Alfajores - dulce de leche sandwich cookies recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my alfajores dough crumbly? ›

Lots of recipes use a lot of cornflour to make them crumbly. This makes sense, and I agree to a point, but if the dough has too much cornflour, I find that it becomes too crumbly when you eat them.

Alfajores are traditional Argentine pastries made with two delicate, melt-in-your-mouth cookies embracing a luscious dollop of creamy dulce de leche caramel. Longing to share the taste of her childhood with her own children, Lucila started baking her authentic, artisanal alfajores in Chicago.

The alfajor is basically a sponge cake or cookies adhered with manjar (dulce de leche) and generally coated in meringue or marmalade and optionally with sprinkled icing sugar.

A much-loved sweet treat with different regional variations

Where did this national sweet treat come from? The origins of the Argentinian alfajor lie in its Arabic namesake, which is still made in Spain today. In fact, the word is derived from the Hispano-Arabic word al-hasu, meaning filling.

Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.

There are a few things you can do to add liquid to your cookie dough if it is too dry and crumbly. One option is to add milk, water, or another liquid until the dough is the right consistency. You can also try adding melted butter or shortening. If your dough is still too dry, you may need to add more flour.

What is the difference between Peruvian and Argentinian alfajores? Truth be told, they are pretty similar. Peruvians call dulce de leche “manjar blanco”, but the alfajor itself is pretty much the same. Of course, there are many alfajor variations within each country's regions, but the basic product is the same.

Other than the dulce de leche, a sweet milk-based caramel sauce, the thing that defines alfajores is the corn starch. The cookie dough contains almost equal parts corn starch, butter, and flour. This leaves an almost shortbread-like dough that melts in your mouth when you bite into it.

Alfajores can still be found all over the world, from Spain, where they still resemble the flat pie-like pastries of the 17th century, to much of South America. But they found their home in Argentina, where El Porteño owner, Joseph, continues to visit to garner new ideas for his offerings. As food writer, Julie R.

Spanish dulce de leche and Portuguese doce de leite mean "sweet [made] of milk". Other names in Spanish include manjar ("delicacy"), arequipe and leche quemada ("burnt milk", a term popular in Mexico); also in Mexico and some Central American countries dulce de leche made with goat's milk is called 'cajeta'.

What is a fun fact about alfajor? ›

These little sandwich cookies aren't Mexican per se, but a beloved tradition across much of Latin America, where buttery shortbread serves as a vehicle for dulce de leche in all its regional forms.

Basically, you make the alfajor cookie dough, which consists of butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, almond extract, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.

For Porteños, the residents of Buenos Aires, the alfajor follows us through life: devoured with a can of drink during school breaktimes, nibbled with a glass of milk on visits to grandma's house, and, later in life, enjoyed as to the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee in the office.

It is said that the alfajor was originally called "alajú." It is a dessert that has found its way through Spain, parts of Latin America and all the way to the Philippines.

Adding too much butter can cause the cookies to be flat and greasy. Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly. You should use unsalted butter to control the salt content, but if you only have salted on hand, reduce the amount of added salt accordingly.

Using too much flour will make your cookies too cakey, so try reducing the flour amount by two tablespoons. Avoid using cake flour instead; try a mix of all-purpose flour and bread flour for a more dense and chewy texture. Using too much baking powder. According to the science geeks at Serious Eats—we love you!

If your dough is too sticky and it's impossible to work with you can add some extra flour, just a little at a time. Make sure you weigh the extra flour you add and then you'll be able to adjust the recipe correctly the next time you bake.

The fridge constantly circulates cool air to keep things cold, but this will also result in drying out your dough. (There are some recipes that call for chilled dough and typically the recipe will have been created to account for this.)