What macarons are to France, alfajores (ahl-fa-HOH-rehs) are to Spain and South America, especially Argentina, Uruguay and Peru. The butter cookies, usually sandwiched with dulce de leche, are based on a Moorish recipe that is said to have been introduced to Southern Spain in the eighth century. Now Alvaro and Joaquin Ormeno, brothers from Peru, have given them a New York spin with a black-and-white version, as well as adhering to tradition by filling them with manjarblanco, which is a kind of caramel, or lucuma, a Peruvian fruit. The brothers bake the cookies in New York using their grandmother’s recipe: $25 for 12, $14 for 6, limanjar.com.
