Alfajores Cookies: Argentina's Favourite Sweet, Explained
Soft, tender and filled with dulce de leche: meet the cookie Argentina cannot live without.
By Daniel MellicovskyBaker and owner, Melly's Cookiebar
If you have never had one, an alfajor is the cookie Argentina cannot live without. Two soft, cakey rounds are joined with a thick layer of dulce de leche, then dusted in coconut or coated in chocolate. It is sweet, tender and a little nostalgic, the kind of treat people grow up on and miss when they move away.
What they taste like
The pleasure is in the contrast: a delicate cookie that almost melts, against a deep, caramel-rich filling. The maicena version is light and crumbly with a coconut edge. The chocolate version is richer, closer to a small cake. Neither is crisp like an American cookie. An alfajor is soft all the way through.
How Argentines eat them
With coffee, with mate, or straight from the wrapper on the way to work. They travel well, which is why every Argentine airport sells them by the box. Want to make your own? Start with our alfajores recipe, or read more about what alfajores are.
We bake ours by hand at Melly's in Amsterdam and ship them across the Netherlands, Europe, the UK and the US. Order a box of alfajores from our shop, or find them alongside our other cookies.
Taste it warm in Amsterdam
Order fresh stroopwafels to your door, or learn to make your own at a Melly's workshop in the heart of the city.
