A Colombian alfajor is two pale, crumbling cookies with arequipe between them and a coat of chocolate over the top. The dough has more cornstarch in it than flour, which is what makes it fall apart the moment you bite it: that texture is the point, and it is what separates an alfajor from an ordinary sandwich cookie.
Arequipe, dulce de leche, cajeta or manjar?
All the same idea, four names, and the name tells you where you are. Milk and sugar are cooked down slowly until the sugars caramelise and the mixture thickens into something between a caramel and a spread.
- Arequipe — Colombia and Venezuela.
- Dulce de leche — Argentina, Uruguay, and the name it is sold under in the United States.
- Cajeta — Mexico, and made with goat's milk, so it tastes slightly tangy and is not quite interchangeable.
- Manjar or manjar blanco — Peru and Chile.
If a Colombian recipe asks for arequipe and you are shopping in the US, buy dulce de leche. Look for the thick pastry version, sometimes labelled repostero, because the runnier kind slides out of the sides when you press the two cookies together.
What makes an alfajor Colombian
Less than you might expect, and the difference is at the end rather than the beginning. The cookie itself (butter, sugar, yolks, and a lot of cornstarch) is close to the same across Argentina, Peru, Chile and Colombia.
What changes is the finish. Argentine alfajores de maicena are classically rolled in shredded coconut around the exposed ring of dulce de leche. Peruvian ones are usually dusted heavily with icing sugar. The Colombian habit is to dip the whole thing in dark or white chocolate, which is what this recipe does, and which is also why they travel better than the coconut ones.
The word itself came a long way before any of that. It arrived in Spain with the Arabic-speaking rulers of Al-Andalus: the etymology is disputed, with al-hasú, "the filled", and al-fākhir, "the excellent", both proposed, and the original was a spiced paste of nuts and honey, nothing like what it became. Spanish colonists carried it to South America, where it met dulce de leche and turned into the cookie everyone now means by the word.
Why so much cornstarch
There is half again as much cornstarch as flour here, 150 grams against 100, and that ratio is doing all the work.
Flour contains gluten-forming proteins, which give a cookie structure and chew. Cornstarch has none, so the more of it you use, the less the dough can hold itself together once it is baked. The result is a cookie with almost no structure at all, which is why an alfajor turns to sand against your tongue rather than snapping.
It also means the dough is soft and a bit awkward to handle. If it sticks and tears as you roll it, put it in the fridge for twenty minutes; cold butter firms it up and it will roll cleanly.
Making the dough
Butter at room temperature, beaten with the sugar until pale and soft. Cold butter will not cream, and melted butter gives a greasy dough: this is the one thing worth planning ahead for.
The yolks go in one at a time. Then the lime zest, grated straight into the bowl so the oils go in with it.
Sift the flour, cornstarch and baking powder together before they go anywhere near the butter. This is not fussiness: cornstarch clumps badly, and a lump that survives into the dough will still be there in the baked cookie as a chalky spot.
Roll to about half a centimetre, a quarter inch, and cut your circles. Small is better than large: an alfajor is meant to be two or three bites.
Baking, filling and coating
Five to seven minutes at 180°C (350°F), and they should come out barely coloured. A browned alfajor is an overbaked one: these are supposed to stay pale and sandy, and the colour comes from the chocolate later, not the oven.
Let them cool completely before filling. Arequipe on a warm cookie goes runny and the whole thing slides apart. Spread it on one, press a second on top, and do not press hard: the cookie will break before the filling spreads.
Melt the chocolate over simmering water or in the microwave in short bursts, stirring between them, then dip each alfajor and set them aside until the coating hardens.
They are better tomorrow
Worth knowing, and worth planning around: alfajores improve overnight. Moisture from the arequipe moves into the cookies and softens them, so what was sandy on the first day is tender on the second.
Keep them in a tin at room temperature. The fridge dries the cookies and takes the shine off the chocolate. A week is about their limit, though in practice that is rarely tested.
More Colombian sweets
- Cocadas — coconut sweets, no baking involved.
- Ripe plantain canoes — the savoury side of the same sweet-and-salty instinct.
- Solteritas — no filling, all crunch.
Original recipe in Spanish.
Colombian Alfajores FAQ
The Colombian and Venezuelan name for dulce de leche: milk and sugar cooked down slowly until it thickens and turns caramel-brown. Mexico calls its goat's-milk version cajeta, and Peru and Chile call theirs manjar or manjar blanco. In a US supermarket, look for dulce de leche: it is the same thing.
The finish, mostly. The cookie is much the same cornstarch shortbread across the region. Argentine alfajores de maicena are typically rolled in shredded coconut around the edge; the Colombian ones are usually coated in dark or white chocolate, and the filling is called arequipe rather than dulce de leche.
Because cornstarch has no gluten. Replacing most of the flour with it gives a cookie that has almost no structure, so it collapses into sand the moment you bite it. That texture is the whole point of an alfajor de maicena. Using all flour gives you a decent butter cookie and not an alfajor.
Yes, and plenty of people do. Roll the exposed edge of arequipe in shredded coconut, dust the tops with icing sugar, or leave them bare. The chocolate coating is the Colombian habit rather than a requirement, and it does make them keep a little longer.
Yes. Use the thick pastry-grade kind, repostero, if you can find it, since the runnier sort squeezes out of the sides when you press the cookies together. If yours is loose, chill it first and it will behave.
About a week in a tin, and they are better on day two than on day one: moisture from the arequipe migrates into the cookies and turns them from sandy to tender. Keep them at room temperature rather than in the fridge, which dries them out and dulls the chocolate.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 125 g butter, at room temperature (about 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon)
- 75 g sugar (about 6 tablespoons)
- 2 egg yolks
- 100 g all-purpose flour (about ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon)
- 150 g cornstarch (about 1¼ cups; cornflour in the UK)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 lime (or lemon), zest only (you only need the zest, not the juice)
- Dark or white chocolate, for coating (about 200 g / 7 oz covers ten alfajores)
- Arequipe (dulce de leche), to taste (sold as dulce de leche in most US supermarkets)
Notas
Instructions
- In a bowl, beat the butter with the sugar until you have a soft, pale cream. The butter has to be at room temperature or it will not come together.
- Add the egg yolks one at a time, working each one into the mixture before the next goes in.
- Grate in the zest of the lime, still beating. At this point, heat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Sift the flour, cornstarch and baking powder together and add them to the bowl. Do not skip the sifting: cornstarch clumps, and unsifted lumps do not break up later.
- Bring the dough together with your hands and knead until it is smooth, firm and free of lumps.
- Roll the dough out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 0.5 cm (about ¼ inch). Cut out circles, small or medium as you prefer, and set them on a floured baking sheet.
- Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, until the cookies are barely coloured. They should not brown: these are meant to stay pale and sandy.
- Take them out and let them cool completely. Then spread arequipe over one cookie and press a second one on top.
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water, or in the microwave in short bursts of one to two minutes.
- Dip each alfajor into the melted chocolate to coat it.
- Leave the chocolate to set before serving.
Comments
No Comments