Alfajores (Peru)

2020 Update: Alfajores remains one of my favourite cookie, and I want my friends to try them. For Christmas, I turned them into linzer. These delicate cookies surprisingly survived the bike rides delivery!

I'm Indonesian, and have a Croatian classmate, whose husband is Peruvian. I learned about this wonderful sandwich cookies from her. It's a fusion between Iberian (mountainous region that's now Spain and Portugal) and Arab baking. The name comes from al-hasu, means "the filling". In Peru it's called manjar blanco. Sweet, sticky sauce, that the Spanish stumbled across in the Philippines. While Filipinos developed it, guess where it was first invented? Indonesia.

We've come full circle here. That's a lot of cognitive work, now let's eat some Alfajores.

I don't know if it's the good ratio of cornstarch, or my mistake of over mixing, but when I bite into this, it's like biting into clouds! The lightness of the cookies are held together by a thick caramel sauce. It's hard to have just one, or two.. or three 🙈