You may recognize King Kong as the enormous gorilla featured in many movies and pop culture, but did you know King Kong is also a name of a Peruvian dessert?
It is a very delicious and sweet dish and is named after the cinematic ape. Today, the treat is popular in Peru, with even a King Kong festival every July.
King Kong is a dessert made with alternating layers of various fillings and cookies, turning it into a huge layered treat. Back in northern Peru, a baker decided to make a popular confection into a supersized dessert. Soon, people started using the name of the ape to refer to the towering cookie.
When reading through this article, you will learn what the King Kong dessert is, the history behind the traditional dish, and a simple recipe for making the Peruvian dessert at home.
What Is King Kong Peruvian Dessert?
King Kong is a classic Peruvian dessert made of cookies and filled with alternating fruit spread and manjarblanco layers, a sweet Peruvian spread.
There are many exciting variations of this treat, with some having pineapple, cherry, or peanut spread within their layers.
King Kong is one of the most popular and famous regional sweet in Peru.
History of King Kong Peruvian Dessert
In the 1920s, a baker named Victoria Meijia from the northern Peruvian city of Lambayeque wanted to enlarge a famous local confection.
Her goal was a treat named the alfajor, which consists of two round cookies encasing a sweet filling, usually dulce de leche.
She considered the alfajor as not delicious or big enough, so she got a huge rectangular mold and filled it with alternating layers of fillings and cookies.
She spread manjar blanco, a sweet Peruvian spread, strawberry preserves, and pineapple preserves between each cookie layer.
In the end, the product was a seven-layer behemoth.
In Lambayeque, the latest cookie confection became a huge success. While it was initially known as the alfajor de Lambayeque, the name soon changed when the film Kong Kong was released in local theaters in 1933.
Fans of the cookie started to refer to the towering treat with the ape’s nickname in the movie King Kong.
The name stuck, and the treat was started to be called King Kong instead.
Today, large blocks of King Kong ranging from up to two pounds and all sorts of different shapes are sold all over the Lambayeque region.
The fillings differ as some have different cherry, pineapple, or other fruit fillings, but the treat usually contains manjar blanco, depending on the baker’s preference.
Several factories in the Lambayeque area are devoted to the manufacturing of King Kong. Every July, many people gather for the King Kong festival.
One of the main attractions is to break the previous year’s record of creating the largest King Kong ever made.
It typically weighs more than 2,000 pounds (about 907 kilograms) with more than 20 feet (about 6 meters) in size!
How To Make King Kong
Here is a list of household ingredients you will need to make this delicious dessert:
- ½ kg (4 cups) of flour
- Six large egg yolks
- 200 grams (⅞ cup) of butter
- ½ cup (237 ml) of water
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- One tablespoon of instant yeast
Ingredients you will need for the manjar blanco:
- 2 liters (67.63 oz) of whole milk
- ½ kilo (2.5 cups) of brown sugar
- ½ tsp of baking soda
- Vanilla essence to taste
Ingredients you will need for the dulce de piña, otherwise known as sweet pineapple filling, an authentic fruity spread for King Kong:
- Pineapple
- Brown sugar, approximately the weight of the pineapple
- Two tablespoons of lemon juice
Instructions on how to make manjar blanco for King Kong:
- Boil the milk until it boils, strain it and then bring it back to the heat.
- Next, add the sugar, bicarbonate, and a few drops of vanilla essence.
- Stir constantly with a wooden spoon.
- Let cook until thick enough.
- Remove from the heat and let cool.
Instructions on how to make the cookies:
- Sift the flour and place it on the counter. Form a small volcano and around it add the yeast.
- In a large bowl, mix your egg yolks with the water and pour into the middle of the volcano with the salt.
- Mix it slowly, little by little, until a dough forms. Add butter and continue mixing once a homogeneous dough has formed, cover it with a cloth or plastic saran wrap, and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and spread it out on the table in the form of a sheet. The idea is to have a large rectangle, but cut it into several pieces if your oven is small.
- Prick it all around with a fork so that it does not puff up during cooking.
- Arrange the dough on a greased tray and bake at about 150°C (302°F) for about 40 minutes.
- It should be golden brown. Remove and let cool.
Instructions on how to make the dulce de piña, or sweet pineapple spread:
- While the cookie is cooking in the oven, you can prepare the sweet pineapple spread.
- Grate the pineapple and place it in a pot along with the sugar and lemon.
- Bring it to cooking, and when the mixture has acquired a brown and thickened tone, you will know that the sweet is ready.
- Remove from the heat and let cool.
Instructions on how to assemble the King Kong:
- You should have four cookie tops.
- In one of the lids, place manjar blanco and spread it over the entire surface.
- On top, place another cookie top.
- On that cookie, place the pineapple fudge and spread it very well, creating an even layer.
- Arrange another biscuit top, and over this, place white manjar, distribute it again and crown with another biscuit top.
- Cut each portion and serve.
Conclusion
King Kong is a sweet and popular Peruvian dessert with alternating layers of various spreads and cookies.
It originated from the Lambayeque region in Peru and is named after the movie King Kong.
This popular treat is even celebrated with a festival to create the largest King Kong treat.
If you are interested in trying King Kong and manjarblanco but would rather not make them from scratch, you can order them on Amazon.
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Jorge Garcia is the founder of AmigoFoods, where he has spent over 20 years helping readers discover authentic Latin American and Spanish cuisine. Raised in a Cuban-American household, Jorge learned to cook at the hands of his mother and grandmother, carrying forward generations of family recipes. That heritage, backed by his family’s four-generation history in the Latin food industry, inspired him to launch AmigoFoods in 2003. With more than 1,000 published articles on recipes, ingredients, and food culture, Jorge’s mission is simple: make authentic Latin cooking approachable for home cooks everywhere while honoring the traditions behind every dish.