אלפחורס נשיקות

Meringue Alfajores

Ingredients:

For the cookies
250 grams butter
150 grams sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon brandy
300 grams corn flour
200 grams flour
1/2 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the meringue kisses
150 grams egg whites (4 whites from medium-sized eggs)
300 grams sugar (1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon corn flour

For the assembly
Dulce de leche
Ground coconut

Preparations
The cookies
Preheat oven to 180°.
Add all the cookie ingredients (without the dulce de leche and ground coconut) and mix into a dough. You can use your hands or a mixer with a dough hook.
You will see that the dough is flakey and stiff – and that is OK.
Lightly flour a work surface and roll the dough out until it is 1/2 cm. thick.
Cut out circles with the top of soft-drink bottle, or with a cookie cutter of similar size.
Lay the circles on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake 10-12 minutes until lightly golden.
Remove and let cool.

The meringue kisses:
In a mixer bowl add the egg whites and sugar.
Place the bowl over a pot of boiling water (Bain-marie) and heat over medium heat for 10 minutes, mixing occasionally, until the mixture is warm and most of the sugar has dissolved.
Remove from heat and place the bowl in the mixer with a whipping hook.
Whip at medium speed for about one minute. Stop the mixer, add the corn flour, and continue whipping at high speed for 10 minutes.
If you want to add color to the meringue, add food coloring at the end and lightly mix until the color is uniform.
Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag, and squeeze out kisses so they will be the size of the cookies baked on the cookie sheet.

Bake in a convection oven at 60°-70° for an hour or until the kisses are crisp on the outside but still soft inside.

Assembly:
Spread the dulce de leche on the cookie and add a meringue kiss. Gently roll in the ground coconut.