Chocolate Alfajores Recipes

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and extract. In another bowl, whisk flour, cornstarch, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Shape dough into a disk; wrap. Refrigerate until firm enough to roll, 2 hours., Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-in. round cookie cutter. Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets., Bake just until set, 5-7 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely., Spread dulce de leche on bottoms of half of the cookies; cover with remaining cookies. Press edges into coconut. Refrigerate in airtight containers.

Steps:

• Combine the flour, corn flour and baking powder together in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Using a food mixer or an electric whisk in another bowl beat the butter together with the sugar and lemon zest until very pale. Add the egg yolks followed by the Cognac and vanilla extract. Beat in the dry ingredients until you have smooth dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for a minimum of 1 hour. You can make the biscuit dough the day before and leave in the fridge.
• Line two large baking trays with baking parchment. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to the thickness of a pound coin then cut out 60 biscuits with a 5cm round or fluted cutter. Put the biscuits back in the fridge for 20 mins to firm up.
• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Bake the biscuits for 8 mins until just set. You want the biscuits to stay pale with a crumbly texture. Leave to cool completely before sandwiching two biscuits together with a spoonful of dulce de leche. Once all the biscuits are sandwiched together roll in desiccated coconut.

Steps:

• First of all cook the condensed milk. I prefer to do it in a pressure cooker; I find it safer. Here is what I do. Fill the pressure cooker with water to cover the condensed milk can inside. Place the cooker on the stove top and when it starts to boil count the time; 30 minutes is enough.
• Let it cool completely.
• It is very dangerous to open the can when it is hot. The hot sweet mixture inside will come out like a jet and it burns very badly.
• For the biscuit:.
• Cream butter with sugar, egg and yolks in an electric mixer using the whisk attachment.
• In another bowl mix flour, honey, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and vanilla. Mix this into the butter mixture.
• Work the dough until smooth.
• Let it rest for 30 minutes.
• On a floured board and using a rolling pin, roll the dough to a half (1/2) cm thickness.
• With a round (5cm) biscuit cutter, cut biscuits and place on a prepared baking sheet.
• Bake for 10 minutes in a medium oven (180°C).
• They should be light brown when done.
• Let it cool on a wire rack.
• When the biscuits are cold, spread some of the "dolce de leche" (about 1 tsp for every two biscuits) and cover with another, making a sandwich.
• Set aside.
• Melt the chocolate by placing it in a bowl over hot water, not boiling water.
• After the chocolate has melted bring it to the right temperature (you should feel it kind of icy when placed on your lips) for coating.
• Drop each biscuit in the melted chocolate, lift with a fork, taking care to take off all the excess.
• Place the covered biscuit on parchment paper and let it dry.
• Enjoy!