Homemade Alfajores Lesson!

Yesterday I finally got an authentic baking class on Argentine's national dessert, the alfajor, in Mili's kitchen. Traditional alfajores (alfajores de maizena) have a distinct light crumbly cookie that are made with a corn starch/flour/butter/vanilla/lemon rind/sugar dough, filled with dulce de leche and rolled in coconut. Very healthy. (I stupidly had no idea what the yellow box of Maizena was, even after Mili made me put my hand in it and feel how fine and suave it was. I still had to Google it. May have been my first time baking with about 2 cups of corn starch).

You see this version of the small homemade concoction in every kiosco, corner store, gas station, bakery, supermarket. There are of course many other varieties of them, non-homemade and found in shiny colorful packages, from triple chocolate to varied fruit fillings to even, yes!, peanut butter. Some are covered in chocolate, others in a white sugar glaze. This is pretty much their candy bar. But the alfajores de maizena are the real deal. And it's a super easy recipe, I can share with anyone who is so inclined as to try them out themselves.

Interestingly enough, they taste a lot better after cooling for a couple of hours, once the cookie has hardened a bit and the slight lemony flavor of the dough mixes with the caramely ducle de leche and coconut flakes. This went against my very core, as the classic American chocolate chip cookie is best right out of the oven, if you don't eat all the dough first. (Note to self: alfajor dough cannot compare to chocolate chip cookie dough. We've definitely got that on them).

As you can see, Yamil was in the kitchen helping us, fighting me to roll out the dough and cut the circles with a little shot glass. After a few practice batches, I let him have at it. He was also the coconut roller, whereas I spread on the dulce de leche, and Mili closed the cookies and smeared more ddl around the edges. We had quite the efficient assembly line going.

Definitely a good pairing with mate as well, I think today (after a 40 minute run to counteract them) may have been the first time I actually had the two traditions together.

As I write, it's about 10:30pm Saturday night and I'm waiting for Leo to come pick me up from the cabin (so I don't walk the unlit dirt roads alone) so we can hit El Cielo for dinner. Karim's back in Mendoza until Monday, but I think Celeste, one of the cellar hands, is joining us. 10:30 is late, what? Last night Jo, Karim and I were at El Cielo until 3am, talking politics, wine and the Royal Wedding. The fact that a 10:30pm dinner is early for me makes me feel like I'm FINALLY understanding... after almost four months, I get it!

I get your culture, Argentina.