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.
I have been horribly neglectful of my blog over the last month or so, which, in my mind, is a particularly heinous crime given the salient spices and aromas of the holiday season. As it turns out, applying for academic jobs and postdocs takes more time than I initially anticipated. (I haven't stopped baking, though, I promise!) What better way to counter the anxieties of assistant professorship applications than a pan of hot pumpkin pecan cinnamon rolls? It's nearly the end of November, and it's a perfect time for sweet pumpkin spice.
These pumpkin pecan cinnamon rolls are just the right amount of everything: they're not super sweet on their own (if that's what you like), but if you want something sweeter, that's where the delicious vanilla-rum cream cheese icing comes in. Drizzle as much or as little as you'd like for a warm breakfast or an after-dinner treat.
We've been listening to a lot of Neil Young as the leaves have been falling, and our recent vinyl acquisition of Rust Never Sleeps has left our autumn kitchen with the sounds of "Thrasher."
Ingredients:
*Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen's pumpkin cinnamon rolls
*Note also: you'll need a dough hook for your mixer to complete this recipe!
The Dough:
--8 tbsp. unsalted butter, + extra for buttering your pans
--1/2 c. water, warmed (but not boiling)
--1 package of active dry yeast
--3 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, + additional for rolling and buttering your pans
--1/3 c. dark brown sugar
--1/3 c. turbinado sugar
--2 tsp. ground cinnamon
--1/2 tsp. ground cloves
--1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
--1/2 tsp. ground allspice
--1/2 tsp. ground ginger
--1/2 tsp. salt
--3/4 c. pumpkin puree
--1 tbsp. canola oil (for coating your bowl)
--2 eggs
The Filling:
--3/4 c. dark brown sugar
--1/2 c. turbinado sugar
--pinch of salt
--1 tsp. cinnamon
--1 c. chopped pecans (you can make these without nuts, too)
The Icing:
--4 oz. cream cheese (or neufchatel)
--2 tbsp. half and half
--2 tsp. vanilla extract
--1 tbsp. dark rum (obviously, leave this out if you're making these for kids)
--1 1/2 to 2 c. confectioner's sugar (depending on whether you want your icing thin like a glaze or thick like an icing)
First thing, heat your water and dissolve your yeast. Keep in mind that your water cannot be boiling or near it--just warm enough to dissolve the yeast. If the mixture doesn't begin to froth in 5-7 minutes, the yeast is bad and you'll need to start anew (it's always good to check this first).
Next, melt your butter and set aside. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients--flour, sugars, spices and salt. Beat on low speed, and slowly add about half the melted butter to your mixture. Continue to beat on low to combine. Now, add the yeast mixture, pumpkin puree, and the eggs. Using a dough hook on your mixer, combine the ingredients on low for 5-7 minutes until you have a combined dough.
In a separate large bowl oiled with canola oil, transfer your ball of dough. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for about in hour in a warm place. While you're waiting, butter and flour two 9" springform pans (or whatever cake pan you're using).
You can also use this time to make your filling and your icing. These are both pretty straightforward. For the filling, just use a fork to gently combine all ingredients. Set aside. Now, for the icing: in a large bowl, combine the cream cheese, half and half, vanilla, rum, and confectioner's sugar. Beat on medium speed until it's silky and smooth.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Now to complete your cinnamon rolls! After an hour or so (the dough should have just about doubled in size). On a heavily floured surface, roll the dough into a rough rectangular shape that's about 1/4" thick. With a pastry brush, gently brush the surface with the remaining melted butter (you should have about half of the melted butter left). Drench that dough! Then sprinkle the filling evenly across it. Now, you're going to roll this piece of dough length-wise (or the long way). Try to keep it as tight as possible until you've got a pumpkin dough log on your hands. Using a serrated-edge knife, very (very!) gently slice the log into 1/2" discs. When you're finished, you should have enough to fill your two cake dishes.
Place the cinnamon rolls so that they're touching one another in a circular pattern in each of the cake dishes and bake, uncovered, for 30-35 minutes, or until the rolls have puffed up and are ever-so-slightly a golden color. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, and drizzle (or coat heavily) with your vanilla-rum cream cheese icing. Enjoy!
I've never had a better steak than in Argentina. All grass-fed beef, and it comes straight from the Pampas. In Buenos Aires restaurants serving up parilladas (a parillada, "pah-ree-zhah-da," is an assortment of grilled meats), you're sure to find a large dish of chimichurri to smother your steak. Chimichurri is an Argentinean sauce for grilled meats, typically made with some combination of parsley, garlic, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, and oregano. We had some delicious examples at Parilla Pena (our neighborhood parilla), Don Julio (in the Palermo Soho neighborhood), El Desnivel (in cobblestoned San Telmo), and Las Cabras (in Palermo Hollywood).
I added a few more ingredients to my version than those featured in the typical recipes, hoping to replicate the best features of the chimichurri sauces at those amazing restaurants. And to make it extra special, I served it up in a special pig dish made from the famous Chilean clay in Pomaire. (I bought mine at the Los Dominicos market in Las Condes.)
When deciding how to grill the meat for our parillada (we chose a New York strip, a T-Bone, and a skirt steak), we read that some of the parillas in Buenos Aires cover the grill grates in salt water. Others simply rub (and rub!) sea salt onto the meats prior to grilling. We tried both and decided that the salt water on the grill grates didn't make a noticeable difference, but the exterior sea salt coating was crispy and oh-so-delicious. When you make this chimichurri, I'd highly recommend pairing it with a grilled New York strip, rubbed in salt (and only salt!). No marinades, no spices. Just the salt.
And a special trick for the chimichurri sauce? Make it at least 24 hours in advance. The flavors need some time to marinate.
I know some people don't like Simon and Garfunkel. And look, I know they're pretty far removed from Argentina. But chimichurri is so much about the parsley. So clearly, I've gotta pull something off their 1966 album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. As it so happens, one of my favorite songs appears on this album. Here's "The Dangling Conversation."
Ingredients:
--1/2 c. freshly and finely chopped flat-leaf parsley (you *must* use fresh parsley here)
--1/3 c. dried oregano
--2 garlic cloves, finely minced
--1 tsp. coriander
--1 tsp. dried paprika
--1/2 tsp. ancho chili powder
--1/2 tsp. onion powder
--a pinch of red pepper flakes (if you like it extra spicy, add some more)
--3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
--3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
--several pinches of salt and pepper
Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate overnight before serving. And the best part? You can keep it in your fridge for a few weeks, adding it to anything and everything.
And of course, an Argentinian-inspired steak dinner tastes better with a Malbec.
At a small Buenos Aires restaurant called Na Serapia, I ordered a dish I had never seen on a menu before: humita. My plate arrived with a small square package of folded cornhusks, filled with creamed corn and tied together with a string of husk. Naturally, I knew I'd be making a version back at home. Humitas are South American steamed corn cakes, created with fresh corn, cheese, and spices.
*Just as a side note, the owner of Na Serapia is one quirky and cool dude. This portrait of him hangs on the wall behind one of the tables, and in fact, the MALBA now keeps it in their permanent collection. He's a hole-in-the-wall, pun intended, Buenos Aires celebrity of sorts.
Aside from the blanching and folding of the cornhusks, the corn cakes themselves are pretty easy to make. I added a few ingredients of my own and steamed them in a roasting pan. They're delicious for dinner on their own, as an appetizer, or to accompany a juicy steak. They're also the perfect addition to any autumn menu.
In South America, these are often made with choclo, a large-kerneled corn from the Andes. While I can't provide you with ears of corn that are out of the current reach of my American hands, I can give you an Andean song. Here is Violeta Parra's extraordinary "Gracias a la vida."
Ingredients:
--6 ears of corn
--1/3 c. half and half
--1 c. cornmeal
--2 red peppers, chopped
--2 cloves garlic, slices thinly
--1 medium-sized yellow onion, chopped
--2 tbsp. olive oil
--2 eggs
--2 c. shredded cheese (I used mozzarella, but if you have a crumbly queso, I think that'd be delicious)
--1 tsp. coriander
--a few pinches of salt and pepper
In a medium-sized saucepan, saute the garlic and onions for about 3-4 minutes in the olive oil until they're getting soft. Add the red peppers and saute until everything is soft and aromatic. Set aside and allow to cool just a bit.
Husk the ears of corn, being very careful to preserve the husks--you're going to be using them as casings for the corn cakes. Set the husks aside. Using a large knife, cut the kernels from the corn and place them in a large food processor. Don't pulse yet!
To the kernels in the food processor, add the garlic/onion/pepper mixture, the half and half, cornmeal shredded cheese, eggs, coriander, and the salt and pepper (in other words, all remaining ingredients). Pulse for about a minute, or until all ingredients are finely ground and combined. Set aside.
Now, the next part gets a little tricky. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add the corn husks and boil for about 5-7 minutes, or until they're soft and pliable. Drain the pot and place the husks in a bowl of ice water.
Using 3 or 4 husks as a base, line them up on a workspace, and then add 3 or 4 more in a cross pattern on top. In short, you're creating a liner/pocket to fill with the corn cake mixture. This picture should help:
Next, fill the layer of cornhusks with about 1/2 c. of the corn mixture.
Then, fold up the edges so you've got a small packet, and tie a piece of a cornhusk around the packet to keep its shape.
Repeat with all remaining husks and remaining corn mixture. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and fill the bottom of a roasting pan with about 1/2" water. Place the roasting rack in the dish, and place the corn packets on top of the roasting rack (you want to steam them in the oven).
Place the roasting dish in the oven and steam/bake for approximately 40 minutes, or just until the edges of the husks begin to turn a golden color. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Serve in a dish. When you unwrap them, you'll find a delicious and perfectly steamed corn cake.
And as with everything else from South America, it seems, humitas go very nicely with a glass of Torrontes.
The torta de mil hojas is a classic South American dessert. I tried my first slice at Liguria, an amazing and quirky restaurant in Santiago. I bought another in Buenos Aires at our neighborhood panaderia, Del Carmen on Viamonte. In Chile, the cake featured a lighter caramel in between the layers, and naturally, the Argentinean version had spoonfuls (and more spoonfuls) of dulce de leche.
While I was in the Southern Cone, I continued to dream about all of the sweet things to pair with dulce de leche when I returned to America. Banana has been at the top of my list since I had a banana split and dulce de leche sundae at Freddo, the best heladeria in the world. (I'm not kidding: I don't think I'll ever taste ice cream that's as rich, velvety, and creamy until I return to Argentina.)
I thought a torta de mil hojas featuring some fresh bananas would be out of this world, and it turns out I was right. As with any layer cake, this one is a labor of love, but it's definitely worth the work. I topped mine with a decorative Argentinean sun.
I have the most perfect song to accompany the banana torta de mil hojas. Los Beat 4, a Chilean band formed in Santiago in the late 1960s, has a song that's absolutely made for this dessert. Here's "Dame un Bananino" ("Give me a banana!").
Ingredients:
--1 1/4 c. flour, + extra for rolling
--1/2 c. chilled butter, chopped
--1/4 c. ice water
--pinch of salt
--pinch of granulated sugar
--2 c. dulce de leche (we brought some back from Argentina, but you can also buy it at any specialty foods store, or in many cases, the lovely World Market)
--2 ripe bananas, slice very thinly
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a food processor, make a pastry crust by pulsing the flour, butter, ice water, salt, and sugar until the mixture begins to form a ball of dough. On a large flat surface, add some flour and roll out the dough until it's quite thin. Using a dish or other perfect circle, cut out eight (8) dough circles that are approximately 6" in diameter.
On a parchment lined baking dish, bake the pastry dough for about 12 minutes, or until it becomes lightly golden around the edges. Remove and allow to cool completely. **If you want to make a design on top like I did, cut out whatever design you'd like from your remaining dough and bake for 10-12 minutes, or just until golden around the edges--just like the pastry layers.
Once the pastries have cooled, place a dollop of dulce de leche on the bottom of a plate and stick the first pastry circle on top. This will prevent the torta de mil hojas from moving around. Coat the top of the first pastry circle with a heaping of dulce de leche (about 3-4 tablespoons), and then add another pastry circle on top. This time, coat the circle with a very thin layer of dulce de leche (less than one tablespoon) and add a thin layer of bananas. Repeat, alternating between layers of dulce de leche and bananas, until you've placed the final pastry circle on top. If you're adding some pastry decor, attach it with any remaining dulce de leche.
Serve!
In South America during the winter months of July and August, calabaza is king! Panaderías all over Santiago and Buenos Aires sell pumpkin empanadas, pumpkin torts, and so on. I also had some amazing calabaza creations at Cumana, a delicious restaurant in Buenos Aires' Recoleta neighborhood. Naturally, given my love of winter squashes, I tried my hand at some pumpkin and cheese empanadas in our Buenos Aires kitchen! And they're a fabulous savory pastry to have for dinner on a chilly night.
They're also pretty easy to make. Once you've made the flaky empanada dough (basically a pie crust with some salt and pepper), all you need to do is fill your savory pastries with a pumpkin mash. I bought and roasted a pumpkin, added some delicious raw honey fresh from the Pampas, and topped off the filling with some delicious Argentinian queso de campo and a little bit of salt and pepper.
After going to a New Order show just before leaving for South America, I've been listening to a lot of Joy Division and New Order (in fact, I listened to "Unknown Pleasures" almost exclusively as I rode buses to Isla Negra and Valparaiso in Chile). Given the way these empanadas conjure my visit, here's Joy Division's haunting and beautiful "Atmosphere" (and, might I add, one of my favorite music videos of all time).
Ingredients:
The Empanada Crust:
--2 1/2 c. flour
--1 c. cold butter
--1/2 c. ice water
--1 tsp. salt
--1/2 tsp. pepper
--1 egg yolk
--extra flour for rolling
Pour flour into a large bowl and cut in the butter (you can also pulse the ingredients in a food processor). Add the ice water, salt, pepper, and egg yolk. Mix together until all the dry flour has absorbed into the dough.
Roll on a flat surface and cut into approx. 6" diameter circles. Set aside until ready to use.
The Filling:
--1/2 c. shredded queso de campo (if you can't find this cheese in the states, you can substitute a Spanish manchego)
--3 c. pumpkin puree (about one medium-sized pumpkin, roasted)
--3 heaping tablespoons of raw honey
--1 large yellow onion, chopped
--2 cloves garlic, minced.
--2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
--salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
If you're roasting your own pumpkin, slice in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Coat the squash with olive oil. Place both halves on a baking sheet and roast for approximately 1 hour, or until soft. Remove from oven and allow to cool. (If you're using canned pumpkin, go on to the next set of steps.)
Decrease oven heat to 350 degrees F.
In a large saucepan, saute the garlic and onions until soft and golden. Set aside until ready to use.
In the saucepan with the onions and garlic, mash in the pumpkin puree, raw honey, queso, and the salt and pepper. (If you've roasted your own pumpkin, it should be soft enough to just scoop right out of its skin and into the bowl.) I like mine with some texture, so I do a rustic mash with chunks of the squash still intact.
Fill each empanada shell with about 1 tablespoon of the mash, fold the shell over to create a half-moon shape, and press the edges together with a fork. Poke a couple of fork hole in the top to allow the empanada to breathe in the oven. Continue until you've filled all empanadas. (That's me, in our Argentinean kitchen.)
Place empanadas on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the edges become golden and crispy. Remove from oven, allow to cool, and serve.
Eat heartily and happily!
*Wine hint: these go very, very well with a bottle of Torrontes, a delicious Argentinean white wine.
I'm heading to the other side of the equator soon, where I'll be leaving the dog days of summer behind me. It'll be winter in Argentina, so here's a summer swan song: delicious and creamy peanut butter frozen yogurt.
I bought an ice cream maker awhile back, and I don't use it enough. However, I'm in love enough with frozen yogurt that I buy it on a very regular basis. In other words, I should use my ice cream maker more often. When you make your own desserts, the flavor combinations are nearly endless. I love peanut butter, and I knew it would make for a delicious chilled treat. And what's great about this recipe is that it doesn't even contain any sugar--all of the sweetness comes from the earthy agave syrup. Making your own ice cream or frozen yogurt is incredibly easy, and it's always worth it.
Do you know the Doors' beautiful and sad "Indian Summer"? It's stunning. It was an outtake, more stripped down than most other songs from the band, and appeared on Morrison Hotel in 1970.
Ingredients:
--3/4 c. creamy peanut butter
--3 c. plain Greek yogurt (you can substitute for a non-Greek variety if you like your fro-yo less tangy)
--1/2 c. sweetened vanilla almond milk (again, you can substitute whatever milk you'd like)
--1/4 c. agave syrup (if you like your fro-yo super sweet, add more)
--1 tbsp. vanilla extract
--chopped peanuts for topping
Melt the peanut butter down until it's easier to whisk (I just placed mine in the microwave for about 35 seconds). In a large bowl, whisk all of the ingredients together, except the peanuts, until creamy.
Pour the mixture into a prepared ice cream maker and turn it on. Allow the ice cream maker to churn for 20-25 minutes, or until the fro-yo reaches the desired consistency.
*To use an ice cream maker, you have to plan waaaay in advance. For most of them, you've gotta chill the churning bowl for 6-8 hours ahead of time. But if you don't have an ice cream maker, you can still make this dessert. Pour the whisked ingredients into a freezer-safe container and chill for about 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Serve with a dusting of chopped peanuts (or, if you have it, some delicious chocolate syrup).
