Chocolate Argentine Alfajores for Valentine's Day

Dear readers,

I wanted to make a tasty treat to post to my boyfriend (in Argentina) for Valentine's Day. I posted him some of the Argentine Thumbprint Cookies that I made back in October and he absolutely loved them, as well as the idea of them being homemade and travelling so far. I decided that the Valentine's treat had to be heart-shaped and it had to be something small and light for the post. The Argentine Thumbprint Cookies were adapted from the traditional Argentine Alfajores (shortbread cookies sandwiched with dulce de leche and dusted with desiccated coconut), so I decided to make a Valentine's version of alfajores!

I used the same recipe for the shortbread that I used for the Argentine Thumbprint Cookies (55g sugar creamed with 125g of butter with 180g plain flour), but substituted 20g of the flour for some cocoa powder to make them dark and chocolately. Shortbread is so simple to make and so delicious that is has become a favourite of mine!

I rolled the shortbread dough (I ended up using an empty wine bottle as this student house seems to be a lacking rolling pin, as well as nutmeg, which I mentioned in my previous post!) and used a heart-shaped pastry cutter to cut out some hearts that were around 3mm thick. I then baked them at 180°C for around 10-12 minutes. After they had cooled, I sandwiched them with dulce de leche and rolled the edges in desiccated coconut.

I can only hope that they make it safely through the post and arrive on time!

Argentine Thumbprint Cookies

Argentine Thumbprint Cookie broken in half

Recently, I have become a keen drinker of Mate. Despite the fact that Mate suppresses the appetite, I always enjoy a sweet accompaniment, just as I do with my tea and coffee. Argentines are famous for their love of intense flavours and their love of dulce de leche, as I mentioned in a previous post. They drink their Mate very bitter. I drink Mate differently from the Latin Americans, with more water and much less yerba, in order to accommodate my sensitive palate.

Yerba Mate

I have always thought that 'thumbprint cookies' were cute. I had a browse on the internet and found that there are not many thumbprint cookies with dulce de leche. Argentine alfajores (which I sampled in Barcelona) generally consist of two shortbread cookies joined together with a filling of dulce de leche and dusted with desiccated coconut. I decided to transfer this idea into thumbprint cookies (as they are just adorable).

Argentine Thumbprint Cookies before cooking

I followed a shortbread recipe that I found on the internet which called for equal parts of butter and flour. The dough felt extremely oily so I added in some more flour before I shaped the cookies. Unfortunately, the cookies turned out a lot bigger and less 'adorable' than I had anticipated/hoped for.

Argentine Thumbprint Cookies

I tried again and this time managed to burn them. They were still worthy of being eaten, but definitely not worthy for the blog.

Dulce de leche centre

So, I tried for a third time and finally I had success! I creamed 125g of butter with 55g of sugar. I then mixed in 180g of flour and shaped the dough into small balls. I coated the balls with desiccated coconut, placed them onto a baking tray and pushed my thumb into the centre to create 'bowls' for the dulce de leche. After baking them until they were golden brown (around 10 minutes at 180°C), I filled the thumbprints with dulce de leche and added an extra dusting of coconut. They were small, cute and very tasty.

Argentine Thumbprint Cookie

Is anyone else, out there, a Mate drinker?

Ice Cream Sandwiches in Berkeley, CA

My latest addiction: ice cream sandwiches. I am still drinking boba tea but these have taken over.

Summer has now arrived and much of my time is spent outside, whether I am studying by the pool, "chilling" in the hot tub or enjoying a barbeque with my friends. The sunny weather is the perfect excuse for an ice cream sandwich!

As with every visit I make to a city, I always look for the best places to eat. One absolute must, when visiting Berkeley, is C.R.E.A.M (Cookies Rule Everything Around Me). One great sign of C.R.E.A.M is that I've always seen huge queues outside of the shop.

The cookies are always freshly baked and warm and there are many ice cream choices to make one's perfect ice cream sandwich. One Sunday afternoon in Berkeley, I visited C.R.E.A.M with a friend. We ordered a Turtle Cookie with Coffee Almond Fudge ice cream and a White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookie with Old Fashioned Cherry Vanilla ice cream. These were two divine pairings.

Initially, we decided to share the sandwiches, but I was so overwhelmed by the Turtle cookie that I could only bear to share one bite... (I am mean!) As if they were only $2 each?!

Soft But Not-So-Chewy Dark Chocolate and Walnut Cookies

My idea of a cookie is something that is soft, moist and slightly chewy. A biscuit is something that is hard and can be dipped into a cup of tea.

In America, it seems that the term "cookie" covers both of these descriptions and a biscuit is a savoury scone that is frequently served drenched in gravy. I find all of this this very confusing.

I assumed that in order to make a soft, moist and chewy cookie, you simply use a hygroscopic sweetener and you're there. This theory proved incorrect when I decided to make some "soft and chewy" cookies by using light brown sugar and corn syrup as the sweetener. Corn syrup is famous for its hygroscopic properties and retaining moisture in baked goods, as is brown sugar. I also refrigerated my cookie dough for a good hour before baking as, apparently, this prevents the cookies from thinning out and becoming crispy during baking.

In fact, I thought that the cookies turned out a little too thick. I don't think that I overcooked them and I certainly didn't use too much flour, yet, fresh from the oven, these were not chewy in the slightest. The next day, however, they had a slight chewiness but nowhere near as yielding as I would have liked.

Despite their lack of chewiness, they seemed to go down very well. They certainly carried the "buttery" flavour and texture. It is true when they say that there is no substitute for butter... I am glad that I decided to spend $6 (yes $6!!) on a stick of butter instead of using the so-called 'butter' in the fridge which contains 53% vegetable oil...

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups butter at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
¼ cup corn syrup
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Method:
Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until well blended. Beat in the egg, corn syrup and vanilla. Mix in the sifted dry ingredients and then stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.

Wrap up the dough and chill for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Roll out the dough into 1.5 inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the tops of the cookies are set. Cool on a wire rack.

This makes about 25 cookies.


I was wondering if anyone had any tips or advice on how to make soft and chewy cookies?

Another issue that I found was that the bottom of the cookies cooked a lot faster than the top. This meant that a couple of the cookies were burnt, but most of them only had a browner base. I think that this was because I didn't use a baking sheet and I now know how important it is to use one! Even though I enjoyed the caramelised flavours that were produced by the browning, I will use a baking sheet in future to avoid the risk of burning!