Simply store it in the fridge overnight prior to making the recipe.

To pin this recipe and save it for later, use the button on the recipe card or on the photos above.

If you try this recipe, or any other recipe on Anna Banana, please take a moment to rate the recipe and/ or leave me a comment. I love hearing from you, but it also helps other readers who are thinking of making the recipe.

📖 Recipe

This post was originally published in November 2019. It has been updated with the new photos, tips and revised recipe in October 2021.