Have you ever tried alfajores? This biscuit originated in Spain and is now widespread throughout Latin America. Alfajores are most commonly found in the form of sandwich cookies filled with the very sweet caramel cream ‘dulce de leche’. In our vegan version, we use a much less sweet date caramel without any granulated sugar instead. As a further highlight, our little biscuits are chocolate-coated with delicious iChoc White Vanilla and are sure to be snacked away very quickly…
Ingredients
For 25 Alfajores
For the dough
- 100 g white spelt flour
- 100 g cornflour
- 50 g ground, blanched almonds
- 70 g (raw cane) icing sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla pulp
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 100 g vegan butter / margarine
- 20 ml cold almond milk
For the caramel filling
- 200 g Medjoul dates (pitted)
- 80 g brown almond paste
- 20 g maple syrup
- 20 g coconut oil (liquid)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla pulp
- 1 pinch salt
For the icing
- 240 g iChoc White Vanilla Chocolate
- 1-2 tsp coconut oil (if required)
How to make it
1. Mix all the dry ingredients for the dough in a large bowl. Add the vegan butter or margarine in small pieces and knead briefly.
2. Add the almond milk and continue kneading as briefly as possible until a smooth dough forms. Roll into a ball, cover and place in the fridge for approx. 2 hours. Alternatively, chill overnight and take the dough out 30-60 minutes before baking so that it is not too hard.
3. Meanwhile, puree all the ingredients for the caramel in a food processor. It is best to blend the dates first and then everything together as briefly as possible, as the fat can separate from the mixture if it gets too hot. If this happens, simply dab off any excess oil with a kitchen roll, cover and place in the fridge
4. Preheat the oven to 180 °C top/bottom heat and line two baking trays with baking paper. Roll out the dough to a thickness of approx. 0.6 cm – 0.7 cm and cut out a total of 50 round biscuits (Ø approx. 3.7 cm).
5. Place the biscuits on the baking trays with a little space between them, bake for approx. 8 minutes and leave to cool completely on a rack. The biscuits will remain very light in colour.
6. Chop the white chocolate very finely and melt carefully and slowly in a bain-marie. If the chocolate is not liquid enough, add 1-2 teaspoons of coconut oil.
7. Divide the caramel mixture into 25 equal portions, each about the size of a hazelnut. Roll each into balls and flatten slightly. Then place one of them between two biscuits and gently press them together until the filling is evenly spreaded.
8. Then dip each double biscuit completely into the melted white chocolate, allow to drip off and place on a board lined with parchment paper. Leave to set in the fridge.