Pope Francis’ Heirloom Recipe
Caramel Alfajores
Makes: 36
Prep time: 25 mins
Chill time: 20 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Assembly: 15 mins
Difficulty: Medium
Pans required: 1 Grande Legacy or 1 Lil’ Legacy & 1 Legacy Pan
Welcome back to Heirloom Recipes, a series that explores the kitchens of history’s most fascinating figures.
We've tasted Ernest Hemingway's burger and Rosa Parks' pancakes. Today we recreate a childhood favourite of Pope Francis.
Long before he became the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis was a child.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, like most children, had a weakness for sweet things. In particular, a family recipe for alfajores.
The Pope’s fondness for this delicious treat didn’t fade when he donned his white cassock. These delicate little sandwiches of biscuit and gooey caramel, with their edges rolled in coconut, remained a favourite throughout his life.
We have made many recipes tied to public lives. This one carried a different weight.
When we tasted these, all of the glory and ceremony melted away.
What remained was something small and ordinary and deeply human.
A little boy from Buenos Aires, reaching for another.
Ingredients
Biscuits:
100 g butter
100 g icing sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
Zest of 1 lime
200 g white flour
100 g cornstarch
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Filling:
Desiccated coconut
1 tin caramel condensed milk
Note:
Caramel condensed milk is available in most supermarkets. If you can’t find any, complain to the manager that this is the Pope’s recipe. They’ll have it on the shelf within a week. Until then, you can make your own by boiling an unopened tin of regular condensed milk, fully submerged in water, for 3 hours. The heat slowly caramelises the sugars. The Maillard reaction does the heavy lifting, and patience does the rest.
Method
Cream the butter and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs, egg yolk, vanilla essence and lime zest, mixing well.
Gently fold in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt until just combined.
Form the dough into a ball, flatten into a disc and chill in the fridge for up to 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 155°C.
Divide the dough in half. Dust your work surface generously with cornstarch. Roll the dough thinly (¼ to ⅛ inch) and cut into 4 cm circles.
Lightly grease your Ironclad pan and arrange the biscuits about ½ cm apart.
Bake for 11–12 minutes until just set. The biscuits should remain pale, not browned.
Cool completely on a wire rack.
Assembly
Warm the caramel for 15 seconds in the microwave and stir until smooth and shiny.
Spread half a teaspoon of caramel onto the base of half the biscuits. Top with the remaining biscuits, pressing gently until the caramel just oozes out.
Roll the edges in desiccated coconut.
Enjoy.
Every great recipe deserves a soundtrack
Here’s a playlist inspired by Pope Francis. Music he was known to listen to and songs to take you back to 1950s Buenos Aires, when Jorge Bergoglio was just a boy. Listen on Spotify.
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Heirloom Recipes is an independent editorial series inspired by recipes and stories in the public domain. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any individual, family, or estate featured. These recipes are our adaptations, created with care and respect for the lives behind them.
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