New Edition: Alfajores Marplatenses

I probably sound like a broken record, but my very favorite cookie from my birth place Uruguay is alfajores marplatenses. This translates to a chocolate sandwich cookie, which is filled with caramel aka dulce de leche. A decadent delicacy. Obviously I already have a recipe on the blog, however, this time I thought I may give another recipe a try. The recipe below follows the recipe by Isabel Vermal, an Argentinian pastry maker. Her dough is slightly different from my first recipe, it is slightly drier and contains more flour. It is a beautiful contrast to the dulce de leche filling. May I interest you in making below recipe?

Yes, these cookies do require quite a bit of work, first you need to make the dough, which then needs to chill. Afterwards you will need to fill the cookies and lastly dunk them in chocolate. Since they are pretty big and pretty decadent, I usually don’t manage to eat more than one. The beautiful thing is that they keep long since they are sealed in chocolate and that they freeze beautifully. No wonder they are so popular in Uruguay and Argentina. If you believe the Argentinian Forbes, in they year 2023 10 million alfajores were sold per day (!) in Argentina. This means that every Argentinian at least ate one alfajor per week. That is how popular these cookies are. So despite the fact that they are quite a bit of work, maybe I can interest you?

Credit: Isabel Vermal (Instagram in Spanish)

Print Recipe

Alfajores Marplatenses: Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Caramel Filling

Serves: About 27 alfajores if 5cm in diameter

Prep Time: 1hr – Cooking Time: 10min – Total Time: 1hr 10min

Alfajores marplatenses can be described as a chocolate sandwhich cookie with caramel filling, famous in Uruguay and Argentina.

Ingredients

• Cookie Dough
• 150 grams of butter at room temperature
• 50 grams of regular sugar
• 50 grams of honey
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• Zest of half a lemon
• Zest of half an orange
• 250 grams of all-purpose flour
• 50 grams of cornstarch
• 20 grams of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 
  
• Filling
• About 500 grams of dulce de leche, homemade or bought
• 400 grams of semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 tablespoon of neutral oil

Instructions

1

In this video you can see how I make them. For the dough beat the butter for a minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar and honey, then egg, vanilla extract and zests (I usually zest the fruits on top of the bowl). Beat until fully combined. Now add the remaining ingredients and beat until it forms a dough, this will take a while and it may be crumbly first. Transfer to an airtight container and chill at least for an hour or overnight.

2

Roll out on a lightly floured surface. Cut out circles, mine were 5cm in diameter. You may use a wine glass or similar if you don't have a fitting cutter. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, place circles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 10 minutes, let cool.

3

Transfer dulce de leche to a piping bag with a large piping tip and pipe onto a circle. Place a second circle on top so that you have a sandwich cookie. Chill in the fridge while prepaing the chocolate. Melt the chocolate with the oil on low while stirring, dunk each alfajor in it and let dry on parchment paper. It is easier to peel off once dry. Either serve immediately or later. Best to keep chilled in the fridge.