Alfajores: South American Dulce de Leche Cookies with Almond flour

An alfajor  (plural alfajores) is a traditional confection found in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Andorra, Sprain, Venezuela and Southern Brazil.
Traditional "alfajores" in Argentina, Peru, and Uruguay consist of two round, sweet biscuits  made of wheat flour or corn starch joined together with dulce de leche (known as "manjar blanco" in Peru), and optionally coated with powdered sugar. More modern "industrial" varieties in Chile, Uruguay and Argentina, are coated with dark or white chocolate (many alfajores are sold in "black" and "white" versions), or simply covered with powdered sugar. These are also known as a Chilean Oreo. One variation is called "alfajor de nieve" (snow alfajor) and has a white coating consisting of a mixture of egg whites and sugar. Most alfajores come packaged in aluminium foil. Alfajores are made in various diameters and are consumed as snacks. The Brazilian style of alfajor is commonly known as "bem-casado" (literally "well wed"), also filled with doce de leite and covered with thin sugar. There is also another candy known as "pão de mel" (meaning "honey bread" in Portuguese) that shares some features with alfajor, but more closely resembles a ginger bread. This variety is also coated with dark chocolate - like in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile - but has a cake-like texture on the inside and can be filled with doce de leite, chocolate and coconut cream.Other varieties include different elements in the preparation of the biscuits, such as peanuts, and a variety of fillings, coatings, or even the addition of a third biscuit (alfajor triple).

We tried these in Argentina on our tour bus when our tour guide bought these for us, they were chocolate coated filled with Dulce de leche so a little too sweet.  I love Dulce de leche as they served this with breakfast for spread on the toast. I have been making ducle de leche at home boiling 4-5 cans of condensed milk in water on stove top for 3-4 hours to get the darkest color. I am still too scared to make them in pressure cooker.  Anyways  I decided to make these cookies with Almond flour and coat them with crushed nut bars that I had them in my pantry. The good thing about these nut bars is that they are filled with nuts and have coco drizzle and sea salt.  I also used roasted pistachio for coating these cooking along with nut bars, but you can use any roasted nuts that you have in pantry. And since it was around valentines day when I made them I decided to cut them in heart shape vs. traditional rounds, this recipe yields 24 cookies and since they are sandwich cookies hence the final count is 12 Cookies. Here is how I made them.

  

Ingredients for Cookies:

• 1 cup and 1/4 cup of AP flour 
• 1/2 cup of almond flour
• 1/4 cup of corn starch
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt

•   1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon of unsalted melted and at room temp butter (one stick + 2 tablespoon)
• 1 cup of powdered sugar 
• 1 large egg yolk
• Zest from 1/2 large lemon 
• Juice from 1/2 fresh large lemon
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

For filling:

• 1 can of Dulce de Leche (from one can of condensed milk)

For coating the cookies

• Chopped roasted nuts of your choice (I used 8 crushed nut bars from Costco which has cashews, pecan, almonds, sea salt and coco drizzle) 
• 1/2 cup of roasted salted pistachio nuts) (you can use any mixed roasted nuts of your choice of just almonds)

Method:

• In a medium  bowl mix almond flour, AP flour, baking powder and salt. 
• Set aside.

• In the bowl of electric mixer (fitted with paddle attachment) beat together butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
• Add in the egg yolk,  vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest and mix until everything is combined.

• Turn the mixer off and add dry mixture and mix at reduced speed.
• Mix well.
• Turn the mixer off and put the dough on a plastic wrap.

• Take out the wrapped dough from fridge.
• Unwrap the dough and place between two parchment paper.
• Place this on the counter and roll with rolling pin to 1/4 " thick round.
• Remove the top sheet of paper cut with round or desired shaped cookie cutters
• I used heart shaped cookie cutter.

• Cut 24 cookies by re-rolling the dough and cutting as needed until all the dough is used.
• Place the cut cookies on baking sheet.
• Bake them at preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 17 min until the edges are light golden.
• The top of cookies does not have to turn golden.

• Let the cookies cool completely before assembling them.

• While the cookies are cooling you can chop the nut bars in food processor.
• Transfer the chopped nut bars in a plate and chop the pistachios in food processor.
• Mix the chop nut bars and chopped pistachios and set aside.

To assemble the cookies:

• Turn two cookies with brown side up and spread generous  thick layer of  Dulce de Leche on one of the cookie.
• Put the other cookie on top, pressing it together to create a sandwich.
• Roll the cookies on chopped nuts.
• Place them on paper cups and in a container separating the layers by parchment paper.

Store them in an airtight container at room temp.

These refrigerate well for 3-4 wks and you can make these ahead and freeze them as well.



Enjoy !!

Information on Alfajores source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfajor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.