Salvadoran baker brings alfajores to Cape Region

It’s been a little more than a year since Isabel and Matthew Walsh created their business, called gather, and introduced alfajores to the Cape Region. They said they still can’t believe how well things are going.

“The response has been amazing. I never thought it would take off. I’m still pinching myself,” said Isabel.

“We can’t keep up with demand,” added Matthew.

Alfajores are cookies found in South and Central America. They’re basically two shortbread cookies sandwiched together with a creamy caramel-based filling. Different countries have their own take on how to make them, said Isabel, who is from El Salvador and comes from a family of bakers. Her parents owned a bakery. Her sisters are bakers. She’s worked as a baker in a number of places in and around Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.

“I grew up eating these as a child. This is my favorite dessert,” she said.

The filling used in the alfajores is called dulce de leche, which is a sugar and milk mixture that Isabel said takes five hours to make.

It’s boujee caramel, joked Matthew, who described himself as a former computer guy.

“Nothing too exciting,” he said.

Now, and happily, he’s the one doing the other stuff so Isabel can spend her time focusing on making the cookies. If there are dozens of pounds of butter that need to be unwrapped, he can do it, he said. Using tweezers, he can also stack cookies in a jar with the precision of a surgeon.

“It’s very time-consuming,” he said.

The regular-size alfajores are about the size of a sand dollar and are sold two at a time. The Walshes also sell miniature alfajores, which come in jars of 12 or 24. 

The process of piping the dulce de leche on the cookies produces a perfect little cup, so Gather also offers supreme styles filled with fruit-based jams and jellies – mixed summer berries, blackberry lemon, blueberry lemon, roast peaches.

Like true doing-what-it-takes-to-make-it-work entrepreneurs, the Walshes bake their alfajores in the kitchen at The Station on Kings in Lewes, where Isabel used to be a baker. They bake in the middle of the night, after the Station on Kings evening staff has left for the day and before the morning staff arrives. They’re in there six nights a week preparing for the week’s markets. The cookie bases are fragile, so they make those a day in advance to allow them to harden a bit.

There’s thought of a storefront, but for now, the Walshes sell their cookies at local farmers markets in Rehoboth, Lewes and Berlin, Md. They also have a stand at Schellville and orders can be placed online.

For more information or to order online, go to gatheralfajores.com or email gatheralfajores@gmail.com.