Life Gave Me Tea Biscuits: Saving a Failed Batch of Alfajores

As a TCK constantly on the move, I don’t always have full baking gear everywhere and make do with what I can find in the kitchen cupboards. I love to experiment and twist ingredients to see the outcome of my process! This time I tried to bake a batch of alfajores, a classic argentine sweet of my childhood but failed miserably (we have all been there, in cooking disasters!), instead I ended up with rich golden biscuits to go with my tea!

Ingredients: (using a classic normal bowl for measurements, you can use proper gear and cups)

1. 1 part cornstarch
2. 1part flour
3. 1/2 parts powdered sugar (note: add amount according to your taste)
4. 1/2 parts softened butter (room temperature)
5. 3 egg yolks (make an omelet or meringue with the white parts!)
6. 1 tsp baking powder
7. 1tsp baking soda
8. 1tsp vanilla powder (strangely in this country they use powder instead of essence!)
9. pinch of salt
10. coconut milk (this is my twist! you can use regular milk instead!)

Equipment needed:

1. rolling pin
2. cookie cutter (or anything which can cut circles, i'm using a jar cap)
3. plastic wrap or anything to cover with (for chilling the dough)
4. cake scraper or anything thin like stiff cards.
5. baking paper
6. oven

In a bowl whisk egg yolks and powdered sugar. Add cornstarch, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla powder, and softened butter. Mix together to form dough. Incase it’s too dry, splash some milk, if it gets to wet, add flour and cornstarch. Since the butter is still solid, it might seem dry, but once you add too much milk you would realise how sticky things can actually get, so be careful there! After forming the dough, it shouldn’t be to sticky if you touch it with a clean finger, but sticky if you smear it or play around with it.

Cover the bowl of the dough with plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge overnight to chill. Now comes the hardest part! shaping the biscuits! Sprinkle the counter with cornstarch (this is the secret to make things 10 times easier ). If the dough is too hard, and cold to work with, put it in the kitchen counter and come back after half an hour. If it's too warm and sticky, place it back in the fridge (freezer if you want to be extremely quick!). Take small chunks of dough when working because it is easier to work with them instead of the bigger chunks. The nature of the dough is sticky and it becomes really messy and frustrating to use it all at once, the butter is what causes the stickiness because it melts in room temperature. Use a rolling pin and lightly press the dough, it does not need to be paper thin, some thickness is needed. Then use a cookie cutter, or anything which cuts round shapes (i'm using a small jar cap).

Even if you do use cornstarch sometimes the circles might stick into the surface. Do not panic! the dough is tricky to work with, but this is normal! use something thin and gently remove them. I'm using a cake scraper. In an oven tray place baking paper and put all your circles here. Now it's baking time! pop these in the oven on 180°C , and wait for 10-15 minutes (my oven is slower than normal, so check yours!). Make sure they look slightly golden brown, remove the tray, and let them cool before eating! enjoy!

Incase you can't have dairy:

1. swap the butter with vegetable shortening or vegan butter stick.
2. use coconut milk (check the packaging carefully of the product you use, make sure it's pure coconut milk)

Incase you can't have sugar:

1. use 1/3 part honey (its runny, so less is better)
2. bake at 160°C for 10-12 minutes, or until it looks slightly golden brown.
3. skip coconut milk (honey, eggs and butter will provide enough moisture)

your result won't be exactly crispy snapping cookies, but it would taste great regardless.

Incase you can't have eggs:

you are now making classic shortbread!

your best ingredient for moisture is the milk! and make sure to cream the butter and sugar until its light and fluffy!

Incase you want the actual recipe:

1. use the ratio 3:2 of cornstarch to flour
2. 1/2 tsp baking powder
3. NO baking soda, or just a super tiny pinch
4. no milk and rely only on the butter and egg yolks
5. Bake them for shorter time and make sure the edges aren't golden brown AT ALL (that's overbaking!), just the bottom should be slightly golden-ish

Note: After baking, try not to take out of the oven or touch even if it seems tempting because they are incredibly delicate and crumbly. Wait for them to cool

make sandwiches with them and add dulce de leche in between them (or just eat them as they are if you don't have a sweet tooth. You can also simply dip them in chocolate and let it harden)

Note: this would be harder to form into shapes because the dough is harder to work with...incredibly crumbly, just like kinetic sand..breaks down with the slightest push.

I did try to bake alfajores but failed, instead I ended up with something different and that's fine! you might end up making something strange then what was intended! that's the irony of baking sometimes! at least you can learn from your mistakes, I did learn from this "mistake" and now next time I bake, i'll know exactly what to do. I love baking because experimenting is the most fun part! swapping ingredients to see what happens, because you always end up with a surprise! my family admitted they prefer the tea biscuits instead of the soft sandcastle alfajores, everyone tastes are different! Some of the best snack such as cornflakes and chocolate chip cookies were "failed" experiments too! so don't be afraid to try something new, and twist up your own ingredients, anything goes after all!