The Southern Cone · Volume 25, The Río de la Plata Table
Alfajores, with dulce de leche
The Río de la Plata
Illustration
- Time
- 3 hours
- Researched
- Researched from 179 sources in the brief
The biscuit sandwich is common ground; the dulce de leche inside it is not, see the contested origin discussed above. What both countries agree on is the production method for the filling itself, and it is worth treating as a technique in its own right rather than a bought-in ingredient.
As tradition built it
Makes about 12 sandwiched biscuits, plus a jar of dulce de leche. About 3 hours total, mostly unattended.
Ingredients
For the dulce de leche
- 1 litre whole milk
- 250 to 300g white sugar, to taste
- half tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the biscuits
- 300g plain flour
- 100g cornflour
- 200g butter, softened
- 100g icing sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- as needed desiccated coconut, for the edges
Method
- Make the dulce de leche first: combine the milk and sugar in a heavy-bottomed pot, stir until the sugar dissolves, and bring to a gentle heat. Add the bicarbonate of soda once hot but before a rolling boil.
- Cook at a low simmer, stirring only occasionally, for roughly 2 hours, until deeply caramel coloured and thickened. Test by cooling a spoonful on a chilled plate; if it does not run when tilted, it is ready.
- For the biscuits, cream the butter and icing sugar, beat in the yolks, then fold in the flour and cornflour to a soft dough. Chill 30 minutes.
- Roll and cut into rounds, bake at 180°C for 10 to 12 minutes, until pale gold at the edges. Cool completely.
- Sandwich pairs of biscuits with a generous layer of the dulce de leche, and roll the exposed edge in desiccated coconut.
What a modern chef changes
The reduction held at a controlled temperature to remove all risk of scorching, and the biscuit's texture sharpened
Rung 5
Method
- Vacuum seal the milk, sugar and bicarbonate and hold in a sous vide bath at 90°C for 4 to 5 hours, rather than a watched stovetop pot, removing entirely the risk of a moment's inattention scorching two hours of reduction. Rung 5.
- Pass the finished dulce de leche through a chinois before jarring, catching any small skin that has formed during the long, gentle cook and giving a glossier, smoother finished texture than the traditional pot method alone.
- Use a dedicated spice grinder to make a very fine cornflour and flour blend for the biscuit, giving a shorter, more delicate crumb that holds its shape against the weight of a generous dulce de leche filling rather than crumbling under it.