Alfajores de Maizena

Have you eaten alfajores de maizena in Argentina?  They're delicious cornflour shortbread cookies, filled (in some cases, sky high) with dulce de leche and rolled in toasted coconut flakes.  Until I had encountered the pastelerias in Buenos Aires, I thought I had already sampled the best sweets the world had to offer (baklava in Istanbul, of course).  And just when I thought Argentinian sweets couldn't get any better, I tried the most amazingly delightful alfajores de maizena at the Mataderos Sunday market.  Crumbly, melt-in-your mouth, dulce de leche delights.

These cookies are a labor of love: first you have to make the shortbread cookies, then you'll have to fill them with dulce de leche before rolling them in coconut.  But it's worth every extra minute.  They're not easy to come by in the U.S., and they're really good.  We brought some delicious and fresh dulce de leche home from Green Eat on Buenos Aires' Reconquista for some authentic alfajores at home in Virginia.  But don't worry: you can buy dulce de leche at almost any specialty foods store.

When I think of "paradise," I rarely see beaches or impossibly sunny days.  Instead, with more than one hundred used bookstores (I visited fifty-eight of them!) and dulce de leche-infused sweets on every corner, Buenos Aires was for me, in many ways, a paradise.  Here's the Atlantics' "Adventures in Paradise" from this Australian band's 1963 album, Bombora.

Ingredients:
--1/2 c. corn flour (no, not cornstarch--this is a specialty corn flour I bought at Whole Foods)
--1/2 c. all-purpose flour, + extra for rolling
--3 1/3 c. cornstarch
--1/2 tsp. baking powder
--3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
--1 1/3 c. granulated sugar
--3 egg yolks
--1 tsp. vanilla
--2 tsp. dark rum
--16 oz. dulce de leche
--1 c. very finely shredded toasted coconut (you can grind already shredded coconut even further in a food processor)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine wet ingredients.  Mix until fully combined and a fluffy light yellow color.  In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients.  Slowly add them to the wet ingredients, about 1/4 of the dry mixture at a time.  Don't overmix!  Once the dry mixture is incorporated (and it should be very dry and crumbly at this point), separate the dough into quarters.

On a floured surface, roll one of the dough quarters until it's about 1/2" thick.  Using a 3" biscuit cutter, cut dough circles.  Place about 1/2" apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake for 7-8 minutes.  Do not let these cookies turn golden-colored on top--if they have any golden tone, they're overcooked.  Allow the cookies to cool on a cooling rack and repeat instructions until you have about 75 shortbread cookies.

Once the cookies have all cooled, liberally apply dulce de leche to the flat side (bottom side) of one of the cookies.  Be very careful--the cookies are very fragile and will crumble easily with too much pressure.  Once you've smothered the bottom of the cookie in what most Argentinian menus translate as "milk caramel," add another cookie on top, flat side down (bottom side), making a cookie sandwich.  Repeat until all cookies have become cookie sandwiches.  Each sandwich should have about 1/4" of dulce de leche in the middle (of course, if you like a lot of dulce de leche, add more).

Place your shredded coconut in a shallow bowl.  Roll each cookie like a wheel until the exposed dulce de leche has been coated with coconut.  Repeat until you've finished all cookies.  Makes about 3 dozen alfajores de maizena.  You won't regret it.