My sister Margaret, who lives in Canada, suggested these biscuits. I had seen them in my various searches but had never actually made any.
They are a big favourite in South America, in places like Argentia and Peru. The biscuits are shortbread and they are sandwiched together with dulce de leche.
This is a very easy recipe. Make some biscuits, open a can of dulce de leche, or caramel and you are almost done. The dulce de leche is sandwiched between two biscuits. An option to finish them off is a ring of desiccated coconut around the edge.
For mine I used some lemon zest to flavour the shortbread biscuits. I used a can of caramel, which is ready available in all stores. But it is possible to make the same thing by boiling a can of condensed milk in a saucepan for two hours. When is it cooled and open you will find it has turned into caramel.
The caramel is rather soft so the sandwiched biscuits will have a lovely gooey centre. That caramel goes so well with shortbread, so I am not surprised these biscuits are so popular.
My Bake
My shortbread baked perfectly and had a wonderful buttery flavour, enhanced by the taste of lemon too.
The sandwiched biscuits were simply wonderful. The caramel complemented the shortbread and, since I rolled the edge in coconut, I had an extra texture too. I had a hard time not eating too many.
Another very easy recipe is Highland Shortbread Biscuits.
Alfajores – Dulce De Leche Biscuits
Course: Biscuits, CookiesCuisine: South AmericanDifficulty: Easy18
servings1
hour15
minutes8
minutesIngredients
75g(1.2 cup, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cu) plain flour
120g(1 cup) cornflour
2g(1/2 tsp) baking powder
113g (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
88g(1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp) caster sugar
2 medium egg yolks(large in USA)
pinch of salt
grated zest from one lemon
dulce de leche(I used 397g, but the amount is personal preference)
desiccated coconut(optional) for rolling the edges of the alfajores
Directions
- Cream the butter and sugar together( I did this with my hand mixer)., in a large bowl.
- Add the egg yolks and zest and mix to combine.
- Mix the flour, cornflour, salt and baking powder together
- Sift the dry mixture onto the wet mixture and mix until it forms clumps.
- Tip the dough onto a work surface and squeeze to form a soft dough.
- Flatten the dough into a disc and place in some plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350 F.
- Line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough out, on a lightly floured surface, to a thickness of between 3mm and 5mm(1/8 – 1/4 inch).
- Cut out discs with a 50mm(2 inch) cookie cutter, and place them of the baking trays.
- Bake the biscuits in the oven for 8 minutes, until the edges just begin to change colour.
- Remove from the oven and allow the biscuits to cool.
- Turn half the biscuits upside down and pipe, or spoon, some dulce de leche on them.
- Gently press the remaining biscuits onto the tops, until the dulce de leche is just about oozing out of the side.
- Roll the edges of the sandwiched biscuit in desiccated coconut, if using.
- Leave the alfajores to set up a little. Maybe in the fridge the dulce de leche will becaome a little firmer.