"How I Cooked Up These *INSANE* Alfajores... Using Pokemon Scarlet and Violet!"

New Pokemon game, new regional treat, Alfajores from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Hey everybody, it's Hammy, and there's a new Pokemon game out, and would you believe it, it's based in Spain. Well, Paldea, but Paldea takes heavy influence from Spain, which is pretty cool. I am not Spanish myself, I am Latino, I am Mexican-American, if you didn't know. My name is not actually Hammy, it's Jaime. Anyway, enough about multiculturalism, alfajores are a Spanish treat, but they're also found in many places in Latin America, and if you look at the one from the game, it almost looks like they're heavily inspired by Fido, one of the new Pokemon, and I'm gonna do my best to replicate this really cool style, which I actually really like. Of course, this starts with dulce de leche, which is a delicious cooked kind of caramel made out of condensed milk, and you can buy it, however, you can also make it, and I think it comes out better when you make it yourself. If you have a pressure cooker, it is very easy. I'm going to show you how to make that before we get to the cookies. Here's how. First, you're going to strip off the label from your can of sweetened condensed milk, and then you're going to place it inside of your pressure cooker, cover it with at least an inch of water put on the lid and cook it over high pressure for 35 minutes and you want to set the pressure to release normally you don't want to rush this once it's done cooking allow the pressure to release normally and then let it cool completely i usually do this at night and then i pluck my can in the morning let's check it out now i make it homemade because you don't get a better texture out of pre-made dulce de leche uh than when you make it in the pressure cooker which is I think probably because the heat's coming at it from all sides, and it's just super, super creamy, super, super tasty. But you do want to keep it in the fridge until we're ready to use it. All right, now for the cookie dough, and it's kind of a weird one. It's very delicate, and it's built on flour, but it is also built on cornstarch. Here is how you make it. In a bowl, we're going to combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and then whisk that all together. In a small bowl, you're going to combine a single egg yolk, some brandy, traditional, but you can just use water, vanilla paste, you can also use extract if all you have is extract, and half a lemon's worth of zest. Alright, these are simple butter cookies, so place a stick of butter in a mixing bowl, add the sugar, and start creaming the butter with the sugar. You can also do this by hand, you can use a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer, you really can't screw it up, it's the same procedure. Once the butter and the sugar are a little bit fluffy, add your egg mixture and continue whisking until it is fluffy again. Now, add in about half of your flour or all at once. Doesn't really matter. As long as you do it slow and as long as you do it on low speed. Make sure to scrape down the bowl a few times. That way everything gets combined. Once your dough is all mixed up, place it between two parchment sheets and roll it out to a quarter thickness. I don't use parchment with cookies. I use Silpat. because I can use Silpat over and over again. All right, now place this on top of a baking sheet and then place it into the freezer. This is very delicate dough. We want all the insurance we can get. It'll be a lot easier to work with once it's cold. All right, an hour or two later, you're gonna wanna punch out rounds, about two inches. You don't wanna go too big and you certainly don't wanna go too small, but two inches is a good size cookie. Place them on a parchment or a Silpat lined sheet and then bake them for eight to 12 minutes, depending on your oven. You know they're done when they are lightly golden on the bottom, and you don't want them to be golden on top. You want them to be still kind of pale, but you do want them set, and you do want them not overcooked because they're very delicate. Allow them to cool in the pan for at least five minutes, and then allow them to cool completely in a drying rack. Once your cookies are done cooling, we can get to building our alfajores. Alright, flip a few of your cookies upside down. so that the flat side is up. Put on a few spoonfuls of dulce de leche that you brought out of the fridge. You can overstuff these. I go light with it because this is very sweet stuff. You can go as much as a tablespoon or a tablespoon and a half. I usually go with like two teaspoons, which is just shy of a tablespoon. All right, now carefully flip over another cookie and place it flat side down on top of the dulce de leche. Now be very careful. Apply even pressure so that it spreads out into the outside of the cookie. However, these are very delicate cookies. They will crumble if you look at them funny. But if they do crumble a little bit, the dulce de leche might hold them together. This cookie that I'm making right now actually crumbled near the bottom, but it's going to hold together when it's on a plate. Because dulce de leche is kind of like cement, only a little bit tastier. All right, now traditionally these are rolled in coconut. You can leave that out if you want. I know some people are kind of averse to coconut. I kind of like it. And then dust them with powdered sugar. All right, to make them look like the in-game versions, we're going to take some pineapple fruit leather and cut out little flowers. You can freehand this, but I have this little flower cut out that I'm going to use. Very, very lightly dab on a little bit of water onto your flower. Please go easy. You don't want to add a lot of moisture to these cookies. And then place it on top of the cookie. You made a delicious Peruvian cookie alfajores now typically i'm not big on super sweet desserts like this however i do enjoy them if i have a delicious espresso made or a nice delicious strong cup of tea something kind of bitter something kind of strong that'll kind of cut the sweetness they are very very very sweet super sweet but alfajores are definitely yummy thanks for watching i don't know if you know this, but Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is lousy with food, and I can't wait to make all the recipes. Well, most of them anyway. So you're going to want to subscribe so you don't miss a thing. Anyway, see you next time. Thanks for watching. Bye!