Friends, it is time for a recipe from my birth country again: Alfajores from Uruguay! Alfajores are a very popular cookie in Uruguay and Argentina, consisting of a shortbread-type of sandwich cookie, creamy and delicious dulce de leche as filling, which in the end is covered in coconut flakes. If you want a slightly different cookie and feel like impressing your friends and family, look no further, alfajores are for you!
What are the features of this cookie? Well, the base is a shortbread cookie, or let’s say, the Latin American version of shortbread. Because it contains a lot of cornstarch. You know, because corn and Latin America? One of the main ingredient found on this continent? In comparison to a regular shortbread cookie, the cornstarch makes the cookie softer, it has this melt-in-your-mouth kind of characteristic. I flavored it with some real vanilla.
The filling you see oozing out is not regular caramel, but again the caramel from Latin America called dulce de leche (well, in Uruguay it is called that). Dulce de leche literally translates as the sweetness from milk. Since dulce de leche is very hard to find in Germany, I made my own by simply boiling a can of sweetened condense milk in water for two and a half hours. That’s how simple that is!
The last step for this cookie to be perfect, is to roll it in coconut flakes and that’s about it for this classic cookie from Uruguay. You want to give it a try?
Credit: Clásicos e infaltables alfajores de maicena from cocineros argentinos, p 69 (in Spanish)
Classic alfajores from Uruguay are a super soft vanilla sandwich cookie filled with the milk caramel dulce de leche. In this video you can see how I make them. For the sandwich cookie cream the soft butter for about a minute, then add the sugar and cream for another two minutes. Incorporate the egg fully before mixing in the egg yolk. Once everything is nicely combined, add all remaining ingredients and mix one more time. Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least half an hour or overnight. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide dough in half, put one back in the fridge and roll out the other thickly on a lightly floured surface. Cut out cookies with either the bottom of a glass or a cookie cutter around 6cm in diameter. Repeat with all the dough. Bake for about 8-10min, the cookies will look very pale. Let cool off before filling half with each a teaspoon of dulce de leche. Place other half of cookies on top and roll the sides of each cookie in the coconut flakes (it helps if the dulce de leche was pressed down to the sides of the cookie). Enjoy. No idea what to do with the leftover egg white? Check out see this blog post including how to freeze them properly.Classic Alfajores from Uruguay
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
P.S.: If you are into chocolate as much as I am, how about trying the chocolate version of this cookie? You will find the recipe here.
6 Comments
Mariana
Wednesday September 9th, 2020 at 01:46 PMHallo Jenny,
Alfajores sind meine Lieblingssüßigkeit, die ich mit meiner Kindheit verbinde. Meine Eltern und Schwester sind dort geboren, wir waren über die Weihnachtsferien oft dort. Und was nie fehlen durfte: Dulce de leche und die Vanillefläschen von Monte Cudine! Wenn mal jemand dort war, mussten natürlich Alfajores mitgebracht werden. Wir rationieren und genießen sie dann. Meine Lieblingssorte sind die Alfajores nieve. Danke für dein Rezept, ich werde es ausprobieren!
Grüße aus Süddeutschland, Biberach an der Riß!
Jenny
Wednesday September 9th, 2020 at 01:50 PMMariana, wie cool! Das gibt es selten, dass jemand seine Kindheit dort verbracht hat, wo denn, in Montevideo?
Vanilleextrakt mache ich mittlerweile selbst, das geht einfach, du brauchst nur Vanilleschoten und Alkohl, siehe hier: https://jennyisbaking.com/de/2017/02/25/how-to-make-vanilla-extract/
Und alfajores de nieve hab ich natürlich auch auf dem Blog: https://jennyisbaking.com/de/2019/11/28/meringue-alfajores-from-uruguay-and-start-of-the-cookie-week/
Ganz liebe Grüße aus München! Jenny
Mariana
Tuesday October 27th, 2020 at 01:25 PMJa cool, danke für das Vanillerezept! Also ich habe meine Kindheit nicht dort verbracht, aber als Kind war ich einige Male dort. Die Süßigkeiten sind aber ubtrennbar nur der Teit dort und Besuche von Oma bei uns in Deutschland verbunden. Wie auch immer, danke, dass du uruguayisch backs!
Herbstliche Grüße nach München!
Jenny
Tuesday October 27th, 2020 at 01:55 PMSaludos und danke für deine Worte!
Glenna Johnson
Tuesday January 11th, 2022 at 06:51 AMJenny, these look amazing! Are there any good, authentic alternatives to coconut flakes in which to roll the cookies? I’m not a coconut fan, but it seems like having the cookie rolled in something is, at minimum, texturally important. I’d like to make these without going too far off the mark as far as traditional ingredients. Thanks!
Jenny
Tuesday January 11th, 2022 at 09:07 AMHi Glenna,
First of all, I am not a huge fan of coconut myself. However, as it is only a minor component, I don’t mind it in these cookies. You can try simply leaving them plain or just lightly rolling them in the coconut flakes. Probably any other nut would work as well if finely processed.