Easy cornstarch alfajores recipe

The classic cornstarch alfajores are super delicious and essential for special occasions such as birthdays and other events with a sweet table, however, they go very well in our daily lives accompanying a delicious coffee or with the drink that we like the most. In Argentina it is a traditional alfajor, filled with dulce de leche and covered with grated coconut that makes it a true delicacy.

The good news is that we can prepare them at home, with a simple and easy recipe that any of us can dare to make. In fact, it earned fame for the softness of its dough that makes it melt in the mouth along with the dulce de leche. Without being experts in the kitchen, we can follow the steps and prepare them to entertain our guests. Below are the ingredients we will need:

Ingredients to make cornstarch alfajores

• 250 gr. of margarine
• 3/4 cup of Sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 200 gr. of Flour 0000
• 300 gr. of cornstarch
• 2 cditas. of baking powder
• 1 Lemon
• Vanilla essence is optional
• c/n grated coconut
• 400 gr. of Dulce de leche

How to make easy cornstarch alfajores

1. In a bowl, we are going to place the margarine and sugar, mixing well until we obtain a smooth cream (to achieve this we must make sure that the margarine is at room temperature.
2. Then we add the yolks one by one to integrate it, then we add the zest of 1 lemon and begin to beat. We can also add vanilla essence if we wish.
3. Next step, we pre-heat the oven to 180 º C.
4. We continue adding the previously sifted flour, along with the cornstarch and baking powder. The idea is to achieve a softer and smoother dough.
5. Once the flour is incorporated, we begin to combine the ingredients until we obtain a somewhat smooth dough (trying not to knead).
6. After achieving the desired texture, we send the dough to the refrigerator for about 30 minutes so that it rests and is easier to stretch.
7. After time, we take the dough out of the refrigerator, on a large surface we stretch the dough (5 cm thick) and cut it into circles approximately the size of the alfajorcitos, perhaps with a mold that can be useful.
8. Next we place them on a previously floured baking sheet.
9. Finally, we put it in the oven for approximately 5/7 minutes, until we see that they are slightly golden but not excessively.
10. When cooking is finished, remove from the oven and let them cool.
11. We proceed to assemble the cornstarch alfajores, take each baked tapa and spread it with dulce de leche that we place in the center to cover it with the other tapa.
12. Finally, we coat each edge of the armed alfajores with generously grated coconut. We can also sprinkle with a little powdered sugar.

Cornstarch alfajores without tac

Many of us already know what this acronym means, but for those who don’t, I tell you that without TACC it means that that food does not contain Wheat, Oats, Barley or Rye. Tacc-free foods are those that do not contain gluten and these are essential for people with celiac disease since they are intolerant to it.

If this is your case, you should not despair, you can also enjoy these delicious delicacies. For this reason, it is necessary to look for alternatives when preparing recipes of this style and thanks to the fact that these cases are becoming more and more known, it is easier to find more dietary options.

Generally, people who have celiac disease use corn flour, cassava flour, rice flour, carob flour, etc. in their cooking.

Therefore, in the case of this recipe we will replace the wheat flour with a premix that is commonly sold in diet stores composed of a mixture of these flours. You will see that it is simple to do.

Ingredients:

-200 g Premix

-300 g of Corn Starch

-30 g of skimmed milk powder

-150 g of Butter

-1 tsp. Baking Powder

-A pinch of salt

-100g of powdered sugar

-3 Yolks

-A splash of vanilla essence

-Lemon zest

For the filling we will use dulce de leche pastry and grated coconut to decorate.

Procedure:

In a container, mix the dry ingredients, the flour premix, the cornstarch, the baking powder, the skim milk and the pinch of salt.

In another container we put the creamy butter together with the sugar, mix well until we achieve a kind of cream. We add the yolks one by one, mixing well as we add them. Finally we add the vanilla essence and the lemon or orange zest according to your taste.

Once we have all these ingredients well integrated, we begin to incorporate the dry mixture that we had made before. We mix everything well and pour it out onto the counter, you will see that it is a soft dough so you have to handle it very carefully, trying not to touch it too much with your hands so as not to give it so much heat.

That’s why I mix everything with the spatula, put the dough on a piece of plastic wrap and stretch it little by little with a rolling pin, it should be approximately 1 cm thick.

We put it in the refrigerator for about 40 minutes, then we start cutting the discs according to the size you want. Then we put it in a previously reheated medium oven for about 10 minutes. I always clarify that they should not be browned, just cooked.

When we remove the caps from the oven, we let them cool and then fill them with a good spoonful of dulce de leche and pass them through grated coconut.

Don’t stop doing it!

Colored cornstarch alfajores

These are the latest fashion and rage at birthdays, they are the must-haves on the sweet table and the first to be sought out by the little ones.

They are very simple to make, they have the same ingredients as the common cornstarch alfajor with the difference that before letting the dough rest in the refrigerator, we must add vegetable coloring.

When choosing a type of vegetable coloring we must keep in mind that there are many such as liquid, paste and powder, these are always chosen depending on what we are going to prepare. In this case particularly, I use those that come in gel since they give me better results because they are more concentrated.

We just have to keep in mind that the dough should be a darker color than desired since when it comes to cooking, it will be much lighter than expected.

Don’t stop making them for birthdays, they catch everyone’s attention!

Advice or tips:

• For the filling of the alfajores you can also use:  Pastry cream or Chocolate.
• A delicious suggestion that many have tried is to add a fruit filling such as fruit jam for example, it is an interesting variant that we can prepare to go out of the ordinary.
• Another useful and delicious recommendation to make the alfajores softer is to let them rest for a whole day so that they are soaked in all the filling, or even overnight.