Alfajore Cookies

 Spot of Tea?

These cookies look wonderful in the Baked cookbook.  I am looking forward to making them, as I love dulce de leche.  I am still on the fence about making my own (dulce de leche that is).  I know it is just condensed milk and easy peasy to make......but Eagle Brand does now sell dulce de leche.  And I may or may not already have a can or two of it sitting in the cupboard.  (I'm not being coy, I seriously can't remember if I actually tried it in anything yet.)

I think these cookies will look very pretty on the new plate, teacup and saucer I bought especially for this day.  I bought these months ago for this specific post.  They have sat in my dining room hutch waiting for their moment to shine.
Not only is it Mother's Day, but it would have been my mom's birthday today.  She had a penchant for teacups and saucers.  And I know she would have loved this set....and not just for the sheer beauty of them, but also because I got them on sale!!  And we both loved/love a sale!


Focusing on making the cookies now.

First, need to get the flour and other dry ingredients blended together. 

The corn starch is sifted first; then, whisked with the other ingredients.  The mixture becomes so fluffy!

Maybe not this fluffy.

Butter and sugar are ready to get it on.  (Cue the Barry White music.)  Oh yeahhhhhhh. 

Next, the lovely lemon zest gets added.  Oy, it smells heavenly.














If I wasn't drinking (the last of the....but shhhh don't tell hubbie) iced coffee, I'd want a lemonade.  My hubbie makes a good cup of coffee....but he makes a crazy good glass of iced coffee.  No sugar, just the double strength coffee over ice with a splash of half and half.  Mmm Mmm Mmm.

The egg yolks and whole egg are added next.  I even went to the trouble (though really not a trouble at all) of removing the white bits from the eggs.  Aren't they beautiful, Madge?!













The last ingredients to be added to the bowl (before the dry ingredients) are the rum and vanilla.  I'm beginning to feel like I can't bake without my Sailor Jerry anymore.  What?  He understands me....we've got a connection.  The recipe calls for a good-quality light rum.  I went with Sailor Jerry.  He would never fail me.






Where were we?  Oh yes, adding the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. 

And here we have the dough.
It looks so good...I just wanna eat it now. 

Once shaped into a disc, it can be put in the fridge to chill for awhile.  This dough feels great.  Yes, I'm feeling my dough!  Hey, this is private!

So I do have two cans of the Eagle Brand Dulce de Leche.  I think I will just pour the contents into a pot and heat it up.  Not sure how thick it is, so I may need the heat to thicken it.<shrug>

Well, I have heated it up and let it cool, but it doesn't seem to be as thick as what it looks like in the Baked book.  Perhaps I'll put it in the fridge for a while.  Not having a good feeling about this people.




Going to move on, to the cookie making.  I left the dough in the fridge overnight.  For no particular reason...well other than I wanted to get outside and pull some dandelions...what....isn't that what everyone thinks of when making cookies??  Yep, nothing better than spending 3 hours pulling dandelions and weeds.  Good times.

Dough gets cut in half.  One half gets put back in the fridge.

The other half gets ready to be rolled....out....














and then cut.....

















 out......

I went with a daisy shape cut out for these cookies.  Once cut out, I put them on a cookie pan and then threw them in the oven...to promptly pull them out of the oven.
Yeah, read the recipe and I'm supposed to chill them in the fridge for five minutes before baking.  Look at me reading the recipe!

Ten minutes in the oven and they have puffed up nicely, but not too much.  Goldilocks would want these cookies...'cause they're just right.

What the Alfajor?

The dulce de leche seems thicker now that it has been in the fridge.  Scratch that.  Dulce to let down.
















Okay, going to pull out the jar of nutella.  That has a great consistency and would be wonderful on these cookies.  (It was a discussion we had at Baked Sunday Mornings.)  You can also go there to see how everyone else did with these cookies.

As for this household, the cookies weren't spot on.  But they do look pretty and sometimes looking pretty is important.  The flavour of the cookies were good.  Loved the lemon in the cookie dough.

Happy Anniversary to my hubbie. Yes, it is also our wedding anniversary.  There really is a lot going on today.  Love you more than gum drops, hon.