The *softest* brown sugar dulce de leche cookies, stuffed with dulce de leche & topped with a cream cheese frosting and even more dulce de leche.
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dulce de leche stuffed cookies
Hello hello! I’m here today with a *delicious*, rich, creamy and sweet cookie. I recently have become obsessed with creating frosted cookies, and have been wanting to create a recipe with dulce de leche for a while now, which leads us directly to these cookies. These cookies aren’t just frosted with a swirl of dulce de leche, they’re stuffed with it! The cookies themselves are also super soft, melt-in-your-mouth, and are lightly spiced with cinnamon. On top we’ll put a tangy cream cheese frosting and a swirl of more dulce de leche to truly create a beautiful, perfect & delicious cookie.
why you’ll love these dulce de leche cookies:
- Dulce de leche: I mean, you probably already love it if you clicked on these cookies but it’s so rich, creamy and flavorful.
- The softest brown sugar cookie: these use my base brown sugar cookie recipe that you’ll see a few times on my blog, because it’s truly *so* delicious and perfect.
- Cream cheese frosting: I mean, who doesn’t love a tangy cream cheese frosting.
expert baking tips
Weigh your ingredients
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale.
Use room temperature ingredients
It’s important that your ingredients are at room temperature so that they can easily incorporate with each other. Take out your egg and butter about an hour before starting the cookies, and the cream cheese about an hour before making the cream cheese frosting.
Mix the dough carefully
When adding in the flour, only fold the mixture just until no flour streaks remain. Over mixing the dough leads to more gluten formation, which can make the cookies thicker and more tough in texture.
Under bake for perfect cookies
Cookies continue baking after they have been taken out of the oven. Once the edges turn slightly golden brown, and the cookies look just a little wet on top still, they are ready to come out. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for an additional 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
The secret to perfectly round cookies:
Wanna know the secret to perfectly round cookies? It’s cookie scooting! Right when the cookies come out of the oven, take a bowl, cup, or biscuit cutter that is just slightly larger than your cookies and place it over one of the cookies. Gently swirl the bowl around the cookie to make the cookie perfectly round (and slightly thicker). And that’s all there is to it!
A note on oven temperature
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature and might not always actually be at the temperature they claim to be at. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
ingredients for dulce de leche stuffed cookies:
dulce de leche stuffed cookies:
- Dulce de leche: you’ll want a can of thick dulce de leche, not the squeezable version.
- All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness. AP flour ranges from about 10-12% protein. If you use a flour closer to 10%, the cookies will be slightly less chewy. I use and love King Arthur Flour, which is 11.7% protein.
- Baking powder: for helping the cookies rise.
- Ground cinnamon: for a little bit of spice in the cookies. You can omit this if desired.
- Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the cookies
- Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the cookies.
- Light brown sugar: for sweetness and for moisture.
- Vanilla: for flavor.
- Egg: for binding and for moisture.
cream cheese frosting:
- Cream cheese: the tanginess from the cream cheese compliments the sweetness of the frosting and cookies so well.
- Unsalted butter: a little bit of butter helps thicken up the frosting.
- Salt: a little bit of salt helps balance the sweetness and bring out the flavor of the frosting.
- Powdered sugar: to sweeten and thicken up the frosting.
- Dulce de leche: for swirling on top of the cookies
how to make dulce de leche cookies
Below are a few images of what the process of making these cookies looks like. As always you can find the full recipe at the end of the blog post 🙂
- Beat together the butter and brown sugar.
- Followed by the egg and vanilla.
- Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined, then chill the dough for 30 minutes.
- Stuff the cookies with dulce de leche, then chill for another 30 minutes. Bake, frost, serve, and enjoy!
dulce de leche cookies recipe q&a
can I double this recipe?
Definitely – I’ve tested this recipe up to quadrupling it with no problem. Please be sure to use grams for the best results.
can I make these cookies ahead of time?
Definitely – cookie dough really only gets better with time. There’s two ways you can go about it with these cookies, since they need two separate chills. Please note that chilling the dough will result in a thicker cookie.
- You could make the cookie dough and leave it tightly covered in the bowl for up to 2 days before assembling the cookies. Just note that you will need to let the dough sit out for 20-30 min. before it’s soft enough to scoop. Then, you would fill the cookie dough with the dulce de leche and let it chill for 30 minutes, then bake it.
- You could assemble the stuffed cookie dough balls and keep them tightly covered in the fridge for up to 2 days before baking them, or keep them in the freezer for up to a month before baking them off. If you wanted to bake them after freezing, I’d recommend letting them sit in the fridge overnight before baking them off, or letting them sit at room temperature for 10-20 minutes, just to get a little warm, before baking them off.
store the stuffed dulce de leche cookies in the fridge
Because the frosting is made with cream cheese, these cookies do need to be stored in the fridge once they are frosted. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. They are delicious cold, but if you’re not a fan of cold cookies, you can let them sit out at room temperature for 30-60 minutes before eating them.
tools and ingredients:
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
other recipes you might enjoy:
did you make this recipe?
I’d love to see and know your thoughts! please leave a comment and review below, and tag me on instagram @freshbeanbakery. #freshbeanbakery
Dulce de Leche Cookies
Ingredients
Brown Sugar Cookies
- 8 tbsp. dulce de leche
- 90 g unsalted butter room temperature (6 ⅓ tbsp.)
- 150 g light brown sugar (¾ c.)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 160 g all purpose flour (1 ⅓ c.)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp. salt
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 100 g cream cheese room temperature (½ c.)
- 42 g unsalted butter room temperature (3 tbsp.)
- ⅛ tsp. salt
- 160 g powdered sugar (1 ⅓ c.)
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp. dulce de leche for swirling on top
Instructions
Brown Sugar Cookies
- Prior to starting the cookies, you'll want to freeze 1 tbsp. balls of the dulce de leche for stuffing into the cookies. I used a 1 tbsp. cookie scoop and scooped 8 balls of dulce de leche on to a parchment lined sheet, then stuck it in the freezer. It will take ~30-60 min. to freeze, so I'd recommend doing this the night before to make things easier.
- Add the butter and brown sugar to a medium sized mixing bowl. Use a hand or stand mixer to beat the mixture together until it's light and fluffy (~2-3 min.)
- Add in the egg and vanilla, and beat until well combined (1 min.)
- Add in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Use a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients together just until no flour streaks remain.
- Cover the bowl then place in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes, to firm up.
- Scoop out 3 tbsp. scoops of the cookie dough. Use your palm to flatten the cookie dough ball down, then place a frozen ball of dulce de leche in the center of the flattened cookie.
- Fold the overhanging cookie dough on top of the dulce de leche, making sure it is completely trapped inside each cookie.
- Place the cookie dough balls back into the fridge for 30 minutes.*
- Once the cookies have chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or with a silicone baking mat.
- Evenly space out the cookies on the cookie sheet, leaving room for spreading.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the sides of the cookies just start to turn golden brown, and the top of the cookies looks just slightly wet.
- If the cookies are a little misshapen, place a bowl that is slightly larger than the cookies over them, and swirl the bowl around to make the cookie more round. Let the cookies rest on the hot baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
- Allow the cookies to come to room temperature before frosting them.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a small bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter and salt until the mixture is smooth.
- Add in ½ of the powdered sugar and beat until combined, then beat in the remaining powdered sugar, followed by the vanilla.
- Top each cookie with ~1.5 tbsp. of the frosting. Use a spoon to make crevices in the frosting for the dulce de leche to sit in.
- Place extra dulce de leche in a bowl (~4 tbsp. but adjust to your preference) and microwave it in 5-second intervals until it loosens up.
- Add some dulce de leche on to each of the cookies, and gently swirl it around into the cream cheese frosting. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that the nutrition facts are only an estimate and may vary based on different brands of ingredients and any substitutions made.
AMAZINGGGG!
Thank you so much Lysette! 🙂