7 Fantastic Peruvian Desserts, Candies, and Sweets

Updated 27 October 2017

I've got a huge sweet tooth. I love desserts, candies, and sweets. Here are my top picks for Peruvian sweets that you've got to try. Here are a ton of other Peruvian recipes. 

Alfajores

From Havanna

Manjar blanco (which is similar to caramel) is sandwiched between two butter cookies and the whole thing is sprinkled with powdered sugar. If you're in Peru, you can buy manjar in a bag. It's addicting. I could eat it straight off a spoon. They cost about 1 sol or 2, depending on the size.

I like mine without powdered sugar, since you can't claim not to have eaten all the alfajores when you have powdered sugar all over your chin and clothes. The chocolate ones are more common to Argentina and Uruguay, so if you want the real Peruvian version stick to the powdered sugar ones.

Here's a recipe for the regular ones and the chocolate ones. 

From Youtube

Besos de Moza
Literally translated it means, "the young lady's kisses". Moza is also slang for waitress in Peruvian Spanish. They have a graham cracker bottom and are filled with merigue and the whole thing is dipped in chocolate. They cost about 50 centimos. I love them! My all-time favourite dessert is a toss up between besos de moza and chocotejas.

I've been told these are originally a German dessert, but since they've been in Peru for over 50 years and I love them, they get included in this list. There are three flavours: vanilla, strawberry, and lucuma. Of course vanilla's my favourite flavour and the original one.

Here is a recipe for vanilla besos de mozas.

From La Teja

Chocotejas
Chocolate and arequipe (which is dulce de leche, it's a bit thinner than manjar) make chocotejas. Yum! Sometimes you can buy these in little stores and restaurants. You can also buy them off the street from cholitas. I personally prefer to buy them from the cholitas and so that I know all the money is going to them. They cost about 50 centimos or 1 sol.

As far as I know, these are totally a Peruvian invention. They're absolutely wonderful. You've got to try them.

You can put all types of things in the manjar, such as pecans, raisins, coconut, grapes, peanuts, drunk raisins (raisins soaked in rum or pisco). Here's a recipe for chocotejas.

Leche Asada 

From LimaEasy

It's made of regular milk, eggs, and sugar. You can also add evaporated, condensed milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. It's a type of custard and it usually cost a couple soles. Although asada means roasted, it's also slang for pissed off, angry, or irritated.

Asada means baked; (it's also Peruvian slang for angry). According to some people it's a Chilean dessert, but we all know that Peruvians and Chileans have on-going arguments about what's theirs. Here's a recipe for leche de asada. Be sure to try it out, it's a great way to end a meal.
 

Picarones

Similar to donuts, these sweets are a deep fried ring. The dough has sweet potatoes pumpkin in it along with a handful of other ingredients. Those making picarones make it look very easy to make a perfect ring as they casually toss a ball of dough into a vat of boiling oil. Topped with a thin molasses syrup, picarones are so sweet it's hard to eat very many, but that never stopped me from trying! With that being said, whenever I heard the picarones man in the street I quickly ran down the stairs to get some. Here's a good recipe for picarones.


Suspiro de Limeña 

From Peruvian Cuisine

Literally translated into "a woman's (from Lima) sigh" it has a caramel bottom and is topped with meringue and sprinkled with sugar. It's a very rich, sickly sweet dessert that's hard to finish by yourself, so enlist a friend.

The name alone tells you that it's a Peruvian dessert through and through. While you can easily make it on your own, the next time you're in Lima you should give it a try.

Here's a recipe for suspiro de Limeña. You can also add some liqueur to the recipe as well.

From Taringa

Turron
Doña Pepa is one of the most popular turrones. Made from layers of cookies and honey and then topped with hard candies, you'll find turrones everywhere during Christmas. Don't put it in the fridge or else the honey will stick to the paper and it's practically impossible to get the paper off. Here's a recipe for turron. You'll need a lot of ingredients though.

More Info
Here are some more posts that might interest you.

• Peruvian desserts
• Peruvian food and drink 
• Peruvian fruits
• Peruvian grains 
• Pisco Sour

If you're interested in finding out more about Peruvian gastronomy, check out The Fire of Peru and Gaston Acurio's cookbook. There are also lots of Peruvian remedies that use traditional Peruvian foods.

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Reader Request: Beware of Bricheros and Bricheras

Last year I wrote a post, Think Carefully Before Marrying a Peruvian,which quickly became one of the most popular posts of this blog (as are the posts about getting married and getting divorced).  I got a number of comments as well as emails from people asking for advice or just telling me their story.

For the record, I did meet a guy in Peru who I ended up marrying. I also struggled with being accepted by his friends and families due to some of the stereotypes surrounding foreigners who date Peruvians. He, in turn, fought against my friends thinking he was a brichero. However, we overcame that and after a while I got the paperwork together and we tied the knot in Piura. We both had stereotypes to work against. People thought I was with him because he was a "Latin lover" and people thought he was with me because I was his ticket out of Peru. Unfortunately, my marriage ended after nearly 8 years. Here's what I had to do to get a divorce in Peru.

From scenicreflections.com

How Stereotyping Works
It is my belief that stereotypes come about due to actual events that people hear about. For example, let's say that there's a country called Overthere. This country has a population of 1 million people and of these 1 million, 100,000 leave Overthere and travel around the world. While travelling around the world these Overthere-ians meet other people and they're always happy and smiling and telling people how wonderful Overthere is. So now let's generalise, or make a stereotype about Overthere. We're going to say that all Overthere-ians are happy because the Overthere-ians we had contact with were happy.

Got it? We had contact with a minority (10%) but we made a generalisation, or stereotype, about them as a whole. However, this works to their advantage, since they have a positive stereotype about them. Let's look at another example.

Our next example has to do with another made up country called Faraway. It's a small country with only about 100,000 people. Of these, 100 leave Faraway and travel around the world. While travelling, these Faraway-ians meet other people and are absolutely horrible. They bitch and moan about everything, are rude to people, as well as being loud, obnoxious and boisterious. Once again, we're going to create a stereotype about Faraway-ians and say that all Faraway-ians are downright rude, horrible people to be around. We created this stereotype based on a very small minority of the population, only 1%.

What does this mean? This means that even if the other 90% of Overthere-ians are horrible people, when people talk about Overthere-ians we will assume that they are nice people since the 10% of the Overthere-ians who left Overthere were nice. However, since 1% of the population of Faraway came across as rude, horrible people, we will assume that the other 99% of the population of Faraway is the same. As you can see, a small percentage of the population can make it or break it for everyone else.

What exactly IS a brichero or a brichera?
The word "brichero" is used for a man and "brichera" is used for a woman. Like the word "cholo / chola", it's slang that usually has a negative connotation. Some people say it's a Spanglish word that comes from the English word, "bridge". It refers to a person who targets foreigners and tries to make them fall in love so that they (the foreigners) serve as a bridge out of Peru. Other people say it's more sexual and comes from the word britches and insinuates that they're trying to get into your pants. Either way, foreign tourists are being targeted by these "busca gringos/as". They are out to cazar (hunt) and/or casar (marry). They might try to take you to bed, steal your money, plant drugs on you, use you for a visa, or get you to buy them things.

Bricheros usually go for English speaking foreigners (such as those from the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand) and Europeans, usually British, French, Italian, or Spanish. They're trying to step up and move away from Peru. They don't often go for Asians or Africans for a couple of reasons. First, there are not that many tourists from these places as there are from places like the US or the UK. Second, these tourists tend to travel together in packs (ever seen a group of Japanese tourists?). Thrid, Peruvians aren't as familiar with these countries as they are with others. Lastly, Peruvians (like other people who immigrate) want to go to a place where they can find other Peruvians.

People think of bricheros and bricheras as people who don't have that much money and want a chance to make it in another country. They come across as Latin lovers or casanovas. In Peru, they often stick to touristy areas such as La Plaza de Armas in Cusco, the ombligo (bellybutton) of the world. They also have a decent grasp on English or another foreign language. Not sure how to find out? They stick out. Have a blond woman stand in the middle of the plaza and watch to see who approaches her. They're good-looking and suave. They come across very well, but they have hidden motives.

Blend in for your safety and peace of mind
As a foreigner, you may or may stick out. Physically, there's little you can do. If you're tall and blond, you're going to stick out. However, you can modify the clothes you wear, how you act, what you do, and what you say. Blending in while travelling abroad will also help make you less of a target for pickpockets and thieves. One tip to remember is that speaking Spanish will help you greatly. You can  refuse to tell them where your from or get the police involved if necessary. If you don't know Spanish, now's the time to learn. It'll help you assimilate to the culture, and you'll be able to communicate easier. If you're looking to learn Spanish Rosetta Stone allows you to learn at your own pace.

More info on bricheros:

• Brichero en Cusco by Portal-Peru (youtube)
• Cazador de Gringas (in Spanish)
• Cuzco Eats: Bricheros, Backpackers, and Hippies 
• Gowanus Books: An Interview with Mario Guevara
• Key2Cusco: Bricheras & Bricheros

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• I use affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on links. Read more at my FTC Disclosure and Privacy Policy Statement