Alfajores & Dulce de Leche

...upon entering my hotel room I found a plate of delectable cookies accompanying a welcome letter from the hotel managers... the cookies, it turns out, are a Latin delicacy known as Alfajores, and are essentially just a pair of cookies sandwiched around a core of dulce de leche, or caramel... here's a pic:



Here's the recipe for these alfajores, , along with a well written little personal story someone decided to share online about how infatuatingly tasty these are...

Dulce de Leche probably deserves a post of its own, but seeing as how I'm on the subject, here's a pic of the divine chocolate/caramel the Argentines cook up...


The recipe is pretty interesting as well... Is it chocolate? Not really, although it looks like it, or something along the lines of a creamy smooth brown. The actual words "Dulce de leche" translate as "milk jam," and if you read about how it's made, that makes sense... You start with a can of condensed milk, and pressure cook it until what's inside is of a toffee-like consistency. Or to spell it out clearer, you submerge a can of condensed milk in boiling water on a stove and heat it until it caramelizes... mmmmm... They put it on cookies and cakes, & spread it on breads like nutella... i find it immensely difficult to find anything to criticize about cultures that produce elegantly delectable liquid chocolate...