The post The Softest Cornstarch Alfajores appeared first on The Gluten-Free Corner.
]]>There are several types of alfajores, some are made with a hard cookie, thin or thick, while some are made with a sponge-like cookie or the ones that we are presenting to you today, the so-called, cornstarch alfajores. You may guess why they call them like that, well… the batter is composed mainly by cornstarch (no surprise here, right?).
The awesome thing of these cornstarch alfajores is that they turn to be really soft and have a delicate a subtly sweet flavour, that they are the perfect companion for anything sweet, and that is when the dulce de leche comes to play.
The dulce de leche is a sweet spread that here will stick two cookies together and form a combination of flavour that is irresistible. Using shredded coconut, we will seal the open borders of the dulce de leche and give the alfajor a new depth of flavour!
Speaking of dulce de leche, there are several ways you can get hands-on this sweet bliss (I really love this spread). You can either find them at the store (I have seen two brands of dulce de leche on the shelves in Canada) or make it yourself! If you want to adventure in the craft of the dulce de leche, I am going to post several ways to make it in a future post, so stay tuned!
For this recipe, you will need the usual equipment that I suggest, such as the stand mixer and silicone spatula, but also you will need a rolling pin to flatten the dough, a silicone mat so you can work easier and avoid the dough sticking, and a cookie-cutter that is big enough to make the alfajores the size you want! (yes, there is no required size, just make them the size you fancy for!)
Here we go with the recipe for the softest alfajores that you will try!
The Softest Cornstarch Alfajores
Course: Dessert, SnacksCuisine: ChileanDifficulty: Easy20
alfajores2
hours20
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minutesA classic snack from South America that is irrestistible and melts in your mouth! Bet you can’t eat only one!
Ingredients
480 g cornstarch
60 g white rice flour
60 g tapioca starch
5 g xanthan gum
3 large eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp kosher salt
180 g unsalted butter at room temperature
180 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
500 g dulce de leche (if it is dense, it is better)
100 g shredded coconut
Directions
- In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients except for the sugar.
- In another bowl, beat the soft butter and sugar to form a homogeneous paste. Incorporate the vanilla essence and lemon peel.
- Slowly, start incorporating the eggs one at a time while continue beating the batter.
- Incorporate the dry ingredients sifting them first to avoid forming any clumps. We are aiming for a soft and homogeneous batter!
- Continue beating the batter for 5 minutes until it is very soft.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours. This will cool the dough and butter, activate the starches, and make it easier for us to work with it later avoiding incorporating more flour.
- After the resting time is over, preheat the oven to 370ºF/180ºC and line up a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Transfer the dough to the silicone mat slightly dusted with cornstarch. Dust the dough with some more cornstarch.
- Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough until you have a uniform size of 7 mm aproximately. If it sticks, you can dust the rolling pin and the dough with some more cornstarch.
- Using a cookie cutter, make disks of dought. I made disks of around 3 cm of diameter.
- Place them on the cookie sheet with enough space between each other so they don’t touch (they will grow a bit on the oven!). If you run out of space, you can prepare another cookie sheet to make more batches.
- Bake them for 12 to 15 minutes according to your oven. You don’t want them to be brown on top, so keep an eye on them! Also, don’t bake more than one batch at a time!
- Before ensambling the alfajores, you need to let the cookies rest and cool. Meanwhile, continue baking the other batches!
- When they are cool enough, grab two cookies, and spread a nice amount of dulce de leche between them and make a sandwich! Press them a bit and cover the borders of dulce de leche with shredded coconut. To make it easier to cover with coconut, you can put some on a plate and roll the alfajores on the coconut!
- Now enjoy!!!!
The post The Softest Cornstarch Alfajores appeared first on The Gluten-Free Corner.
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