The Manioc Alfajores (Alfajores de Mandioca)
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3/5 |
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20 minutes |
2-3 |
As you may know, manioc (also known as cassava) is a plant native to South America that has spread worldwide due to its easy cultivation and high nutritional value.
Here's a traditional way to use this ingredient in a dessert from its region of origin: Alfajores.
INGREDIENTS
3 cups of cassava flour
1 cup of wheat flour
2/3 cup of butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 egg yolks
1 egg white
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 glass of cognac
Zest of one lemon
The icing:
1 egg
Icing sugar
1/2 cup sugar
A few drops of lemon juice
Water
* Dulce de leche to garnish the alfajores.
PREPARATION
- Sift well the manioc flour through a sieve; mix with the wheat flour and the baking powder.
- In a separate bowl, beat the softened butter and the granulated sugar until you get a creamy mixture, then gradually add while still beating, the egg yolks, egg white, lemon zest and cognac. Finally add the flour, mixing well.
- Lay this dough on a floured flat surface and roll with a rolling pin, to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut discs out of the dough with a pastry cutter and place on greased and floured baking sheet. Bake in a moderately preheated oven (350 F) until the cookies have slightly browned.
- Once cold put two cookie covers together, with enough dulce de leche at their center (or fruit jelly if you like better) and roll them in the icing sugar sauce.
- To prepare the icing sugar sauce, pour the egg white with plenty of icing sugar to form a paste and beat well, reserve. Separately, pour the granulated sugar with just a little water, and place over the heat and cook until the loose thread point is reached (215 - 219 F). We add to this the mixture which we reserved previously, stir well; we can now proceed to dip the cookies in this syrup and leave to dry on waxed paper.
