alfajores!
Hola! Just wanted to share my new favorite cookie! Alfajores!
An Alfajor is a spanish and latin american cookie with almost as many different versions as there are latin american countries! It is more or less a type of sandwich cookie withcajeta in the middle, which is a type of sweetened condensed caramel milk syrup. The two cookies that sandwich the cajeta are like shortbread, although that's where sometimes the variations lie.
While some recipes call for the cookies to be dredged in finely chopped nuts or shaved coconut, or jam instead of the cajeta in the middle, I wanted mine to be fairly simple, with just a simple dusting of conf. sugar.
I first tried these cookies in a Taqueria in the Mission District in San Francisco, and remembered them to be somewhat soft, but I've seen other recipes online that use a more traditional shortbread type cookie, which are harder. It's your call, but I think this recipe from Mattbites , who made them on the Martha Stewart Show a few months ago, is great, and fairly easy to make, the cookies are soft and almost like little flat pillows, and you'll wow your guests with them (or co-workers, which is what I did!)
You can find cajeta in most latino food stores, or you can substitute a thick caramel topping sauce, like the kind for ice cream topping. Or you can google recipes for making your own caramel. It does need to be fairly thick, though.
