'A' is for Argentina

We have set out to work our way through the alphabet in our gourmet club. First up was 'A' as in Argentina, hosted at Kris and Vanessa's house. Alicia and Bill brought fabulous appetizers after passing by many OPP cars on the way, and Beth and Rob brought dessert. William, Will and Hannah joined us, too.

Kris will post the names and how to pronounce them later! Conveniently, the Vintages section at the LCBO featured Argentinian wines this month, so we tried three of them. All were quite fine, but the Trumpeter took first prize. We'll add the complete info shortly, but you can find the info on the Trumpter below:

Rutini Trumpeter

Malbec 2006

$13.95 (LCBO Vintages)

Here is the recipe for the Alfajores:

Alfajores - Filled Cookies with Dulce de Leche and Coconut Topping

 

Alfajores, a favorite South American pastry, are cookies filled with delicious caramel, dulce de leche, and rolled in coconut to make a buttery-rich for an afternoon tea, a special dessert or an anytime snack.

Prep Time: 1 hours

Cook Time: 20 minutes

 

Ingredients:

12 tablespoons butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons cognac

2 1/2 cups cornstarch (corn flour)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Zest of 1/2 lemon

Dulce de Leche

Grated coconut

 

Preparation:

To make cookie dough: 
Cream the butter and sugar together, then mix in the remaining ingredients except the dulce de leche and coconut until well blended. Knead on a floured work surface until the dough is smooth and let rest for 15 minutes.

Make the cookies: 
Roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch and cut into 2-inch rounds. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 300°F oven for 20 minutes. When cool, spread some dulce de leche on the bottom of half the cookies and press another cookie on top, allowing some of the dulce de leche to squeeze from the sides. Roll the sides in the coconut until the sides are covered. 
Makes about 12 delicious, definitely non low calorie cookies!

To make dulce de leche: 

Pour 1 can sweetened condensed milk into 9-inch pie plate. Cover with aluminum foil. Place the pie plate in a in larger shallow pan filled with hot water. Do not allow the water to cover the smaller pan. Bake at 425 degrees F for 1 hour or until thick and caramel-colored (took 1.5 hours for us!). Beat until smooth. 

Recipe can be found at:

http://gosouthamerica.about.com/od/dessertsandsweets/r/alfajores.htm