While this wasn't planned, the last few days have been much about chocolate! More specifically, treats you have to dip in chocolate to finish off! Have you ever read through a recipe and thought, "This looks like something I can do, not too difficult at all!" And then you decide to make it and realize and wonder, "What was I thinking?" This is how I feel right now. Actually, right now, I feel thankful to be done with both of these and sitting back and relaxing!
Without realizing it, these last few days, I decided to tackle two different recipes that required to dip the final product and coat it fully in chocolate. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Uhm yeah no! I literally painted my kitchen in chocolate twice this week. BUT, it was all worth it in the end when I ended up with two awesome treats.
I'll start of with the Alfajores, specifically Argentine alfajor. These are devine treats that you can find anywhere in Argentina. And actually most South American countries have their own versions. I happen to enjoy these the most. I've been to Argentina twice and had also planned to be there in December of 2020, but we all know what happened there. So we go next year! In the meantime, get to baking something I've wanted to try for the longest time.
Basically it is two cookies sandwiched with dulce de leche and dipped in chocolate. But the cookie part is close to sponge like, not crunchy! I'm really not sure the best way to explain it, however this recipe I found that someone posted to Instagram looked legit and so I saved it with the intention of making them. One day. Well, one day came this past week. The post with recipe came back in August of 2020, and I've been wanting to make these since the last time I was in Argentina. So yes it's been awhile and finally with no other bakes needed I managed to put the recipe to use and give them a try. When these were completed initially I thought I might have done something wrong because I felt the cookie was to crunchy and not the right texture, but upon leaving them to sit overnight and have one the next day,...WELL I knew I had a good recipe. While it may not be an exact replica, it came near darn close to what I remember. All that goodness, and sweetness, and chocolatyness was well worth the dipping disaster I experienced when finishing these up.
Dipping large things in chocolate is hard! And I thought that was it, but then I remembered the other recipe I had started to prepare to make and realized I had more to dip. Yay me!
Okay so let's move on to the other bake I thought I'd tackle. When I first saw these in a cookbook I recently received as a gift, I had never seen anything like it before, and so it seems hasn't the author of this book. But discovered it on her honeymoon to her husband's native city. They are called Africanos, and are chocolate hazelnut cake rolls. Upon finishing and going thru chocolate dipping madness again, I come to realize I missed a step. I read this recipe several times, and still I start preparations only to completely mess up the filling. Ok, so it's not the end of the world, just that the filling should be something similar to a thicker Nutella and instead I stopped at the hazelnut paste. The more I think about it, I just think it a happy accident and the final confection I have made has less sugar. That's okay, it's still covered in chocolate, and it tastes wonderful. But also, making this has given me so many ideas on some other confections that could be created similarly.
Above is the cookbook I took this from and a picture of the final sweets from the book! Don't they look just delightful? A couple of bites and you're in heaven. I'll definitely have more to share from this book as there are many delightful desserts to be made.
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