I’m really convinced that you won’t buy them ever again. She’s so modest and overlooked, but once you bite through the dark chocolate coating, coconut cookie and then caramel filling, you’ll regret only meeting her now!
INGREDIENTS
COOKIES (40-50 SANDWICH COOKIES) 750ml cake flour 60ml cacao powder 7,5ml baking powder 2,5ml salt 375g butter, softened 350ml castor sugar 4 large eggs 10ml vanilla essence 500ml desiccated coconut, lightly toasted (Tip 1) 200g dark chocolate, melted (for dipping) CARAMEL FILLING 250ml castor sugar 250ml cream 125ml milk 15ml butter 5ml salt 10ml vanilla essence 250ml icing sugar
METHOD
COOKIES 1. Prepare two large baking trays with non-stick spray; do not line with baking paper. 2. In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, cacao, baking powder and salt. Set aside. 3. In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, castor sugar, eggs and vanilla with an electric mixer until creamy. 4. Sift the dry ingredients over the butter mixture and whisk until just combined. 5. Add the coconut to the mixture and combine. 6. Preheat the oven to 180°C. 7. Using the palms of your hands, form small balls of cookie dough and place them onto your prepared baking trays. Gently press them down with a fork (Tip 2). 8. As one tray is filled with cookie dough, bake them for 10-15 minutes in the middle of the oven until golden brown (Tip 3). While baking, continue with the second tray. 9. Transfer the baked cookies to a cooling rack to cool down. CARAMEL FILLING (Tip 4) 1. Place a small/medium pot on the stovetop and heat the sugar over medium heat until light brown (Tip 5). 2. Slightly heat the milk and cream in the microwave and then add it to the sugar (Tip 6). Stir the mixture until the sugar has dissolved into the liquid (5-10 minutes). 3. Allow the mixture to boil over medium heat until reduced and thickened. When stirred, the mixture should come loose from the bottom of the pot (10-15minutes). 4. Remove the caramel from the heat and add the butter, salt and vanilla essence. Stir until well combined. Allow the mixture to cool down a bit before adding the icing sugar (15-20 minutes). 5. Add the icing sugar and stir until well combined and smooth (Tip 7). 6. Pipe/spread the filling between two cookies to form a sandwich. 7. Dip the completed cookies in the melted chocolate and allow to dry before storing them in an airtight container (Tip 8).
TIPS 1. I only toasted half of the coconut in a pan over the stove to enhance the nutty flavour. You can either leave it as it is or toast everything. 2. Leave enough room between the cookies, because they do expand quite a bit when baked. For this reason, you can also roll them smaller than your instinct tells you to. I dipped my fork into a bit of cacao to prevent the fork from sticking to the cookies. 3. The cookies will firm up as they cool down so be careful to not overbake them. 4. Draw a magazine closer for this process. Caramel takes time, but I promise you that you won’t regret the effort! 5. The sugar literally needs to melt. Don’t stir; only move the pot around now and then to prevent the sugar from burning. Once melted, the sugar will start to caramelize and turn light brown. 6. Due to the difference in temperature, the sugar will most probably firm up; do not worry about it, it will melt again. 7. When the filling is cooled down but still too runny to use between the cookies, add some more icing sugar until you achieve the desired consistency. 8. I used an empty egg carton to place the dipped cookies in, this way the chocolate won’t stick to the surface it dries on.