Alfajores
There are many recipes for Alfajores, these wonderful, Argentinian sandwich cookies, and this recipe is probably the best one I came across. Preparing the cookies is very simple. However, you might want to free an hour of your time for filling and decorating the cookies.
These alfajores are amongst the simplest cookies to prepare but they taste so amazingly sophisticated! and the way they melt in the mouth is just yum! Need I say more? You should already be preparing the cookies! (Or at least on your way to buy the ingredients. Or preparing the dulce de leche. Now, go!)
For 30-35 small sandwich cookies, you’ll need:
- Your oven tin, covered with baking paper
- 200g chilled, diced butter
- 200g flour
- 250g cornflour
- 10g baking powder
- 120g icing sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- finely grated zest of half a lemon
- Store-bought or home-made dulce de leche
- Ground coconut, for decorating
How to:
Preparing the dough:
(1) Place the butter, flour, cornflour, baking powder and icing sugar in a food processor
(2) Process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs
(3) Add the egg, egg yolks,vanilla and lemon zest and process until a dough is formed
(4) Roll the dough out, form a disc, wrap in cling film and chill for 1 hour in the fridge
Baking and preparing the cookies:
(1) Preheat oven to 160c and line your oven tin with baking paper
(2) Roll out the dough on to a lightly floured surface
(3) Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough until it’s about 0.4 cm thick (for a 3cm cookies. for bigger cookies, make the dough slightly thicker)
(4) Cut the dough into small circles and place on the baking paper
(5) Bake for 8 minutes (the cookies will remain pale. You’ll know they’re baked if their bottom is lightly brown)
(6) Let the cookies cool on a wire rack
(7) Make pairs (size based decision)
(8) For each pair of cookies: spread dulce de lech on one of the cookies then combine both cookies to form a sandwich cookie
(9) Pour some ground coconut in a small bowl or plate and roll the edges of each cookie in it. I found it easier to roll the cookies first in some dulce de leche mixed with a little bit of water, then the ground coconut
