Guides to alfajores
Most people in the UK have never had an alfajor, so we wrote down what we are asked most often: what it is, where it comes from, how it differs from shortbread, how to keep it, and how to make one yourself.
Each guide ends where the biscuit does: in a box baked by hand in Edinburgh.
- What is an alfajor?Two soft biscuits, a thick layer of dulce de leche, a coat of coconut or chocolate. What an alfajor is, how to say it, where it comes from and how to eat one.
- The history of alfajores, from al-Andalus to the Río de la PlataFrom a medieval Arabic sweet to Spain's Christmas alfajor and Argentina's everyday biscuit: Medina Sidonia, a Santa Fe baker in 1851 and the chocolate coast.
- Dulce de leche, explained: what it is and how it differs from caramelDulce de leche is milk and sugar cooked slowly until the milk browns. Caramel is sugar. Why that changes the taste, what repostero means and the UK substitute.
- Types of alfajores by region: cordobés, santafesino, maicena and the Mar del Plata classicArgentine alfajores and how to tell them apart: the glazed santafesino and cordobés, the coconut maicena, the chocolate-coated marplatense and the triple.
- How to store alfajores and how long they lastWhere to keep alfajores, whether they belong in the fridge, how to freeze them and how to tell when one is past its best. For handmade and shop-bought ones.
- Alfajores de maicena: a home recipe that works in a British kitchenThe classic Argentine home recipe for alfajores de maicena: cornflour biscuits, dulce de leche and coconut, with UK ingredient swaps and why they crack.
- Alfajores vs shortbread: an Argentine biscuit meets an Edinburgh oneTwo crumbly butter biscuits: one Scottish and plain, one Argentine with dulce de leche inside. What they share, where they differ and why Edinburgh suits both.
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