Every year, our family troops to the Good Shepherd Convent in Baguio City to buy several jars of Alfajor cookies, an absolutely sinful Latin-American dessert that makes you want to seek culinary penance long after the holidays. None of the other Good Shepherd convents make it and I've never seen a patisserie in Manila offering Alfajores. It's basically like melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies with a caramel filling and confectionery sugar coating. Below, I'm reposting 2 versions of recipes from both Wikicookbooks and Foodnetwork.com. Thank you very much to Mattbites and Pip in the City for the photos.

Alfajores Recipe (Wiki)

• 1/2 cup butter,
• 1 cup sugar,
• 1 egg,
• 2 egg yolks,
• 1 tsp. vanilla,
• 2 tsp. lemon rind, grated,
• 1 1/2 cup cornstarch,
• 1/2 cup flour,
• 1 tsp. baking powder, and
• 1/4 tsp. salt.

Cream butter; add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well. Beat in vanilla and lemon rind. Sift together cornstarch, flour, baking powder and salt. Add to mixture and ...