Travis and I ate dessert first for his Comida Argentina crate from Raddish Kids! As always, Raddish thoughtfully provided a vegan alternative for non-vegan ingredients, in particular the canned dulce de leche needed for these cookies. We made our own, but unfortunately it was too sticky once cooled. That didn’t stop our delight with the shortbread cookies!

For the coconut dulce de leche:

• 1 (14-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Combine the ingredients in a skillet over medium heat, and cook until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Continue to cook until reduced to 1 and 1/4 cups, stirring frequently; it will take about 20 minutes.
2. Let cool and store in the fridge until preparing the cookies.

For the cookies:

• 3/4 cup Earth Balance butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 flax egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 and 3/4 cups flour

1. Combine the butter, sugar, and salt in a stand mixer; beat until creamy.
2. To make the flax egg, whisk 1 tablespoon flax into 3 tablespoons water. Add to the batter, along with the vanilla. Beat until combined.
3. Add the flour and beat until a soft dough forms.
4. The kit featured a handy cookie scoop to form even portions of dough on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Smooth each portion into a round ball. Press your thumb into the center of each cookie to form an indent.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 13 minutes.
6. Transfer to a wire rack and fill the centers with the dulce de leche; you’ll need to microwave it for about 60 seconds, until spreadable.

As mentioned, our filling was quite sticky, so we ended up leaving a few shortbread cookies plain. Travis enjoyed them either way! As we enjoyed these, we checked out the facts about Argentina on the recipe card and learned more about Argentina’s love for “candy of milk”.