Alfajores are a dessert made all around South America and other Latin American countries, this is one of the most delicious and simple desserts we have. This dessert consist of two layers of cookies with “dulce de leche” on the middle, most people compare Alfajores with Macaroons, well the truth is that Alfajores are Latin American Macaroons, let me tell you a little styory. many years ago, when Spain was ruling over South America, they start the “Evangelization” of the masses, this process took years, over those years many nuns arrived to different parts of South America. Timed passed and Spain had an economical recession, leading to cut budgets and support to many of his colonies. Many churches didn’t have enough money to stay “open”, Nuns started to do bake sales in order to get founds for their religious activities, they used local and cheap ingredients to adapt famous recipes. and that is how many of the Peruvian and other Latin American desserts like Alfajores borned. This “anecdote” is referenced in diferent books, there are not exact dates or places, but it is very likely that those things happened.

What does dulce de leche means?

Dulce de Leche o Manjar Blanco, consists of milk + sugar, reduced (not burned) into a point in which it gets really thick. some people boil cans on condensed milk to get “dulce de leche”, others buy it. Making it at home takes a while however home made “manjar blanco” can be found in some local markets.

Here is a short story, when I was in my early 20’s I used to sell Alfajores to get some extra cash, I did not have a full time job at that time but I was a full time student, I was also in charge of cooking at home, taking care of chores, I was kind of a house husband. I had a grilfriend at that time and she used to help me to make them, even though our relationship did not work at the end, I have to admit that she helped me in my entrepreneurship ventures. We used to make over 200 alfajores, we gave them to my aunt (Irma) and she took care of everything else. I just want to take the time to thank both my family and ex-girlfriend for supporting me when I asked for support. now that I look back at it, things would have been really different withouth the support of my loved ones. My point here is that I made a lot of Alfajores, I know this recipe worked for me and It will work for you too.

Sifting your ingredients will remove any lumps and add some softness to the alfajores.

letting the dough rest is an important step, just make sure to not overwork the dough otherwise, the alfajores will end really hard.

Be sure the oven is at the right temp, and bake them for 9 min, then let it rest on the same tray it will be still cooking, try to keep the cookies away from the bottom part (near the fire) of the oven since they will burn really fast.

Delicious dessert that you can make at home, goes well with a coffe.

Do you like Alfajores? comment below