These alfajores are made with soft-textured biscuits, filled with confectioner's dulce de leche and coated with dark chocolate. There are all kinds of variants, of course, but this is the traditional one! Enjoy with a cup of coffee or black tea!
Recipe
How much time do you need?
Preparation time: 2 hours
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Resting time (the chocolate coating has to set): preferably at least 8 hours
Material:
Bowls for mixing
Hand whisk
Spatulas
Medium saucepan
Cooling racks
Parchment paper
Baking trays
Zester
Clinging wrap
Pastry bag or simple kitchen cutlery
Ingredients:
For the alfajor tapas (biscuits):
340 grams of common white flour
150 grams of cornstarch
15 grams of baking powder
160 grams of white sugar
15 grams of dark cocoa
170 grams of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 egg
2 tablespoons of chocolate hazelnut paste (the famous spreadable heaven!)
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
60 ml water at room temperature
A pinch of salt
For the caramel filling and chocolate coating:
500 grams confectioner's dulce de leche (firm consistency) or Caramel
300 grams of semi-bitter chocolate to melt (~65% cocoa)
1 tablespoon of coconut oil or light flavour olive oil
Method:
For the alfajor tapas (biscuits):
In a medium bowl, beat the butter together with the sugar and vanilla until it turns a light colour. Add the egg, the chocolate hazelnut paste, beat for a few seconds, and add the water and the orange zest. Beat until you get a homogeneous mixture, but not too much , we don’t want to split it.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and beat until just incorporated. Bring the mixture to the counter and join well with your hands without kneading. The dough should be smooth and due to the high butter content, it should not be over-mixed. Using a rolling pin and sprinkling with a little cornstarch, roll out to form a flat disk and wrap in non-stick film. Put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 ° C. Place parchment paper on 2 large baking sheets (thin cookie trays are best). Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll out the dough until it is roughly half a centimetre thick. Using a cookie cutter with the shape you like, preferably round, cut circles of approx 3 to 5 cm in diameter, or the size you like. Lift the discs gently with the help of a spatula and place them on the baking sheet. Place the trays in the freezer for a few minutes while the oven heats up. No more than 10 minutes.
Bake the discs for 6 to 8 minutes directly from the freezer. In order to have a smooth consistency and not crunchy like a cookie, you should not cook them more than 10 minutes.
With the help of a spatula, transfer the baked discs to a rack to cool. Let them cool for at least 1 hour. Fill with the confectioner's dulce de leche or caramel. If you have a pastry bag, much better, if not, measure one tablespoon and spread it with the help of a spreading knife (butter knife).
Prepare the chocolate bath:
Put a cooling rack on a baking sheet or on parchment paper on the counter, we will use it to put the alfajores after dipping them in chocolate.
Melt the chocolate together with the coconut oil in a double boiler. The bowl with chocolate should not come into contact with the water. Add only 70% of the chocolate and the tablespoon of oil in the bowl. Once most of it has melted, add the remaining 30%. In this way the chocolate will remain liquid for much longer (seeding technique). Be careful not to overheat the chocolate as it can burn it. Turn off the heat when almost everything is melted and use the residual heat to continue melting the rest.
Dip the alfajores in the chocolate. Use a fork or spatula to hold the alfajor and with the help of one tablespoon, cover it with the melted chocolate. Drain the excess chocolate well and place them on a rack so that the excess chocolate continues to drain. After approximately 2 hours remove them using a spatula and place them on parchment paper until they solidify (at least 6-8 hours).
They are ready to eat! You can keep them in the refrigerator for up to a week or for several months in the freezer. Simply take them out of the freezer 2 hours before eating so they thaw slowly.
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