When Jasleen got in touch and asked me to contribute to the food blog I immediately knew that I wanted to share one of my mum’s recipes. My mum grew up in Peru before she moved to the UK, and she brought lots of recipes with her. This one is for ‘Alfajores,’ South American sandwich cookies, was brought out every time we had a celebration and is associated with many happy memories.
Having lived on a different continent to most of her family since her mid-twenties, my mum has taught me a lot about the importance of keeping in touch with where you came from. When she first moved to the UK, she and her sisters would send each other cassette tapes detailing life updates in the mail, podcast style. Technology has advanced since then, so rather than cassettes, my mum gets at least 3 calls a week with my life updates… Since the beginning of the pandemic, she has been calling her mother and two sisters daily to keep her spirits high. She is always the person I want to call when something has happened, good or bad, and the person I want to talk about anything with when nothing has happened at all.
Another way my mum kept in touch with Peru was through cooking, and Alfajores became a staple in our house. Recipes for Alfajores consist of the same 5-6 ingredients in every variation I have seen, and I have linked a vegan version below. Because this is traditionally a South American recipe, there are some ingredients that you cannot get in the UK. The splash of alcohol would usually be Pisco, but in its absence, I have used tequila and have seen other recipes calling for rum. The filling would normally be Dulce de Leche, but the closest thing available here is caramel. You can also try a variety of non-traditional fillings such as Biscoff or Nutella. For my mum’s recipe you will need:
Peruvian Alfajores
Ingredients
180g Flour
65g Corn starch
80g Powdered Sugar
200g Butter
1 tin Caramel
2 tbsp alcohol of choice (optional)
Steps
1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Add the butter and alcohol and crumble in your fingers to form a breadcrumb-like mixture
3. Pat the ingredients together to form a ball of dough
4. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for at least an hour (you can leave it overnight if you like)
5. Remove the dough from the oven and allow it to soften. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 180C
6. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about ¼ inch and use circular cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as possible
7. Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
8. Remove the cookies and let cool
9. Fill the cookies with caramel and sprinkle any extra powdered sugar on top
Vegan Version: http://gormandizewithus.blogspot.com/2013/05/vegan-alfajores-argentinian-dulce-de.html
If you would like to contribute to this series feel free to reach us at jasleen.pl@gmail.com.