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Cream Cheese Shortbread-Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies

Cream Cheese Shortbread-Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies combine a soft, light, nutty shortbread with rich dulce de leche for an irresistible cookie. - Bake or Break

Have you ever found a cookie recipe that sounds so good that you decide on the spot not only to make them immediately, but to double the recipe? That’s the position I found myself in when I found this recipe from One Girl Cookies.

Cream Cheese Shortbread-Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies combine a soft, light, nutty shortbread with rich dulce de leche for an irresistible cookie. - Bake or Break

Here’s the breakdown. The cookies are a soft, light, chewy shortbread packed with nuts and flavored with our good friend cream cheese. While the original recipe lists walnuts, I opted for pecans. (Insert your shocked comments here.) If we just stopped there, I would be as happy as could be. These little cookies are so flavorful to have such a short list of ingredients.

But, we’re not stopping there. Oh, no. Enter another favorite, dulce de leche. That awesome, caramel-y goodness is spread between the cookies to create what is perhaps one of the top five sandwich cookies I’ve ever had the pleasure to eat. The big flavor of the dulce de leche doesn’t overwhelm the cookies. Instead, they seem to be a perfect complement to each other.

Cream Cheese Shortbread-Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies combine a soft, light, nutty shortbread with rich dulce de leche for an irresistible cookie. - Bake or Break

At One Girl Cookies in Brooklyn, the cookies all have proper names. I’ve had the pleasure of sampling several, including Penelope, Juliette, and a special one-day-only Millie. These shortbread cookies are called Jane. As pointed out in their cookbook, they may be Jane, but they are anything but plain.

Find more cookie recipes in the Recipe Index!

Cream Cheese Shortbread-Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies

Yield 18 sandwich cookies
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 16 minutes
Total Time 36 minutes

Combine a soft, light, nutty shortbread with rich dulce de leche for an irresistible cookie! These Cream Cheese Shortbread Sandwich Cookies will not disappoint!

Cream Cheese Shortbread-Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies combine a soft, light, nutty shortbread with rich dulce de leche for an irresistible cookie. - Bake or Break

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
  • 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • dulce de leche

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
  2. Whisk together the flour and salt. Stir in the pecans. Set aside.
  3. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla and mix for about 1 minute.
  4. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture. Mix for 20 seconds. Finish mixing by hand with a rubber spatula.
  5. Scoop out about 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Place on the prepared baking sheets. Gently press ball. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough, leaving an inch between cookies.
  6. Bake each pan 14-16 minutes, or until the edges are lightly brown. Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
  7. Spread the dulce de leche on the bottom side of half of the cooled cookies and top with another cookie (bottom sides facing each other).

Notes

Recipe slightly adapted from One Girl Cookies.

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    22 Comments on “Cream Cheese Shortbread-Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies”

  1. O. M. G. I love you. I pinned this recipe immediately, can’t wait to try these!!

  2. Oh wow! Gorgeous recipe. Have to try this out. Shortbread + dulce de
    Leche?? Yummy

  3. that first photo is like 3D to me
    where is the scratch & sniff? 😉

  4. Whoa. I looooove the look of this! Delicious!

  5. You could put dulce de leche on anything, and it’d be awesome!

  6. I was JUST looking through that cookbook today, and took note of these cookies! Glad to know they’re as delicious as I thought they’d be; I’ll definitely be giving these a try!

  7. Now those looks absolutely delicious!!! My daughter would LOVE the caramel filling! YUM!

  8. Cream cheese, pecans, caramel? My mouth is watering.

  9. Two simple words… cookie nirvana! These are the best looking cookies I’ve run across today. I’m putting them on my holiday cookie list.

  10. These sound amazing! I love a good shortbread cookie and the filling sounds like it makes a great cookie even better.

  11. Just got a question

    I’m from germany so I’m not used to this measuring in cups and I wondered about the 3/4 cup of butter being 12 tablespoons? That sounds like a lot to me. May I ask how big one of your cups is? It might just be me being a little confused but I really want to try those as they sound delicious *__*

    • One cup is equal to 8 ounces. One stick of butter is 1/2 cup so one and one half sticks of butter will be 3/4 cup of butter. 

  12. Replica, 3/4 cup of butter is 12 tablespoons.

  13. I have the One Girl Cookies cookbook and have made these cookies. They are absolutely delicious by themselves but I’m sure the dulce de leche puts them over the top! I must and I will try with the dulce de leche. FYI…Williams Sonoma sells a dulce de leche that is outstanding!!

  14. Thank you SO much for posting these Jennifer! I felt exactly the way you did when I first saw these – a must make! I baked them for my cookie exchange last year and they were a HUGE hit. Love these cookies! I’m making them for a dinner tomorrow and again for my cookie exchange this year, absolutely delicious!

  15. Wow do these look incredible and I just happen to have a jar of dulce de leche in my pantry….. I am pinning these so that I don’t forget to make them!

  16. Where can I find Dulce de Leche or recipe for same?????

  17. anyway we could roll these out and cut out? I am looking for a shortbread which can be cut out into circles with scalloped cookie cutters. this recipe looks interesting with cream cheese.

    • I’ve not tried rolling out these cookies. I think it would work. Just keep in mind that shortbread dough is usually pretty crumbly, which will make it tougher to roll out than a sugar cookie dough.

  18. Can these biscuits be frozen ? I know I will prob want to eat them all but love having something in freezer incase of unexpected guests ? 

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