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Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.

In honor of el amor (love) y el día de San Valentín (Valentine's Day), Bryan and I are making heart-shaped alfajores this afternoon.

I found the main recipe on a Peruvian cooking website, yanuq.com, but it lacked a few details so I checked around a few other recipes to complete it. The manjarblanco filling recipe is first (it takes a while to cook and cool), then the alfajor cookie recipe follows.

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Manjarblanco #1

Ingredients:
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

Place can of condensed milk in large pot. Cover with at least four inches of water. Boil for two hours. (If using pressure cooker, boil 45 minutes.)

*The water must always be higher than the top of the can to prevent the possibility of explosions! You may need to replace some water, be sure it is boiling when you add it. Manjarblanco can also be made from scratch using the following recipe.


Manjarblanco #2

Ingredients:
4 cups milk
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Combine sugar and milk in pot. Boil over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened and strokes reveal the bottom of the pot. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and cool.


Alfajores

Ingredients:
2 cups flour, sifted
3/4 cups butter or margarine
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
Manjarblanco

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease cookie sheet.

In medium bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Mix in flour with a fork or pastry blender. Finish by hand until dough forms a ball. Roll out with rolling pin on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut 2 1/2 inch circles in dough with cookie cutter. Carefully place on prepared cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool completely.

To assemble, spread manjarblanco on one cookie and top with a second cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies. Dust with powdered sugar. Yeilds approx. 60 alfajores.

Note: Cookies may also be stored apart from manjarblanco in an air-tight container and topped later.