by Marcela M. | Jun 4, 2012 | Blog, Cakes, Recipe Box, Recipes, Sweets
Good evening dear friends!
Today it was a holiday in Cyprus, Kataklismos, the flood festival, which is why I am posting this recipe late. My children were at home, so we took them to a nearby park early in the morning and then we stayed home, playing and just enjoying the day together. The weather is beginning to get hot and at 8:00 am the sun is already up in the sky, shinning strong, which is why we go to the park so early that we are generally the only ones there!
We are lucky to live very close to a very beautiful park, with a nice playground, a basketball court, and a beautiful lawn with palm trees, pine trees and tile trees, as well as a pond and a water fountain where birds and butterflies fly around, and stray cats look for someone to pet them for a while. Luka and Zoe love and look forward to our mornings there, playing ball, walking around, chasing birds and sitting by the pond, and we are happy to take them out of the apartment, to enjoy nature.
Now let’s get to the recipe you have been waiting for!
I have been doing this cheesecake for about 15 years and, every time, it is a huge success. I don’t remember exactly how I came up with it because I have it scribbled in my old recipe notebook, but I believe it was written on the foil cover of a pack of ricotta cheese from a famous Argentinian brand (Mendicrim). I do remember that I had been looking for a good cheesecake recipe for a while, and for some strange reason I tried this one first, instead of one the 101 that my mother had in a specific recipe book! I also remember that most recipes I had seen before called for a cookie-based crust, and that many specifically mentioned digestive cookies (which do not exist in Argentina), which had put me off trying them. I have tried many cheesecakes since then and I always go back to this one. It is, in my opinion, just perfect. I hope you will find it perfect too.
The beauty of this recipe is that it is very simple to make (no special appliances needed), and that you can find all ingredients in almost any country, in the Western world at least. It is a cooked cheesecake, with a barely sweet crust made from scratch, and a filling that is soft, not overly sweet and extremely delicious. I particularly like how the crust’s flavour doesn’t overpower the filling, which is the recipe’s true hero. I normally top it by brushing a little strawberry jam and decorate it with sliced strawberries, but this time I decided to change and use fruits of the forest instead. I had a pack of frozen fruits of the forest, which I slowly defrosted overnight in the refrigerator before adding them to the cake, right before serving. It was delicious.
The quantities are enough for a 9 inch/20 cms cake pan, but you can also make individual mini cheesecakes, or a taller, narrower cake. Beware, though, that the cake does rise a little in the oven and if you fill the pan to the very top, the filling may overflow. So, whichever pan you choose, remember to leave some space between filling and top of the pan!
Now, without further ado, here is the recipe for my favourite cheesecake ever:
Ingredients:
For the crust: 200 grs of flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 tablespoons sugar, 75 grs soft butter or margarine, 100 cc milk. (Note: If the butter is too soft, you may need to reduce the quantity of milk or the dough will be too sticky)
For the filling: 250 grs cream cheese (I use philadelphia in Cyprus, and queso blanco in Argentina. The original recipe called for ricotta but I don’t like it that way), 2 egg yolks, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 small can of sweetened condensed milk (397ml/14 oz), 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, 2 egg whites, beaten until stiff.
Preparation:
Prepare the crust: Put flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl and mix with a whisk. Cut butter in small pieces and add to the flour mixture, mixing it in using your hands. Start adding milk slowly, until you can form a ball with the dough. Cover with foil and bring to the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Prepare the filling: Put cream cheese, egg yolks and cornstarch in a bowl and mix well. Add sweetened condensed milk slowly and mix thoroughly, until no lumps are visible (using a hand or stand mixer can be handy if you have one, but it is in no way a requisite. It will just take a little bit longer to get rid of the lumps without it, that’s all). Add vanilla extract and mix in well. Add the beaten egg whites, and incorporate using a spatula, in circular motion.
Assemble the cheesecake: Pre- heat the oven at 175 C. Oil and flour a cake pan. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it about 1/2 cm thick. Wrap the dough in the rolling pin and lift it to cover the pan, attaching it well to the sides (it has a tendency to fall over the filling if you don’t press it well). Pinch sides and bottom with a fork. Pour the filling inside the pan and pat it on the counter to make sure it is even. Cook for about 50 minutes, or until the filling stops feeling wobbly when slowly shaking the pan back and forth (in order to check for readyness, take the pan with both hands while still in the oven and move it back and forth. If the filling moves, it is not ready). Note: using cooking times as a guideline onky, because they vary greatly from oven to oven. The most accurate method for guaranteeing that the filling will be firm when you cut it is the simple one of giving it a little shake. Once the cake is ready, turn the oven off and let it rest inside for 15 minutes (or the filling will swamp, as it happened to me because I forgot!). After this time, remove from the oven and let cool.
Decorate: Once the cake is completely cool, brush it with jam and add the fruits of your choice on top right before serving. Note: As you can see in the pictures above, I added generous amounts of jam. I don’t normally do that, but I had forgotten to leave it in the oven after finishing the baking process and it swamped in the middle, so I covered the hole with jam and added extra fruits.
Con sabor latino:
¡Buenas noches queridos amigos!
Hoy fue feriado en Nicosia, Kataklismos o el Festival de la Inundación, motivo por el cual publico esta receta tan tarde. Mis hijos estuvieron en casa todo el día, y aprovechamos para llevarlos al parque cercano temprano por la mañana y, luego, nos quedamos en casa jugando y disfrutando del día juntos. El clima ya comienza a tornarse muy caluroso y a las 8:00 am ya el sol está alto en el cielo, brillando fuerte, motivo por el cual vamos al parque tan temprano que frecuentemente somos los únicos allí!
Afortunadamente, vivimos cerca de un parque hermoso, con un area de juegos, una cancha de basket, y una bellísima explanada con palmeras, pinos y tilos que dan sombra, y una fuente de agua alrededor de la cual vuelan pájaros y mariposas, y donde gatos callejeros buscan alguien que les haga un mimo. Luka y Zoe adoran ir y esperan con ansias nuestras mañanas allí, jugando a la pelota, caminando, persiguiendo pajaritos y sentandonos a la orilla de la fuente, y a nosotros nos hace felices sacarlos por un rato fuera del departamento, para que disfruten de la naturaleza.
Pero basta de prolegómanos, y pasemos directo a la receta que estaban esperando!
Esta es una receta que hago desde hace alrededor de 15 años y, cada vez, es un exito tremendo. No recuerdo exactamente de donde la saqué, pero creería que la encontré en la tapa de aluminio de un pote de ricotta Mendicrim. Recuerdo, sí, que para ese entonces ya hacía bastante que yo venía buscando una buena receta de cheesecake y, por alguna extraña razón, me decidí a probar esta primero, antes que las 101 que tenía mi mamá en un libro especialmente dedicado a este tipo de tortas. Recuerdo también que la mayor parte de las recetas que había encontrado hasta ese momento tenían una base de galletitas, y que muchas de ellas requerían un tipo específico que no se encuentra en Argentina (las galletitas digestivas), lo que me había hechado atrás para probarlas. He probado muchas cheesecakes desde entonces, y siempre he preferido la de esta receta. Es, en mi opinión, simplemente perfecta. Espero que a ustedes les parezca igual!
La belleza de esta receta es que es muy sencilla de hacer (no se requieren instrumentos especiales), y que pueden encontrarse los ingredientes en la mayor parte de los paises del mundo occidental, al menos. Es una cheesecake cocida, con una base casera levemente dulce, y un relleno suave, no demasiado dulce e increiblemente delicioso. Una de las cosas que más me gusta es que el sabor de la base no opaca el relleno, sino que lo deja brillar, ser el heroe de la receta. Generalmente la termino pincelándola con mermelada de frutilla y decorandola con frutillas fileteadas ubicadas en circulos concentricos, pero esta vez decidí utilizar frutos del bosque en lugar de mi decoración tradicional. Había comprado hace ya un tiempo una caja de frutas congeladas, que dejé en la heladera toda la noche, en un bowl, y agregué a la torta justo antes de servir. Quedó exquisita.
Las cantidades son suficientes para un molde de 9 pulgadas/20 cms de diametro, pero tambien pueden prepararlas en versión mini, o bien en un molde ligeramente más pequeño y alto, pero tengan cuidado en este caso porque si el relleno llega al borde, es muy posible que el mismo rebalse durante la cocción ya que la torta crece un poco en el horno. Cualquier sea el molde que elijan, entonces, cuiden de no llenarlo hasta el tope. Y les recomiendo, asimismo, que sea de aquellos que se retira el costado, porque será más facil de desmoldar.
Ahora sí, sin más introducciones, he aquí la receta:
Ingredientes:
Para la masa: 200 grs de harina, 1 cucharada de té de polvo de hornear, 3 cucharadas soperas de azucar, 75 grs de manteca, 100 cc de leche. Nota: Si la manteca está demasiado blanda, será necesario agregar menor cantidad de leche or la masa estará demasiado pegajosa y no se podrá armar un bollo con ella.
Para el relleno: 250 grs de queso blanco o queso philadelphia (en Argentina usaba mendicrim o casancrem, pero usen el que más les guste!. La receta original pedía ricotta pero no la hago así porque no me gusta). 2 yemas, 2 cucharadas de fecula de maiz (maizena), 1 lata chica de leche condensada azucarada (397 grs), 2 cucharaditas de té de esencia de vainilla, 2 claras batidas a nieve.
Preparación:
Prepare la masa: Coloque harina, polvo de hornear y azucar en un bowl y mezcle todo con un batidor de alambre. Agregue la manteca cortada en trozos, desmenuzandola con los dedos e integrándola con los ingredientes secos. Agregue la leche de a poco, hasta que se pueda formar un bollo de masa. Cubra con papel film y lleve a la heladera por 15 minutos.
Prepare el relleno: Coloque yemas, fécula y queso crema en un bowl y mezcle hasta que esté todo bien incorporado. Agregue la leche condensada poco a poco, integrando bien y batiendo para que no queden grumos ( Si tiene batidor electrico, aproveche y usela porque será mas facil librarse de los grumos, pero sepa que si no cuenta con una, no hay problema). Agregue la vainilla e incorpore. Agregue las claras batidas a nieve al batido de queso, incorporandolas con movimientos envolventes.
Arme la cheesecake: Precaliente el horno a 175 grados. Retire la masa de la heladera, y estirela sobre la mesa o mesada hasta que tenga aproximadamente 1/2 cm. Envuelvala en el palote para levantarla y cubra el molde deseado, previamente enmantecado y enharinado. Presione la masa con los dedos para que se adhiera bien al molde y pinchela con un tenedor (para que no se levante mucho en el horno). Vierta el relleno sobre la masa, y empareje dando golpes contra la mesada. Lleve a horno durante aproximadamente 50 minutos, o hasta que el relleno deje de moverse al sacudir ligeramente el molde. Nota: Le aconsejo que se guíen ligeramente por los tiempos de cocción porque pueden variar mucho de un horno a otro, el mejor método para saber si está lista y si no se desarmará al cortar es, simplemente, tomar el molde con ambas manos cuando aún está en el horno, y moverlo apenas. Si la torta “se mueve”, no está lista. Una vez lista, apague el horno y deje la cheesecake dentro durante 15 minutos ( si no lo hacen y la retiran inmediatamente se hundirá como me ocurrió a mí por olvidadiza!0. Transcurrido este tiempo, retirela del horno y deje enfriar.
Decore: Una vez que la torta esté totalmente fría, pincele con mermelada y cubra con frutas de su preferencia justo antes de servir. Nota: Como pueden ver en las fotos anteriores, yo no pincelé sino que cubrí con cantidades generosas de mermelada. La razón es que mi cheesecake se habia hundido al medio, así que rellené el hueco con mermelada y frutas!
I hope you like this recipe! It is one of my favourites!
Have a wonderful week, and see you on Thursday!
by Marcela M. | May 25, 2012 | Blog, Cakes, Recipe Box, Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
Good morning dear friends!
Today I bring you another recipe from Circulo Whole Kitchen. As I mentioned in my post from last week, this month I started participating in the culinary challenges proposed by Whole Kitchen Magazine, and their sweet suggestion for May 2012 was the ultra popular zebra cake.
The zebra cake is, basically, a vanilla and chocolate cake, marbled to resemble the stripes of a zebra. This is achieved by putting the batter in the pan one or two spoons at a time, alternating colours. When looked from the top, the cake looks like a succession of circles, but when cut in slices, the zebra stripes appear, making it an instant hit with children- and with adults!
In this occasion, I used the recipe provided to us by Whole Kitchen and followed the directions exactly, because I am always happy to try ones, but know that since the effect is mainly visual, you can simply use your favourite vanilla cake recipe, divide the batter in two, add two tablespoons of cocoa (I prefer dark cocoa) to one half, and go ahead with the method for placing the batter in the pan, as you would with this one. And you could even use a boxed cake or change flavours and colours!
This recipe is a very nice one, though, and I encourage you to try it. It is a simple cake, with a spongy texture (because the eggs are beaten with the sugar until white, which makes them fluffy) and not overly sweet. It makes a nice everyday coffee cake, but if you are making it for a child’s party, you could also cover it in chocolate ganache, or cover the sides with peanuts (as Kim did here, for example, and then the zebra stripes could come out as a surprise! The cake’s pattern would be perfect for birthday themes such as Safari, Young Explorers, Animals, Madagascar (the movie) or Africa.
The only variation I introduced to the original one, was the size of the pan: instead of baking my zebra cake in a normal sized pan, i did it in small ramequins. I like to bake cakes in small containers so that I can freeze those that will not be eaten immediately without losing freshness. This batter is enough for a 9 inch pan, or for 6 ramequins (mine are from Ikea). I do have to point out, though, that the effect of the zebra stripes is less noticeable when baked in small pans, as you can see from my pictures. So, if you want the full wow effect of the zebra stripes, it is probably better to stick to the traditional size.
Here is the recipe I used:
Ingredients
4 large eggs
250 grs sugar
250 ml milk
250 ml sunflower oil
300 grs all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Preparation
Oil and flour a cake pan and pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Beat sugar and eggs until white and fluffy. Add oil and beat until well-integrated, and then add milk slowly, beating all the time.
In a different container, mix flour and baking powder. Whisk to integrate.
Add dry to wet ingredients in three times, integrating well before each new addition.
Separate the batter in two and add cocoa powder to one half.
Assemble the cake by pouring the batter in the center of the pan, using an ice cream scoop, alternating colours ( two scoops of vanilla batter, one scoop of cocoa batter, two scoops of vanilla batter, and so on).
Bake for 40 minutes at 180 C.
Note: If you change the size of the pan, remember that the oven times change as well! My mini cakes only took 18 minutes to be ready!
I hope that you like it! Have you ever made a zebra cake before?
Have a nice weekend!
by Marcela M. | May 18, 2012 | Blog, Main courses, Recipe Box, Recipes, Savories, Uncategorized
Good morning dear friends! Are you ready for the weekend?
Today I bring you a post with a delicious recipe that I discovered through Whole Kitchen cooking club, El Circulo Whole Kitchen.Whole Kitchen Magazine provides two recipes to its members every month ( one sweet and one savory), and the savory proposal for May 2012 was fish cakes.
I immediately liked the idea because, even though we live on an island, I have found it hard to incorporate fish into our diet, particularly that of our children. When I read the recipe for these fish cakes, I loved how versatile it was: I could shape them in different ways to make them more attractive for Luka and Zoe, and I could sneak in vegetables (Yes, I do that, I have picky eating toddlers!). The recipe also suits very well Cyprus lovely Spring weather, and it was perfect for a quick-lunch at the balcony, after the children came back from nursery school.
Whole Kitchen provided us with two different recipes: one from Jamie Oliver, which called for salmon and potatoes, and the other one from Trotamundos, which called for white fish, beans and potatoes. I decided to make my variation and used white fish fillets, potatoes, and butternut squash for a sweeter taste.
These fish cakes are really, really simple to make and they require very few ingredients: all you need is fish, potatoes and squash, plus one egg and a bit of flour and bread crumbs for assembling them, that’s all. The procedure couldn’t be easier but it may take a bit of time if you decide to give them a specific shape, as I did. First, you need to boil or steam the vegetables until very tender. In the meantime, cook the fish in the oven for about 10 minutes, drizzled with olive oil and covered in aluminum foil. Once everything is cooked, you simply have to mash the vegetables, add the fish and a bit of parsley (or other spice of your own preference) shape the cakes, flour them and fry them in just a bit of oil.
As I mentioned, I did not make these cakes round, as it is traditional. Instead, since I was going to be serving them to my children, I decided to use a fish-shaped cookie cutter to make them more enticing.
In order to give them this shape, I covered a cookie sheet with foil, extended the preparation on top, covered it with more foil and put the sheet in the fridge for half an hour, for it to get some consistency. After this time, I took it out and started cutting little fish with my cutter and placing them on a plate. Once I was done, I put the fish cakes back in the fridge for another half an hour. This is necessary for them not to lose their shape when you flour them.
After half an hour, I took the fish cakes out of the fridge, floured them (passing by flour, egg and bread crumbs) and fried them in just a tiny bit of oil, until golden. The next time I make them I will try to bake them in the oven, but since this was the first time, I decided to stick to the traditional cooking methods. Frying them makes them crispy on the outside while remaining soft on the inside – and they are just delicious!
I also decided to keep the flavours simple, so that the sweetness of the squash would be palpable, and therefore used as condiment only a bit of parsley, salt and pepper. You could be more adventurous, and try to add other spices either in the main mixture or by flavouring the bread crumbs with lemon zest or a Provençal mix (garlic and parsley), for example.
Fish cakes are traditionally accompanied by French fries, but I decided to go for a healthier option and opted for a quick, simple salad of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes instead. While I like to eat fried food on occasions, I don’t have a big resistance to it, and I find that I can tolerate them better if I eat them with fresh vegetables. I am a big fan of salads all year-long, but I must confess that I could pretty much live on them during the warmer months!
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
– 3 fish fillets
– 2 medium-sized potatoes
– 5 slices of butternut squash
– Parsley, salt and pepper to taste
– Flour
– breadcrumbs
-Oil for frying
Preparation:
– Dice potatoes and squash and put in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil until tender.
– Put the fish fillets in an oven tray, add salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Cover with aluminum foil and cook for about 10 minutes.
– Mash the potatoes and squash. Crumble the fish fillets and add them to the vegetable purée. Add salt and pepper to taste and parsley, if desired.
– Shape small cakes with the help of your hands, place them on a tray, and put them in the fridge for half an hour. If you want to give the cakes a cookie cutter shape, extend the mixture on an oven tray covered in foil, put it in the fridge for half an hour, and only after this use the cookie cutter.
– Slightly beat one egg. Remove the cakes from the fish, flour them, dip them in egg, and pass them by bread crumbs so that these stick to them.
– Put a bit of oil in a frying pan and, once heated, add the fish cakes, until golden on both sides. Serve.
I hope you’ll like them!
Have a great weekend!
by Marcela M. | May 10, 2012 | Blog, cookies, Recipe Box, Recipes, South America, Sweets, Travel, Uncategorized
Good evening dear friends! I hope you had a lovely week.
This week, we continue with our introduction to typical Argentinian sweets, the ones we, Argentinians, love and miss when we are abroad. Today, I bring you some of my favourite bite-sized sweets. All of them, except branch chocolate and nuts confit, can be found in any kiosk, so they are great for an almost guilt-free sugar rush moment. Also, all of them, except for “bocadito maroc” include dulce de leche, because most of my fellow country-men would agree that “a desert without dulce de leche is not desert”. I have changed quite a bit in this regard since living abroad, but try baking a birthday cake with buttercream, jam or lemon curd for an Argentinian child (or adult!) and you will be met with a face of sheer disappointment!
Let’s begin with Bocaditos Maroc, which are the bi-colour squares portrayed in the pictures above. They are made with a combination of peanut cream, milk and white chocolate. They are soft and truly melt in your mouth and, best of all, they are really easy to make at home so, if you want to give them a try, here’s how: Cover a square pan with foil. Process 100 grs of peeled roasted peanuts with 1 tablespoons of corn or canola oil until it reaches a pancake batter consistency. Melt 100 grs of milk chocolate and add 1/3 of the peanut cream to it. Mix well and place it in the pan, making sure it covers the pan evenly and smoothly. Bring to the fridge for about 15 minutes, so that the chocolate hardens. Melt 80 grs white chocolate and add another 1/3 of the peanut cream, mix well and pour it on top of the milk chocolate and peanut mixture. Put it in the fridge for another 15 minutes and, in the meantime, melt the remaining 100 grs of milk chocolate. Mix with the last 1/3 of peanut cream, and add it to the pan. Smooth the top with a spatula and place it in the fridge until hard. Once ready, remove from the pan, peel off the foil and cut into squares with a sharp knife (If you wet the knife in hot water, it will be easier to get a nice, clean-cut). And that’s all it takes!
The following treat is perhaps the most common of them all: Dulce de leche cones, or “Pinitos de dulce de leche”. They are simply, as you can see from the picture below, a truly decadent treat made of cookie, lots of dulce de leche disposed in a cone shape and covered in either dark or white chocolate.
If you live outside of Argentina and you are familiar with regular dulce de leche, you may be wondering how it is possible for the cones to keep their shape. The answer is this: the cones are not made with regular dulce de leche, but with dulce de leche repostero, or “baking dulce de leche”, which is firmer and thicker than the regular one (which has a jam-like consistency).
Dulce de leche repostero, unlike regular dulce de leche, is not made solely of milk, sugar and vanilla. Now, be warned, here comes a big surprise: Dulce de leche repostero has bean pulp (pulpa de frijoles) and cornstarch to give it its consistency. Argentinian friends, if you don’t believe me, go check the ingredients listed in a can…I did it back in November and couldn’t believe my eyes!
If you want to make it at home, you should know that the proportions are different from the ones for regular dulce de leche: apart from adding the above ingredients, it takes three times more sugar. So, for every 5 litres of milk (as I did in the original recipe), you will need 3 kg of sugar, 2 1/2 cups of bean pulp (made soaking the beans overnight, then boiling them until very soft and finally passing them through a sieve), 10 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 vanilla bean and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. The procedure is pretty much the same as for regular dulce de leche, except for the addition of the beans which has to be done after the milk and sugar mixture starts to thicken (see the first stage of browning of my earlier post on dulce de leche). Right after adding the bean pulp and mixing everything very well with a wooden spoon, you should also add the cornstarch previously diluted in half a cup of cold milk. Then let time run its course and after a few hours you should be able to enjoy wonderful baking dulce de leche!
Another special treat that I look forward to eating when I go home are nueces confitadas, or “nuts confit”:
There are many recipes and ways to make them, but most of them involve three ingredients: dulce de leche repostero (see why you should know how to make it? 😉 , walnuts and poured fondant. The most traditional way consists of surrounding a full walnut in a spoon of dulce de leche and covering it all with poured fondant. Some, however, do it in a different way (as the ones that you can see in the picture above), which consists in making a paste with dulce de leche repostero and processed walnuts, giving it a ball shape and covering each ball in either poured fondant or dark chocolate.
The following picture shows another personal favourite, called Bocadito cabsha:
They are made with host capsules (yes, like the host of catholic mass. In Argentina they can be bought at baking supplies stores), dulce de leche, glucose, rum, and chocolate. The procedure is very simple: you need to heat the glucose in a pan, together with the dulce de leche, remove the pan from heat and add the rum, and fill the capsules with this preparation being careful not to overflow them. Finally, cover the capsules in chocolate, let them cool down for it to harden and enjoy!
Finally, chocolate en rama, or branch chocolate:
If you are curious about how it is made, check this video where you can see a real maitre chocolatier at work.
See you next week, with the last post on Argentinian sweets and a few recipes!
Have a wonderful weekend!
by Marcela M. | May 3, 2012 | Blog, cookies, Recipe Box, Recipes, South America, Sweets, Travel, Uncategorized
Good morning friends! Let’s finish the week on a sweet note, shall we?
Last year, during our stay in Córdoba, I started preparing a few posts about Argentina’s sweet food culture. I could not finish writing these posts at the time, but I did take the pictures with the aim of showing you what we, Argentinians, think about when we think about sweets, what we love, what we miss when we are abroad. So here is the first of these posts, three in total, showcasing a small selection of my favourite treats. I need to give you one warning, though: there are many more sweets that I could not find in Córdoba (because they are typical of other provinces) or didn’t have the time to photograph. I also owe you a post on the candies and cookies from my childhood, which I meant to prepare, but my children kept eating the items to be photographed 😉
So, let’s begin! Today’s post is about the most popular of Argentina’s sweet treats: alfajores. But what are alfajores? And why are they called this way?
Alfajores are basically two cookies sandwiched together by some kind of sweet filling, be it fruit jam, dulce de leche, mousse or even ice cream. Their name comes from the arabic word “alajú”, and it is, in fact, an arabic confection that entered Spain during the Moorish era (during the period of Al-Andalus) and was then adopted -and modified- by the Spanish colonies. The shape and the recipes for the cookie itself and its fillings vary greatly from one country to the other, and even from one region to the other. According to wikipedia, the original confection (which can still be found in Spain) contained flour honey, spices and nuts and had a cilinder form (like a crêpe), while in Latinamerica alfajores are round and are normally filled with jams and mousses.Also, while in Spain they constitute a treat to be enjoyed mainly on special occasions (such as Christmas), except in the Medina Sidonia (where one can buy them all year long), in countries such as Argentina they are an everyday snack and can be bought in any kiosk.
Alfajores are different from a regular sandwich cookie, such as an oreo. The texture of the cookie itself is different: alfajores are moist and soft, and lack the crispiness of a traditional sandwich cookie. The filling is different as well, and more abundant. Whoopie pies, on the other side, look like an alfajor, and that is probably what we would call them back home in Argentina.
Argentina has different kinds of traditional alfajores, which differ from province to province. There are, of course, those that are available in kiosks nation-wide, produced by big candy companies, such as Arcor, Bagley or Terrabusi (owned by Kraft foods), but what is really interesting, and what I recommend you to do if you travel to Argentina one day, is to taste the regional versions, and compare them. In the following pictures I will show you some of these alfajores for you to get a glimpse at the variety you can find, and once I have tested and tweaked the recipes I brought from home, I will share them with you here as well.
The first type of alfajores I am showing you is perhaps the most famous one: Alfajor “Marplatense”, the alfajor from Mar del Plata, a seaside city in Buenos Aires province, which is also a traditional vacation spot.
Mar del Plata has many alfajor factories and, one of them, Havanna, has opened cafés and stores in several other countries, such as Israel, Spain, Mexico and the US. Havanna alfajores can also normally be found in shops that sell Latin-american products, as well as in Argentinian restaurants.
There are several types of alfajores from Mar del Plata: vanilla cookie with dulce de leche filling, covered in chocolate, vanilla cookie with dulce de leche filling covered in sugar glaze, vanilla and coffee cookie with dulce de leche filling and dark chocolate glaze, and vanilla and walnut cookie, with dulce de leche filling and covered in white chocolate glaze. They are all delicious, and their dulce de leche filling has the characteristic subtly smoky flavour that just burst in your mouth with the first bite and leaves you wanting more.
Alfajores from Córdoba are quite different, in two main aspects: the cookie is quite simple and light, the traditional filling is fruit jam instead of dulce de leche (normally, apple, pear or quince jam) and they are covered with a very simple sugar glaze made with only icing sugar and water that does not cover the cookie completely. Due to the popular love for dulce de leche, however, alfajores cordobeses with dulce de leche also exist, but they are not the traditional ones.
The cordobese confection that traditionally carries dulce de leche are colaciones, which are characterized by the crispy, curved nature of the cookie (that contains many egg yolks and a little bit of alcohol in the dough).
Alfajores from Santa Fé are also very popular. They are made of three layers of crispy, rather dry cookie (characterized because the dough has to be rolled and turned on itself 20 times, such as in the procedure for making puff pastry) , filled with dulce de leche (lots of dulce de leche, since the cookie itself is not overly sweet!) and covered with a sugar glaze made with icing sugar, water, lemon and egg whites.
Another very famous alfajor, which I couldn’t find in Córdoba to photograph, is the Alfajor Norteño (from Argentina’s North-West region), which is filled either with layers of dulce de leche and turrón, or only with turrón paste made with honey, egg-whites, sugar and walnuts.
I hope you liked this small introduction to our sweets and, worry not!, recipes will come soon!
And in case you are wondering who ate all those sweets that were photographed, it was a little blonde elf that helps me style food whenever he can…
Have a wonderful weekend!
by Marcela M. | Jan 24, 2012 | Blog, cookies, Holidays, Parties, Recipe Box, Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
Good afternoon dear friends! How are you today?
These past weeks I have been absent from the blog, and I apologize for that. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had been preparing two surprises for you. The first one, was the dessert table for Chinese New Year, and here is the second one: A tutorial for making the chocolate cookie heart wreath pictured above, which I designed for Catch my Party!
When my Christmas breakfast table was featured as Catch my Party’s Party of the Day, Jillian mentioned that she was going to pin the holly wreath to make it next year and I offered to prepare a tutorial for her. She loved the idea and suggested, instead, a cookie wreath for Valentine’s day! So I set myself to work!
If you would like to know how to do this, including how to decorate each type of cookie, hop over to Catch my Party!
I will show you how to decorate tons of cookies…
..how to put together a wreath like this one:
or like this other one…
…how to draw hearts with royal icing…
…how to outline with sprinkles…
…and how to outline with sanding sugar.
And if you have remaining cookies after assembling the wreath, you can enjoy them with milk…
Or even prepare cute Valentine’s day presents for your loved ones!
I have also included templates of the cookies I used, so go to Catch my Party now and happy baking!
