Alfajores and Dulce de Leche

The recipe I used for Alfajores is found here, but I had to add 2 Tablespoons of water to get the ingredients to form into a dough, and instead of rolling in sweetened coconut, I just sprinkled them with powdered sugar.  They were tender and delicious!  My good friend Barbara (who also served in Argentina) tells me the cookie could be thicker and there's usually a lot more Dulce de Leche sandwiched between them, but she still gave them a thumbs up for flavor!  You can see commercial and homemade images of the real thing here. 

The Dulce de Leche recipe was obnoxiously simple.  You just take a can of sweetened condensed milk (unopened, but with the label removed), submerge it in a pot gently simmering water and let it cook for 3 hours--checking the water level from time to time to make sure it is still submerged.*  When it's done, let it cool (I filled the same pan with ice water to hurry it along), and when you open it up you have Dulce de Leche. 


*Caution:  if the pot is allowed to boil dry, the can will overheat and explode!  I found this recipe that is just as simple (and takes less time!) but it's done in the oven and out of the can so there's no chance of an explosion.  It would also remove the necessity of scrubbing the bottom of my pot with steel wool to get it clean.  So I might try it this way the next time.  This recipe inspired me to try my own version of these Dulce de Leche Brownies.  Look for the results next week!