[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":410},["ShallowReactive",2],{"recipe:argentine-alfajores":3,"recipe:country:argentina":195},{"slug":4,"title":5,"nativeName":6,"pronunciation":7,"countrySlug":8,"region":9,"emoji":10,"summary":11,"intro":12,"story":13,"whyThis":14,"tips":19,"substitutions":26,"variations":43,"serveWith":53,"storage":55,"faq":56,"equipment":72,"baseServings":77,"prepMinutes":78,"cookMinutes":79,"restMinutes":80,"difficulty":81,"course":82,"diet":84,"mainIngredients":86,"ingredients":91,"instructions":139,"nutrition":169,"images":176,"keywords":186,"publishedAt":193,"updatedAt":193,"authorSlug":194},"argentine-alfajores","Alfajores de Maicena (Argentine Cornstarch Cookies with Dulce de Leche)","Alfajores de maicena","ahl-fah-HOH-res deh my-SEH-nah","argentina","Buenos Aires","🍪","Two pale cornstarch biscuits that dissolve the instant you bite them, sandwiched around thick dulce de leche and rolled through coconut so the rim wears a white fringe.","Alfajores de maicena are two soft, powdery discs made mostly from cornstarch rather than flour, joined with a generous layer of dulce de leche and rolled on their edge through desiccated coconut. The texture is the entire point: the biscuit barely behaves like a biscuit at all, collapsing into fine sweet powder on the tongue, which makes the caramel between the halves taste richer than it would against anything sturdier. The dough itself is only faintly sweet, scented with lemon zest and vanilla, because all the sugar lives in the filling. They also improve overnight, as the discs draw moisture from the dulce de leche and turn from crumbly to yielding.","The word alfajor arrived in South America through Spain and came to Spain from Arabic — al-hasú, roughly \"the stuffed one\" — and the Andalusian sweet it originally named is nothing like what Argentines eat today: a dense, spiced honey-and-nut confection, still made around Christmas in parts of southern Spain. What crossed the Atlantic was the idea of a filled sweet with a name, and Argentina rebuilt it from scratch as a sandwich cookie. It then became a national habit on a scale that surprises visitors: alfajores are sold at every kiosk, packed into school bags, and produced by large brands — Havanna out of Mar del Plata and the cheap, foil-wrapped Jorgito among the best known — in numbers that make Argentina the country that eats more alfajores per person than anywhere else.\n\nThe maicena version is the homemade one. Chocolate-coated alfajores belong to the factories; the cornstarch-and-coconut kind belongs to grandmothers, confiterías and school fundraisers, and it is the version most Argentines can make without a recipe. Regional styles are genuinely different animals rather than variations on a theme: the alfajor santafesino stacks three thin, crisp layers and jackets the whole thing in hard caramelised sugar, the cordobés is filled with fruit jam and glazed white, and the Patagonian ones lean on local berry preserves. Arguing for one over the others is a normal Argentine conversation.\n\nThe filling deserves its own note. Dulce de leche is claimed by both Argentina and Uruguay, and the familiar tale of a distracted maid who left milk and sugar on the stove is folklore with no evidence behind it — slow-cooked milk caramels exist across Latin America and in France as confiture de lait, so the honest answer is that nobody owns the invention. What matters in the kitchen is grade, not nationality: alfajores need dulce de leche repostero, the thick pastry version that holds its shape, because the softer spreading type will creep out from between the biscuits within the hour.",[15,16,17,18],"More cornstarch than flour by weight, which is what keeps the biscuit powdery instead of drifting toward shortbread.","Egg yolks only, so the crumb stays tender and pale rather than crisping and browning at the edges.","Bakes to barely coloured, with the visual cue spelled out — this is where most home batches go wrong.","Tells you which dulce de leche to buy and how to make a workable one if your shops do not stock it.",[20,21,22,23,24,25],"Look for dulce de leche repostero. The ordinary spreading grade is looser and will slide out of the sandwiches as soon as you stack them.","Sift the cornstarch and flour together twice. Cornstarch forms invisible lumps that bake into chalky spots you only notice while eating.","Chill the dough until firm before rolling. Warm maicena dough tears at the edges when cut and spreads into ovals in the oven.","Pull the trays while the tops are still ivory and only the undersides show a whisper of gold. Browned alfajores taste like biscuits, which is the opposite of the goal.","Let the discs cool completely on the tray. Lifted warm, they snap under their own weight.","Press the sandwiches only until the filling just reaches the edge — force it and the top disc cracks across the middle.",[27,31,35,39],{"original":28,"swap":29,"note":30},"Dulce de leche repostero","A 397 g tin of sweetened condensed milk, simmered submerged in water for 3 hours and cooled completely","Keep the tin fully covered with water the entire time and never open it hot. The result is slightly looser than repostero, so chill it before filling.",{"original":32,"swap":33,"note":34},"Cornstarch","There is no real substitute — potato starch comes closest but bakes drier","Replacing the cornstarch with flour gives a perfectly nice butter cookie that is no longer an alfajor de maicena.",{"original":36,"swap":37,"note":38},"Cognac or brandy","One teaspoon of lemon juice, or leave it out","The spirit is there to sharpen the dough against all that caramel. A little extra zest does a similar job.",{"original":40,"swap":41,"note":42},"Desiccated coconut","Chopped toasted walnuts, or nothing at all","Plenty of Argentine bakeries leave the rim bare and dust the tops with icing sugar instead.",[44,47,50],{"name":45,"description":46},"Alfajores de nieve","Skip the coconut and coat the assembled cookie in a thin white sugar glaze that sets matte, so it looks snow-dipped. Sweeter, and a common bakery finish.",{"name":48,"description":49},"Chocolate-dipped alfajores","Use a firmer flour-based dough and enrobe the whole sandwich in tempered dark chocolate — the industrial style that dominates kiosk shelves.",{"name":51,"description":52},"Alfajor cordobés","From Córdoba: filled with fruit jam rather than dulce de leche and finished with a hard white sugar glaze. Sharper, less rich, and a different cookie entirely.",[54],"Black coffee, or mate passed around the table — the sweetness needs something bitter beside it.","Store assembled alfajores in an airtight tin at room temperature for up to 5 days; they are noticeably better on day two, once the biscuit has softened against the filling. Do not refrigerate them, as the cold dries the crumb and firms the dulce de leche into a rubbery layer. The unfilled discs freeze well for 2 months, stacked flat between sheets of parchment — thaw them at room temperature for 20 minutes and fill as usual. Assembled cookies do not freeze cleanly; the filling weeps as it thaws.",[57,60,63,66,69],{"question":58,"answer":59},"Why did my alfajores turn out hard instead of crumbly?","Almost always overbaking, or too much flour worked in during rolling. Cornstarch dough sets while it looks underdone, so the tops should still be pale when the trays come out and the cookies firm up as they cool. Roll between sheets of parchment rather than dusting the bench with extra flour, and stop mixing the moment the dough comes together.",{"question":61,"answer":62},"What is dulce de leche repostero and do I really need it?","Repostero is the thicker, pastry-grade dulce de leche sold for baking and filling in Argentina and Uruguay. It holds a mound without spreading. Regular dulce de leche is looser and will ooze out of the sandwiches within an hour, though chilling it for 30 minutes before assembly helps a great deal if repostero is not available.",{"question":64,"answer":65},"Can I make dulce de leche at home from condensed milk?","Yes. Simmer an unopened tin of sweetened condensed milk fully submerged in water for about 3 hours, topping up the water so the tin stays covered at all times, then let it cool completely in the pan before opening. An unattended pan that boils dry is genuinely dangerous, so set a timer. The oven method — condensed milk in a covered dish in a water bath — is safer and gives a similar result.",{"question":67,"answer":68},"Can I bake the discs in advance?","Yes, and it is the sensible way to do it. Baked discs keep 3 days in an airtight tin or 2 months in the freezer, so you can assemble a batch in ten minutes whenever you need them. The raw dough also holds for 2 days in the fridge, though it will need 15 minutes at room temperature before it rolls without cracking.",{"question":70,"answer":71},"Do alfajores have to be rolled in coconut?","No. The coconut rim is the classic Buenos Aires home-baking finish and it does useful work by catching the exposed filling, but many bakeries leave the edges bare, dust the tops with icing sugar, or glaze the whole cookie white. The dough and the dulce de leche are what make it an alfajor.",[73,74,75,76],"5 cm round cookie cutter","Two baking sheets and parchment","Electric mixer or a sturdy wooden spoon","Fine sieve",10,30,12,60,"medium",[83],"dessert",[85],"vegetarian",[87,88,89,90],"cornstarch","butter","condensed-milk","coconut",[92,97,101,105,108,111,114,120,123,125,129,132,137],{"ref":87,"qty":93,"unit":94,"name":95,"group":96},200,"g","cornstarch (maicena)","For the biscuits",{"ref":98,"qty":99,"unit":94,"name":100,"group":96},"flour",150,"plain flour",{"qty":102,"unit":103,"name":104,"group":96},1,"tsp","baking powder",{"qty":106,"unit":103,"name":107,"group":96},0.5,"bicarbonate of soda",{"ref":88,"qty":109,"unit":94,"name":110,"group":96},120,"unsalted butter, soft but not melting",{"qty":112,"unit":94,"name":113,"group":96},100,"caster sugar",{"ref":115,"qty":116,"unit":117,"name":118,"note":119,"group":96},"eggs",3,"piece","egg yolks","save the whites for meringue",{"ref":121,"qty":102,"unit":117,"name":122,"group":96},"lemon","lemon, finely zested",{"qty":102,"unit":103,"name":124,"group":96},"vanilla extract",{"qty":102,"unit":126,"name":127,"optional":128,"group":96},"tbsp","cognac or brandy",true,{"qty":102,"unit":130,"name":131,"group":96},"pinch","fine salt",{"ref":89,"qty":133,"unit":94,"name":134,"note":135,"group":136},320,"dulce de leche repostero","or thick homemade dulce de leche, well chilled","To assemble",{"ref":90,"qty":80,"unit":94,"name":138,"group":136},"fine desiccated coconut",[140,143,147,150,155,159,163,166],{"title":141,"text":142},"Sift the dry ingredients","Sift the cornstarch, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together into a bowl, then sift the whole lot a second time. The mixture should feel weightless and hold no visible lumps of starch.",{"title":144,"text":145,"timerSeconds":146},"Cream butter and sugar","Beat the soft butter with the caster sugar for 3 to 4 minutes, until the mixture turns pale and looks aerated rather than grainy. Scrape down the bowl once — unmixed butter at the bottom shows up later as greasy patches.",240,{"title":148,"text":149},"Add yolks and flavourings","Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, waiting until each disappears before adding the next, then mix in the lemon zest, vanilla and cognac. The batter will look soft and slightly curdled at this stage, which is normal.",{"title":151,"text":152,"timerSeconds":153,"tip":154},"Bring the dough together","Add the sifted dry mixture in two goes and fold or beat on the lowest speed only until no dry powder remains. Stop immediately — the dough should feel soft and slightly sandy, not smooth and elastic. Flatten it into a disc, wrap, and chill for 1 hour.",3600,"Overworking is the single most common mistake. As soon as the bowl looks uniform, put the mixer down.",{"title":156,"text":157,"tip":158},"Roll and cut","Roll the chilled dough between two sheets of parchment to a thickness of 7 to 8 mm and stamp out 5 cm rounds. Lift them onto lined trays with a palette knife, spacing them 2 cm apart, and gather and re-roll the offcuts once only.","If the dough starts sticking or feels floppy, slide the whole sheet back into the fridge for 10 minutes rather than adding flour.",{"title":160,"text":161,"timerSeconds":162},"Bake pale","Bake at 180°C for 9 to 11 minutes. The tops must stay ivory with no colour at all; lift one with a knife and the underside should show the faintest gold ring at the rim. They will feel alarmingly soft — that is correct. Cool completely on the tray before moving them.",600,{"title":164,"text":165},"Fill and roll the rims","Spoon a rounded teaspoon of dulce de leche onto the flat side of half the discs and cap each with a second disc, pressing gently until the filling reaches the edge in an even band. Spread the coconut on a plate and roll each cookie on its side until the exposed caramel is fully coated.",{"title":167,"text":168},"Rest before eating","Leave the finished alfajores in a tin for at least a few hours, ideally overnight. The biscuit draws moisture from the filling and shifts from dry and crumbly to soft and melting, which is how they are meant to be eaten.",{"calories":170,"protein":171,"carbs":172,"fat":173,"fiber":102,"sugar":174,"sodium":175,"estimated":128},335,5,47,14,27,110,[177,180,182,184],{"src":178,"alt":179},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fargentine-alfajores\u002Fhero.jpg","Stacked cornstarch alfajores filled with dulce de leche, their rims rolled in shredded coconut",{"src":181,"alt":179},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fargentine-alfajores\u002Fhero-16x9.jpg",{"src":183,"alt":179},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fargentine-alfajores\u002Fhero-4x3.jpg",{"src":185,"alt":179},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fargentine-alfajores\u002Fhero-1x1.jpg",[187,188,189,190,191,192],"alfajores","alfajores de maicena","dulce de leche","argentine dessert","cornstarch cookies","sandwich 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chorizo in a crusty roll topped with green chimichurri and chopped salsa criolla",[277,278,279,254,280,225],"choripan","chorizo sandwich","argentine street food","grilled sausage",{"slug":282,"title":283,"nativeName":284,"countrySlug":8,"region":285,"baseServings":264,"prepMinutes":286,"cookMinutes":265,"restMinutes":146,"difficulty":81,"course":287,"diet":289,"mainIngredients":290,"images":294,"keywords":298,"publishedAt":193,"updatedAt":193,"authorSlug":194},"argentine-empanadas","Empanadas Salteñas (Baked Argentine Beef Turnovers)","Empanadas salteñas","Salta",50,[288,267],"appetizer",[],[291,270,98,292,293],"beef-chuck","cumin","paprika",[295],{"src":296,"alt":297},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fargentine-empanadas\u002Fhero.jpg","Baked Argentine beef empanadas with hand-crimped edges on a tray, one broken open showing juicy diced beef and egg",[299,300,301,302,303,304],"empanadas","salteñas","argentine beef","baked 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