🍪 Peruvian alfajor
Peruvian alfajores are two soft, crumbly butter cookies sandwiched with a thick layer of dulce de leche, known in Peru as manjar blanco, and finished with a snowy coat of powdered sugar. The cookies melt in the mouth while the caramel filling stays gooey. They are sold in bakeries and at street stalls across Peru and eaten with coffee or as an afternoon treat.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g plain flour
- 100 g cornstarch
- 150 g butter, softened
- 60 g powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting
- 1 pinch of salt
- 300 g thick dulce de leche (manjar blanco)
Method
- Beat the butter with the powdered sugar until pale and creamy.
- Sift in the flour, cornstarch and salt and mix just until a soft dough forms. Chill for 20 minutes.
- Roll out to 4–5 mm, cut 5 cm rounds and bake at 170 °C for 10–12 minutes, until set but still pale.
- Cool completely, then sandwich two cookies with a heaped teaspoon of dulce de leche.
- Dust generously with powdered sugar before serving.
How to make it lighter
- Make the cookies smaller: a 25 g mini alfajor satisfies the craving with far fewer calories.
- Spread the dulce de leche thinner — it is the densest part of the cookie.
- Dust with powdered sugar lightly instead of rolling the whole cookie in it.
History
The alfajor came to the Americas from Spain, and its name is usually traced to Arabic, often to a word meaning 'filling'. In Peru it developed into the tender, caramel-filled cookie known today, and it is now one of the country's most popular sweets, sold by bakeries throughout Lima.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →