A guide to Argentine treats and rebellious pastries

Alfajor: This is the treat Wooden Table Baking Co. is known for. Arabic in origin, spread by Spain and loved throughout Latin America, alfajores are ubiquitous in Argentina. You’ll find them in bakeries, markets and trains. The typically Latinx alfajor is made from two shortbread cookies sandwiched with dulce de leche. In Argentina, the cookies are more cakelike and traditionally rolled in coconut. But they also come in different flavors, like chocolate, meringue and fruit-filled. Ozzuna’s variations include chocolate espresso, snickerdoodle, raspberry chocolate and lemon ginger.

Conito: Ozzuna calls this an alfajor on steroids. An Argentine alfajores company called Havanna invented them in 1947, calling them conitos or little cones. It’s a cookie topped with a pile of dulce de leche and covered in chocolate. At Wood Table Baking Co., conitos are more like mountains, and each one is named after an Argentine peak.

 The names of many Argentine pastries have a revolutionary history. Organized in 1886, the bakers’ union was one of the first trade unions in Argentina. It was led by anarchist Italian exiles Ettore Mattei and Errico Malatesta who were antigovernment, anti-police and anti-church. They helped spread the strike of 1888 and the message of revolution by baking subversion into their pastries. The blasphemous and anti-state names caught on and are still used to this day. They include: bolas de fraile (friar’s balls: sugartopped fritters often filled with cream or dulce de leche); suspiros de monja (nun’s sighs: lightweight doughnuts); vigilantes (straight pastries that look like police batons); and bombas (bombs: pastry balls filled with dulce de leche). The Argentine word for pastries is facturas, which means “invoice” or “bill,” another clever way for the bakers’ union to call attention to the value of their labor.