Alfajores argentinos

Alfajores are Argentina’s beloved sandwich cookies: two impossibly tender, crumbly rounds hugging a thick layer of dulce de leche, with coconut pressed around the edges. One with coffee is civilized; stopping at one is heroic.

The name comes from an Arabic word meaning “stuffed,” and the cookie’s story runs from the Middle East through Moorish Spain to South America with the colonists in the 16th century — where Argentina perfected it with its national obsession, dulce de leche.

The secret to that melt-in-your-mouth texture is cornstarch: it outweighs the flour in the dough, making the cookies almost cloud-like. They are easier to make than they look, and dangerously easy to eat.

Alfajores Argentinos Recipe

Prep time: 20 minutes · Cook time: 12 minutes · Total: about 45 minutes · Servings: 10 · Calories: ~338 per serving

Ingredients

• 7 tablespoons (3.5 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¾ cup (3.5 oz) powdered sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 whole egg, plus ½ of another beaten egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Zest of 1 lemon
• ¾ cup (3.5 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1⅔ cups (7 oz) cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• For the filling:
• 1 cup (about 9 oz) dulce de leche
• To decorate:
• ⅓ cup grated coconut

Instructions

1. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, cream the butter with the powdered sugar. Mix in the lemon zest and vanilla.
3. Add the egg yolk, then the whole egg, then half of the beaten egg, mixing until smooth and creamy.
4. Gradually work in the sifted dry ingredients, then turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead gently until smooth.
5. Roll out to about ¼ inch thick, cut rounds with a cookie cutter, and bake on a parchment-lined tray at 350°F for about 12 minutes — they should stay pale.
6. Cool completely, then spread dulce de leche on half the cookies, sandwich with the rest, and roll the edges in grated coconut.

Recipe Notes

• The cookies must be fully cool before filling, or the dulce de leche will slide.
• Nutella or thick jam work as fillings, but dulce de leche is the true Argentine way.
• Gluten-free all-purpose flour substitutes well — the cornstarch is doing most of the work anyway.
• They keep up to a week in an airtight container, softening pleasantly as the filling settles into the cookies.