Homemade Argentinian Alfajores

Please welcome back my friend, guest blogger, world traveler, macaron-making partner in crime and soon-to-be American expat in Buenos Aires, Tanya Brothen, as she brings us one of the delicacies of her adopted new country! 

Red wine and red meat. These are two of the things that come to mind when I think about Argentina, and according to my highly scientific Wikipedia research, they are exactly what I can expect to find when I move there at the end of the year.

But in addition to the clichés steak and vino, I’ve been delighted to discover lots of other (non-red) edible and drinkable Argentine specialties. There’s the communal experience of mate tea, the creamy gelato brought to the Argentina by way of Italian immigration, and dulche de leche-filled cookies known as alfajores. Unable to resist the lure of dulche de leche, and wanting to see if alfajores will be to me in Buenos Aires what pain au chocolat is to me in Paris (less of an indulgence and more of a main food group), I decided to try my hand at baking alfajores.

The experiment began with making dulche de leche. And really, I could have just stopped there. Homemade dulche de leche pairs well with any number of other items you have in your kitchen. Vanilla ice cream, crêpes, brownies ,or simply a spoon. Better yet, it’s incredibly easy to make; all you need is a can of condensed milk. Pour the milk into a small pan, cover it tightly with tinfoil, place the small pan inside a larger pan, fill the larger pan halfway with boiling water, and stick the whole thing in the oven at 425 Fahrenheit for roughly an hour, maybe a little bit more depending on your oven, remove, beat until smooth, chill in the fridge. It should come out thick, caramel-colored, and delicious.

For the cookies I used a recipe from RecipeGirl.com, but I found many options online, each with slight variations, such as this one and this one. I had to start the recipe over after mixing the sugar with the flour when I should have mixed it with the butter, but other than that there weren’t any major hiccups in the process.

Unfortunately, when it came time to fill the cookies with the dulche de leche and roll them in coconut…well…let’s just say it took many tries and highly rushed camera work to get photos of the alfajores looking normal. For some reason the cookies would not stay filled. They looked good at first, and then slowly all of the dulche de leche would seep out. Hmm. Did I not let the filling thicken enough in the oven? Possibly, but at least they were delicious, albeit un-servable to anyone other than myself. And I was sort of ok with that.

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Twice As Rice

For a food blogger, I am a ridiculously picky eater. I don't think I dislike more foods than other people do, just that the ones I can't stand are probably some of the most common in American cuisine. Give me a warm plate of foie gras with fig compote and brioche toast points and I will relish it--actual relish however? Ugh, I hate pickles. And mustard. And I cannot describe the absolute loathing disgust I feel towards tomatoes. As you can imagine, my cheeseburgers are pretty boring.

You probably also remember that I may have possibly said at one point that I hate rice pudding. Cold, mushy, bland and with a texture that's just...eeww. I mean, what's to like? I remember going to a school sleep away camp in junior high where the dessert at dinnertime was rice pudding every night. Even ravenous teenagers that had been drug through the woods for three days would not eat this stuff.

So why the change? I have no idea. I simply woke up one morning in February craving the stuff. And not just any old stovetop or refrigerator rice pudding but warm, thick, delicious rice pudding spiked with--you guessed it--cardamom. At the Washington Cooking & Entertaining Show way back in November, I happened to try an eensy, weensy, safely tiny portion of rice pudding offered by a Thai food stand and remember being intrigued by their use of coconut milk. Maybe this was the subconscious beginning of my rice pudding craze.

I say craze because I have a feeling this is only the first of many rice pudding attempts. Even though I was pretty content with this batch, I know I could do better. While I liked the custardy feeling of the baked pudding, I think I might actually prefer more of the creaminess you can get from a stovetop pudding. Also, this time I was timid with the coconut milk, afraid to go overboard with the modern twists on this traditional dish. But next time I'm hoping to do the basmati rice justice with a healthy dose of coconut milk and maybe even some chopped mangoes.

Of course, you can always make this dish with regular milk and short-grain rice, so don't feel like you have to get too fancy. Or, like me, if you're just easing into a dish you previously detested with the passion of a thousand suns, you may want to take it slow. Who knows, maybe this time next year I'll be singing the praises of Caprese salad. But I wouldn't count on it.

Anyone out there have any similar experiences with a food they used to hate?

Baked Spiced Rice Pudding
3 beaten eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cooked rice
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp each cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a bowl combine eggs, milk, coconut milk, sugar, vanilla and spices. Beat until combined but not foamy. Stir in rice and raisins. Pour egg mixture into a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish.

2. Place casserole dish in a 2 quart square baking dish or pan on an oven rack. Pour boiling water into baking dish around casserole to a depth of 1 inch.

3. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, stirring after 30 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

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Coco-nut Crispies

Cooking for one is always a little complicated in that I'm always either working to reduce recipes to manageable portions or always stuck with lots of leftovers on my hands (living alone with entire cakes or pans of brownies is not a temptation I wish on anyone). For this reason, I was very excited when I came across Vanilla Garlic's baked banana spice wontons because I had what seemed like a metric ton of leftover wonton wrappers in my freezer. With the addition of the nearly full can of coconut milk leftover from this week's Moroccan shrimp with couscous dinner, I knew I had the makings of a great snack on my hands and didn't have to toss out any wasted food. 'Cause being wasteful is soooo passé these days :)

Wonton wrappers are a great ingredient because they are so versatile. Similar to large ravioli halves, these thin sheets of pasta crisp up amazingly when fried and also when baked (lower fat!). In addition to wrapping egg rolls, these sheets can be used for just about any other kind of filling--crab rangoon, strawberry cream cheese, Asian-inspired plum chutney--anything you can think of. I went with a spiced coconut pudding filling which is also great eaten warm and plain and, if you've ever been to Hawaii, will remind you of haupia but without the gelatin. I don't usually like coconut pudding because I think the flavoring tastes artificial, but using real coconut milk provides a light, natural tasting coconut flavor. I pretty much just added what I had on hand to the pudding, so recipe amounts are approximate and you should feel free to adjust to your tastes.

Spiced Coconut-Stuffed Wontons
24-30 wonton wrappers

For the pudding*
8 teaspoons flour
8 teaspoons sugar
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks (whites reserved)
1 14-oz can coconut milk (regular or lite)

My additions (optional)
Scant 1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Dashes of ground ginger to taste

In a medium saucepan combine flour, sugar and salt. Add egg yolks and whisk together. Add half the can of coconut milk and place over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, warm the remaining coconut milk in a small saucepan. Once warm, add the milk to the flour mixture, whisking to combine. Simmer the mixture 7-10 minutes or until thick. Add all desired mix-ins and stir to combine.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Working with one wonton wrapper at a time, place a heaping teaspoonful of pudding slightly left of center, leaving a half-inch border between the filling and the edge of the wonton wrapper. Using the reserved egg whites, brush a light coating around the edge of the wrapper and fold the right side of the wrapper over the filling to meet the left, and press to seal the edges. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or foil coated lightly with cooking spray. Brush the top of the wonton with egg white and sprinkle with sugar if desired. Repeat with remaining wontonts, working as quickly as possible, as they dry out quickly. Bake for 10 minutes, turn wontons and bake an additional 1-2 minutes if needed.

*If you'd like to make the pudding just on its own, the recipe can easily be increased for up to 10-12 servings, simply double or triple the amounts (1/4 flour and sugar and 4 egg yolks and 1.5 cans of coconut milk for 6-8 servings, or 1/2 cup each of flour and sugar and 6 egg yolks and 3 cans of coconut milk for 10-12)

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