I know, I know…It’s been forever since my last update. Not that I haven’t baked anything (or anything new), but a few things factored in, preventing me from timely updates and uploads. So now I have about 6-7 new recipes in store waiting to be shared and enjoyed. I decided to start with the most recent one – a (fairly) new culinary discovery I made during a trip to Peru back in 2011. My South American love. Alfajores….It was a love at first sight…I mean, a love at first bite. Since then I’ve enjoyed them in Argentina, their “home country”, and had a quick airport shop pick up passing through Brazil. Now they have finally made their way to my kitchen – and my blog.
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Step-by-step Recipe

Ingredients:

• 115g flour, plain
• 150g cornstarch
• 125g butter, at room temperature
• 70g sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1tsp baking powder
• ½tsp baking soda
• ½tsp lemon zest
• ½tsp vanilla extract
• 1tsp cognac or rum
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk (see NOTE below)
• 30g icing sugar (optional)
• 15g shredded coconut (optional)

Note: This recipe makes 20 sandwich cookies. To make the filling, place a closed can of condensed
milk in a pot, pour water making sure the can is covered completely. Boil for about 4 hours adding
water as it evaporates. Cool before opening.

Directions:

In a large bowl combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk well and set
aside. Place butter and sugar in another bowl.

Beat butter and sugar on low speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks one at
a time, mixing well after each addition.

Add the lemon zest, vanilla extract and rum, mix well. With mixer running on low speed, slowly add
the dry ingredients.

Mix until it turns into crumbly but workable dough. Place dough onto a cling film, shape into a square
or rectangle.

Wrap the dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 180C. Flour the surface, place
the refrigerated dough on it, flour a rolling pin and roll it out to about ½cm thick.

Cover the baking sheet with baking paper. Cut the dough with a round cookie cutter (I used 7cm for
this recipe) to make an even number of cookies. Carefully transfer them to a cookie sheet.

Ensure cookies are about 2cm apart from each other. Bake about 10-15mins or until the underside
has a light golden brown color. Let them rest for 1min on the baking sheet and then let them cool
completely on a wire rack.

Spread 1 tsp of filling on the underside of half of the cookies and then place the rest of the cookies
on top to make a sandwich. Press them lightly to squeeze out the filling. Roll the alfajores in the
shredded coconut if you like or dust lightly with the icing sugar.