Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Alfajores de Maicena
Two tender cornstarch shortbreads sandwiching dulce de leche, edges rolled in coconut, Argentina's national cookie.
Argentine · medium · serves 12
prep 30 min · cook 12 min
~280 cal · 3g protein · 33g carbs · 15g fat · 2g fiber · 10g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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The alfajor arrived in the Americas from Moorish Spain, but Argentina adopted it so completely that it is now the national sweet, eaten by the millions each day, from homemade versions to the foil-wrapped ones in every kiosk.
The most popular home style is the alfajor de maicena: two delicate biscuits made largely from cornstarch, which gives them a soft, almost melting crumb quite unlike a firm cookie. Between them goes a thick layer of dulce de leche, the caramelised milk that is Argentina's other great sweet obsession.
The finishing touch is to roll the exposed dulce de leche around the edge in coconut, so each cookie wears a soft white collar. Tender, sweet, and just a little sandy on the tongue, they are the taste of an Argentine childhood.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 12
1 1/2 cups cornstarch
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups dulce de leche
1 cup coconut, to finish
Instructions
1
Cream the butter with the sugar, then beat in the egg yolks, vanilla, and lemon zest.
2
Fold in the cornstarch, flour, and baking powder to a soft dough, then chill 30 minutes.
3
Roll out and cut into small rounds, and bake at 350F (180C) until set but still pale, about 10 to 12 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Do not let them colour. These biscuits should stay blond and tender, so pull them the moment they are set, before the edges take on any brown.
4
Cool completely, then sandwich pairs with a generous spoon of dulce de leche.
5
Roll the exposed filling around the edges in desiccated coconut.
Argentine home-baking tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Mendoza. Mendoza is a desert that receives about two hundred millimetres of rain a year, and everything green in it is irrigated. The acequia canals that carry Andean snowmelt were built by the Huarpe before the Spanish arrived in 1561 and were simply adopted and extended; the irrigated oases cover a few per cent of the province and hold nearly all its people and all its agriculture.
🗺️
Argentina. Empanadas are provincial before they are national. Salta's are small, juicy and often baked in a clay oven; Tucuman's are cut differently again; and the crimp along the edge, the repulgue, is read as a signature of what is inside. The rest of the Italian legacy is worth naming too, in the thick-crusted Buenos Aires pizza and the milanesa.
🌍
South America. The Andes are the potato's homeland and still hold something like four thousand native varieties, selected over thousands of years for altitude, colour and texture. The high plateau also worked out how to keep them: frozen overnight in the cold, trodden to press the water out, then dried in the sun into chuno, which stores for years.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Argentina
Empanadas MendocinasBaked empanadas the Mendoza way: a juicy beef and olive filling heavy on onion, sealed with a braided edge.
LocroThe thick national stew of white hominy, beans, and squash slow simmered with beef, pork, and chorizo, finished with a spicy paprika oil.
ChoripánA grilled fresh chorizo split and tucked into crusty bread with a generous spoon of garlicky chimichurri, the opening act of every asado.
Browse all Argentina recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Rolling pin.
Storing it: Best made to order. Prep the fillings ahead and assemble just before eating so nothing turns soggy.
Make it a Argentina meal
Empanadas MendocinasDinner
Yerba MateDrink
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Frequently asked questions
What is Alfajores de Maicena?
Two tender cornstarch shortbreads sandwiching dulce de leche, edges rolled in coconut, Argentina's national cookie.
Where does Alfajores de Maicena come from?
Alfajores de Maicena is a Argentine dish from Mendoza, Argentina.
Can Alfajores de Maicena be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Alfajores de Maicena recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Alfajores de Maicena safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Alfajores de Maicena take to make?
About 42 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 12 minutes cooking), serving 12.
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