Alfajores
One of my favorite cookies are the Alfajores. I’ve become an expert taster of Alfajores, and after trying a lot of them, I prefer those made with cornstarch. Alfajores are the typical dessert of South American countries such as Argentina, Chile and Peru. An Alfajor consists of two slightly sweet shortbread-like cookies, filled with dulce de leche. They can be coated with confectioners’ sugar or with chocolate. I prefer the ones sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. 
My boyfriend brought me a delicious handmade dulce de leche from Guadalajara. We had been eating it at spoonful, until it occurred to me that it would be the perfect filling for some Alfajores. The problem was that I didnit have a recipe for Alfajores. I’ve eaten pretty bad Alfajores, and I was afraid to make a recipe that will end with not so great Alfajores. 
Then I remembered a cooking television show, hosted by an Argentinian nun, Sister Bernarda. She used to prepared traditional convent recipes, and I remember watching her prepared some Alfajores. I searched the internet and found her book. My reasoning was that a nun would not lie, so her recipe should be good. 
While I was making the necessary adjustments to bake the Alfajores at high altitude, I saw listed in the ingredients list, lemon zest and Brandy. It never occur to me that the cookie from the Alfajores had lemon zest in it. But I have to accept that the cookies are delicious! I think the brandy and lemon zest, which flavor is almost imperceptible, give the cookies the perfect taste. 
I am fascinated with these Alfajores! The cookies ar just as I like them, soft and crumbly. Besides the handmade dulce de leche, makes a perfect match. I wanted to make them petite size, but you can make them the size you prefer.
- 200 gr (7.1 oz) unsalted butter
- 130 gr (4.6 oz) sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon Brandy
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon milk
- 300 gr (10.6 oz) cornstarch
- 200 gr (7.1 oz) flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Zest from one lime
- ½ cup Dulce de leche
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, the vanilla extract and the Brandy. Mix until well combined.
- In a small bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the milk.
- In a medium bowl mix the cornstarch, flour, baking powder and lime zest. Mix until combined. Add the dissolved baking soda and mix well.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the stand mixer. Mix until all the ingredients are well combined. The dough is kind of dry, with cracks.
- Press the dough together into a ball and flatten slightly into a disk shape. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mats.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1 cm thick (1/2 in). Cut out cookies with a round cutter ( I used a round cutter with a 4 cm /1.6 in diameter). Arrange on parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheets, leaving about 3 cm (one inch) of space between cookies. (
- Bake for 8 -10 minutes, turn around and bake for 8-10 minutes more, or until the cookies just start to darken around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Spoon ¼ teaspoon dulce de leche into a cookie, make an even layer over the entire cookie leaving a small space around the edge. Top with a second cookie and press lightly to adhere. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.
- Enjoy!
- The diameter of my cookies is 4 cm (1.6 in) and I ended with 78 tiny alfajores.
- Cookies will keep in an airtight container, for up to 5 days.
they look lovely!
Perfect sweetness happening here, can’t wait to take a bite!
Hi Pamela, Thanks for stoping by.
What adjustments did you do for Altitude? I live in Colorado and always have to adjust my baking recipes due to the altitude here.
Hi Mia! Living in a high-altitude city and baking often doesn’t work together. It depends a lot on the recipe you want to convert to high altitude, but usually you have to increase the flour a little, and reduce the sugar, baking powder and baking soda.
Mia did you figured this out. I am at 8400′ (yes Colorado) and although I have made alfajores back home (Venezuela) they have been not too far from sea level. I do have charts to adjust ingredients to high altitude but because the author initially mentioned she was adjusting to altitude, my first question is if this recipe is already adjusted or not. Did you make them? Did you have to make adjustments? Thanks
Hi Nahysa! All the recipes that I share in Sweet Cannela were prepared in a high altitude city (I live in Mexico City 7.382 feet – 2,250 meters), so basically all of them should work well in a high altitude city. And the alfajores are no exception, hope they work for you.
Thank you so much for replying! This is huge help!