Alfajores (Caramel Shortbread Sandwich Cookies)

Our Book Group meets the first Tuesday of every month. Yes, I know this past Tuesday was the second Tuesday, but we’re a true bunch of renegades, and we don’t really spend much time talking about books anymore anyway. So, on the second Tuesday of the month, our first-Tuesday-of-the- month Book Group that talks more about food than books, met. (Did you get all that?)

The book we were “discussing” was Tom Wolfe’s “Back to Blood.” But that’s beside the point. (So, if you’re expecting a book review, you’ll have to go elsewhere.) The consensus was, “the book was long,” “the book was classic Tom Wolfe,” “we all saw Bonfire of the Vanities.” Oh, and this last comment was most prevalent: “Let’s eat.”

Before you begin making some cheap generalizations about the IQ and attention span of the group members, I have to say that many of them are MIT grads, MDs, Ph.Ds, and biotech execs, so the brains are definitely present...it’s just that the stomachs usually win out over the brains.

We have each unintentionally been pigeonholed into our designated food categories, and I always have the dessert one. I try to never bring an overly fussy or heavily frosted dessert--we do sometimes have books lying around, you know, and I would hate for them to get dirty. 

My repertoire has run the gamut of cookie bark, biscotti, quick breads, and scones, and this time I went the cookie route. One of the members of the group lives with a man who comes from Spain. She once mentioned how much they loved “Alfajores,” a traditional treat popular in Latin America and some regions of Spain. It’s basically a shortbread cookie sandwich filled with dulce de leche, a thick, creamy caramel. I promised to make them some and there was no time like the present.

So here it is, this month’s contribution to the Book Group. I wish my contribution to the book discussion could have been as good. (Although I doubt it would have been as appreciated.)

Alfajores (Caramel-Shortbread Sandwich Cookies)

(makes about 25 sandwiches)

Cookie Dough:

6 oz. unsalted butter, at room temp.

1 whole egg

3/4c. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. brandy

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1tsp. grated lemon peel 

2c. all purpose flour

1/4c. cornstarch

Dulce de Leche:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp. kosher salt

Make dough:

Sift cornstarch and flour together and set side. Using an electric mixer, cream butter, lemon peel and sugar together until fluffy. Slowly add the egg, brandy and vanilla extract and mix until combined. On medium speed, add flour mixture and mix again, until dough forms into a ball. 

Remove dough from mixer bowl, divide in half, and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours.

Meanwhile make Dulce de Leche:

Empty contents of the can into an oven-proof dish; sprinkle with the salt and tightly cover with foil.

Place the covered dish in a larger roasting pan  or casserole dish and fill it up with water until it reaches three quarters of the way up the covered dish. (You're creating a water bath.) Bake at 425 degrees for 60-90 minutes, checking every 30 minutes on the water level and adding more as needed.

Dulce de leche is ready when it takes on a brown and caramel-like appearance. Remove from the oven and whisk to smoothness. Leave at room temperature if using right away. If not, store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Using a lightly floured 2-inch round or scalloped cookie cutter, cut out cookies. (You will have approximately 50.) If you have time, place on the baking sheets and place in the fridge for about 15 minutes. (This will firm the cookies so they maintain their shape when baked.) Bake for about 12 minutes, or until cookies are brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack. Shortbread cookies with keep in an airtight container for about a week.

Alfajores: Take two shortbread cookies and sandwich them together with a heaping teaspoon of Dulce de Leche. Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with confectioners sugar or dip them in chocolate. Can be covered and stored for a few days in the refrigerator, but the cookies will soften a bit.

Makes about 25 cookie sandwiches.

BOOK 'EM, DANO

Finding friends in my new city would be a lot easier if my boys were with me...and if they  were still one and five. But they’re not--in either case. They are clear across the country living their young men’s lives and doing a great job at it. Having small children (and becoming involved with all their activities) gives one a great entree into making new friends. But alas, no more “mommy and me” classes where we can laugh and dance and sing with other children and their moms, and bond over watered-down juice and crackers. No more “moving on” classes where some of the moms and I can sneak off for thirty minutes and get acquainted over a cup of tea or a latte. I am on my own, and while the realization of that for some may be exciting, the thought of actually going out and trying to find new friends seems daunting to me.

I guess I could join the Sierra Club, but I don’t hike. I could hook up (excuse the pun) with a knitting group, but I still have about a thousand dollars worth of beautiful half-finished sweaters and blankets sitting in a plastic storage box from the last time I attempted that. I was about to throw in the towel and allow things to just  “evolve” when the concierge in my building asked me if I was interested in joining a book group. 

And so it was that I began to join ten other people on the first Tuesday of each month, for the last four months. We are a disparate group--men, women, young and old-er--a few doctors, a lawyer, some techies, a physicist (don’t forget we’re in Cambridge), a metallurgy analyst, and me. I don’t think any of us would have gotten together ordinarily had it not been for this group. Our one commonality was that we all lived in the same building, and now we are all reading the same book each month. 

The conversation always revolves around the chosen book, but invariably we go off on tangents and touch upon movies, TV, problems in or with the building, and always food. We talk about it, and we eat it. We started out just drinking, and then we added (well, I added) sweets. Lately people have been bringing savories--cubes of cheese, boxes of crackers, olives, cornichons. It’s become a veritable food fest, and in the few short months we’ve all been together, we’ve become comfortable enough to dip into whatever box or container is nearby and pass it on until the next container or small plate is passed down. We are not organized enough to plan who will bring what; that would put us dangerously close to being labeled a “friends” group, and we’re not. It’s vaguely understood that this is an ad hoc group--a group with one purpose, discussing books. We have our other lives outside the meeting room door and this group is just one aspect of that.

The suggestion that we all have brunch at a nearby restaurant prompted a long discussion on the best brunches in the neighborhood. It then went on to lunch and dinner hot spots. The group brunch never came to be. Friends do brunch, and we are just a book group. In some ways the unspoken assumption that we needn’t take this group any farther than we already have lessens the pressure to do so. We can come together, talk about the book, our lives, our feelings and still maintain some sense of anonymity. It’s quite liberating, actually--belonging to a group that doesn’t ask much of you, and doesn’t judge. It is so casual that quite often someone may not even have read the book, but they come regardless--just for the conversation and company. During the last meeting our metallurgy analyst regaled us with stories of her long ago days (she’s well into her 80s) at MIT, and her subsequent 40 years at the Smithsonian. She spoke with such animation about her discovery of some detail in something belonging to the Wright brothers. I can’t tell you that any of us actually understood what she was talking about, but it seemed important to her (and probably to the world of metallurgy), so we sat and listened. Most often the tangents we go off on are not as esoteric--and they never seem to scare anyone away. In all the months we’ve been meeting, attendance has been very close to one hundred percent. As the weather gets colder and much more inclement, it is very comforting to know that once a month I don’t even have to leave the building to find a familiar face and some camaraderie (and some snacks). No, we’re not a friends group, but you could’ve fooled me.

Here’s the list of books we’ve read so far--comments or additional recommendations would be welcomed.

The Ha Ha by Dave King

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

So Much For That by Lionel Shriver

The Super Sad Love Story by Gary Shteyngart