Popular throughout Latin America and Spain, alfajores are shortbread-like sandwich cookies filled with dulce de leche, and rolled in grated coconut.
What are alfajores?
The alfajor (or alajú) is one of the foremost ambassadors of South American and Spanish pastries. It is also found in the Philippines and in the South of France.
This delicious confection consists of two or more layers of cookies, joined by a filling generally made of fruit or milk jam, honey, chocolate mousse, or even dried fruit or nut pastes, such as almonds, walnuts or hazelnuts. However, coconut and dulce de leche are the most common.
The use of spices, such as anise, sesame, cilantro, cloves and cinnamon is also common.
Alfajores are a national icon in South America and Spain and have so many versions that they can satisfy any palate.
What is the origin of alfajores?
According to Manuel Alvar López (1923 – 2001), eminent philologist, dialectologist and Spanish professor in his “Manual de dialectología hispánica”, and his field studies, compiled in his linguistic and ethnographic atlases, the alfajor in clearly of Andalusian origins, at the time of Al-Andalus.
Andalusia (Andalucía), is an autonomous community made up of eight provinces, located in southern Spain.
Al-Andalus is the term which designates all the territories of the Iberian Peninsula and some of the South of France, such as Septimania, which were under Muslim domination between 711 and 1492, when Grenada was taken. Andalusia today, which takes its name from it, was for a long time only a small part.
In 712, General Abu Abderrahman Moussa ibn Noçaïr ibn Abderrahman Zayd al-Bakri al-Lajmi, better known under the name of Moussa ibn Noçaïr (640 – 716 in Syria) who participated in the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, arrived in Algeciras, in Spain, with an army of 18,000 soldiers and types of alfajores, to undertake the conquest of Medina Sidonia, Alcalá de Guadaira and Carmona.
According to Manuel Alvar López, the word “alfajor” is an Andalusian variant of the Castilian word “alajú”, itself derived from the Arabic word الفاخر, “al-fakher”, meaning “luxurious”, and was introduced to Latin America as “alfajor”.
The word had, in fact, been introduced into Spanish dictionaries in the 14th century and especially in 1492, in Antonio de Nebrija’s famous 28,000-word work, the “Lexicon hoc est Dictionarium ex sermone latino in hispaniensem”, better known under the title “Diccionario latino-español” (Nebrija’s Latin-Spanish dictionary).
We also find a similar cake called alajú in the book “Kitab al-Tabikh” or “Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ” (Arabic: كتاب الطبيخ, “The book of dishes”), the name of two medieval Arab cookbooks from Baghdad. Kitab al- Tabikh, written in the 10th century by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq, and Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ written in 1226 by Muhammad bin Hasan al-Baghdadi.
The first references to appear in South America and, more particularly, in Venezuela and Peru at the beginning of the 18th century, referred to a confection served to the Spanish troops, then accommodated as a dessert in the region of Rio de la Plata, by the Andalusian immigrants.
The Río de la Plata, which in Spanish means “Silver River”, is the estuary formed by the Uruguay River and the funnel-shaped Paraná River on the southern coast of South America.
In the province of Río de la Plata, alfajores were introduced around the 19th century by a French pioneer, Auguste Chammas (1801 – 1870), a perfumer and chemist in Paris and then a confectioner in Cordoba, Argentina.
Chammas landed in 1840 on the coasts of the region and, in 1869, founded a small family industry making jams and types of alfajores. This industry was the first to make this dessert in the form we know today.
Alfajores therefore have Arab origins, moreover, it should be noted that Spanish culinary experts have highlighted the resemblance between alfajores and maamoul, a butter confectionery containing a date paste sprinkled with sugar and popular in North Africa and the Middle East, and especially in Lebanon.
The main variants
Spain
In Spain there is a wide variety of alfajores recipes, but the more traditional ones contain flour, honey, almonds and several spices, such as cinnamon.
Alfajor de Murcia, a town located in the south-eastern part of Spain. This very old dessert has maintained all the Arab tradition, but is only made in the northeast of the region, and mainly in Pedanías altas de Lorca. Cylindrical in shape, its flavor is composed of a mixture of almonds, walnuts, honey and cinnamon.
Alfajor de Medina-Sidonia, in the province of Cadiz, Andalusia, southwestern Spain. Medina Sidonia was the capital of the Arab world of clothing, where the alfajor has many centuries of history with a recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation.
The certification body responsible for promoting local products has jealously watched over the quality and know-how of the alfajor of Medina-Sidonia for 500 years. It is an alfajor that comes in a cylindrical shape, and weighs about 1 lb (500 g); it is decorated with dried fruits and topped with honey flavored with cinnamon.
In Medina Sidonia, the annual production of around 99,000 lbs (45,000 kg) is mainly consumed in the province of Cadiz, but alfajores are also popular in Seville, Malaga and Huelva.
Alfajor de Cuenca and Alcarria, in the region of Madrid, located in the central part of the country. In this region, this dessert is still often called alajú. It is prepared mainly from flour, almonds, figs and honey.
South America
In South America, alfajores are popular in Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela.
Argentina
Alfajores have been made since colonial times in the territories that are now part of Argentina. According to the “Código Alimentario Argentino” (Argentine Food Code), alfajores should be prepared as follows:
“Se entiende por Alfajor el producto constituido por dos o más galletitas, galletas o masas horneadas, adheridas entre sí por productos, tales como mermeladas, jaleas, dulces u otras sustancias o mezclas de sustancias alimenticias de uso permitido. Podrán estar revestidos parcial o totalmente por coberturas, o baños de repostería u otras sustancias to contain frutas secas enteras o partidas, coco rallado o adornos cuyos constituyentes se encuentren admitidos en el presente Código. (…) ”- Article 761 bis.
Meaning:
“Alfajor is understood to mean a product composed of two or more cookies, biscuits or cooked dough, stuck to each other by products, such as jams, jellies, confectionery or other substances or mixtures of food substances for authorized use. They may be partially or totally covered by coatings, couverture, or other substances to contain whole or split dried fruits, grated coconut or ornaments whose constituents are admitted in this Code. (…) ”- Article 761 bis.
Among the Argentinian regional alfajores, we find cordovan, filled with fruit confectionery, more generally quince, santafesino. No less than three layers of puff pastry stuck together with lots of dulce de leche and all with icing.
Also in Santa Fe we find rogel, with the same characteristics, but bigger and tucumano, also known as clarita, made of crunchy cookies and a sweet filling made from honey and cane sugar.
Also in Argentina, alfajores de coricena, made with cornstarch, dulce de leche as a filling, and grated coconut around the join, are very popular.
Paraguay
Alfajor is one of the most typical cookies of Paraguay, where they are usually made with flour or cassava starch and dulce de leche as a filling.
Peru
The classic presentation consists of two discs of flour and / or cornstarch dough, connected by a layer of manjar blanco and sprinkled with icing sugar.
There are multiple variations of alfajores in Peru, including the most prominent, at least for its size, King Kong de manjar blanco, from Lambayeque, typical of northern Peru. It is made with cookies (made from flour, butter, eggs and milk), filled with Peruvian manjar blanco, pineapple confectionery and, in some cases, peanuts. It weighs 1 -2 lbs (500 g to 1k g) and is known as part of the culture of the Lambayeque region, located in the northwest of the country.
Another Peruvian variety, a specialty of the north coast, is algarrobina alfajor, made from syrup of carob tree pods.
In Peru there are regional varieties such as:
- Alfajores from Cajamarca, a region located in the highlands of northern Peru: they are usually prepared in two different ways, but with some similarities. Unlike other alfajores from Cajamarca, they are made with reduced thickness of less than ½ inch (1 cm), but larger in diameter. They are usually 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter, or more. There is a baked form, and another fried.
- Alfajores arequipeños, from the region of Arequipa, a Peruvian city, capital of the homonymous province and of the homonymous department, located in the Peruvian Andes. The cookies are made with corn and wheat flour and filled with honey.
- Alfajores moqueguanos, from Moquegua the region of Moquegua, south of Lima: they are similar to the Arequipa alfajores. There are also a few alfajores called moquehua in Yapatera, filled with honey or manjar blanco.
- Alfajores de penco. Formerly called alfajores de yemas (eggs). They are much larger than regular alfajores, with three layers of dough made with egg yolks, anise, baking soda, and flour, while the filling is manjar blanco, to which are added coconut, peanuts, chestnuts and honey.
Mexico
In Mexico, alfajores are made with coconut only and are normally a tricolor coconut confectionery.
Nicaragua
In Nicaragua, they are made with molasses and various grains, including corn and cocoa. They are often wrapped in plastic or waxed paper.
Brazil
The Brazilian style of alfajores is commonly referred to as bem-casado (literally “well married”), also filled with milk jam and dusted with icing sugar.
There is also another cake known as pão de mel, meaning “honey bread” in Portuguese, which shares some characteristics with bem-casado, but looks more like gingerbread. This variety is coated in dark chocolate, just like in Argentina and Uruguay, but has a cake-like texture on the inside and can be filled with milk jam, chocolate, and coconut cream.
Other varieties include different ingredients in the preparation of the cookie dough, such as peanuts, and a variety of fillings, coatings, or even the addition of a third cookie (triple alfajor).
Chile
Alfajores from the central zone of Chile are consumed all year round. On the other hand, in the city of Valdivia, in the Region of Los Ríos, in the south of the country, it is generally consumed for the celebrations of National Holidays.
They are also called chilenitos and are made with cornstarch or some other type of flour and are generally simpler and smaller than common alfajores.
Although the term, alfajor, is also often used for two cookies united by a sweetness and usually dipped in meringue or jam and optionally sprinkled with icing sugar, the real traditional Chilean alfajor is made with two sheets of a kind of biscuit with a firm and very fine texture, which, when baked, have a curved shape at two of their ends, like tiles, traditionally joined with chancaca or manjar blanco. They can also be garnished on the edge with grated coconut or ground nuts.
Alfajores
Ingredients
- 1¼ cup wheat flour
- 2¼ cups cornstarch
- 1 cup margarine (or butter), at room temperature
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon cognac , or rum (optional)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 14 oz dulce de leche (milk jam)
- 1¼ cup grated coconut
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- Rolling pin
- Cookie cutter , 1½ inches (3 to 4 cm) in diameter
- Cooling rack
Instructions
- Sift together the flour, cornstarch and baking powder, and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the flat beater, beat the margarine or butter and icing sugar until a smooth cream is formed.
- Add the egg yolks and continue beating, then add the vanilla extract and beat for 1 minute.
- At medium speed, gradually add the flour mixture until a smooth thick dough is formed.
- Cover with cling film and let rest for at least 3 hours in the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 ° C).
- Roll out the dough to a thickness of about ¼ inch (5 mm).
- Using a cookie cutter, cut circles of 1½ inches (3 to 4 cm) in diameter and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, or until lightly browned. The alfajores should be pale and tender (if they are left to brown for a long time, they will be crispy).
- Place onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
Assembly
- Spread dulce de leche over the base of one of the cookies, and place another on top to form a sandwich.
- Repeat for the rest of the cookies.
- Roll the edges of the alfajores in grated coconut.
Video
Sources
Sabores Bolivia
Wikipedia (FR) – Alfajor
Wikipedia (ES) – Alfajor
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RTVE
Vera is the “expert” of the 196 flavors’ duo. With over 30 years of experience in the kitchen, she is now sharing her skills as a private chef and cooking instructor.
Mila says
I love to pair this yummy shortbreads with my afternoon coffee!