I'm seeing all sorts of mangos in the store right now, just waiting to be taken home and eaten. One of my favourite tropical fruits, around this time of year they begin to pop up in cases in the stores, just waiting to be taken home and used in everything, from fruit salsas to jams. I love to mix them with apricot in a jam. You don't need to make the jam from scratch for this recipe, but try to use something that is really good quality—it will make a big difference. Sandwiched between buttery cookies, with a sweet coconutty icing, they are perfect for an afternoon tea party.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Glaze:
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tbsps milk (approx)
1/4 tsp coconut extract
1/4 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
Filling:
1/2 cup good quality jam (I used mango apricot, but I think vanilla apricot would be delicious, too.)
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter with sugar, until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, continuing to beat until well mixed.
Whisk the flour, coconut, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl. Stir into the butter/sugar mixture in two additions. It's going to look a bit dry at this point, but don't worry, it comes together. I stirred it together best I could and then dumped it out on the counter and used my hands to bring it together, with a slight bit of kneading. You don't really knead it, but work it just a teeny bit and it comes together. Be careful, though, the trick is not to over handle it too much.
Divide the dough in half, and shape each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge. You can let it chill for about 30 minutes, or if you are like me, you can leave it overnight.
Roll the dough out onto a wax-paper-lined counter. A way to keep your waxed paper from flying around is to spray the counter with a bit of water before you lay down the paper, and then it sticks to the counter. The original recipe said to roll the dough to 1/8 of an inch thick, but I struggle at estimating that sort of thing, so mine are obviously thicker. It doesn't make too much of a difference, you will just have more cookies if you get them thinner. Cut out your cookies with a fluted 1 3/4 inch cookie cutter and transfer them to a cookie sheet, placing them about 1 inch apart. Keep rolling and cutting, re-rolling scraps, etc, until you've used all the dough.
When the cookie sheet is full, place it in the freezer for 10 minutes. I know! Sounds so weird, but it really works. Do it.
Bake those babies in the middle of a 350 F oven, for about 8-10 minutes, until light golden. Remove them from the cookie sheet and let them completely cool before you glaze 1/2 of them.
You should, in theory, get about 96 cookies. I didn't. I ended up with about half that, which attests to my rolling and cutting skills, lolol.
Glaze:
Just stir all the glaze ingredients, except the coconut, together in a bowl. You have to use your judgement for the milk part. To make it spreadable, I kept adding bits of milk here and there, and stirring until it was still sort of thick, but I'd be able to spread it.
**If you only get as many cookies as I did, halve the glaze ingredients, or you'll end up with a bunch of glaze left over**
Okay! Ice the tops of 1/2 of the cooled cookies. Dip them in coconut as you go, so they look pretty. Let dry for about 30 minutes.
Filling:
Spread about 3/4 tsp jam over the bottom of an un-iced cookie, and sandwich with an iced one. Let stand about 30 minutes, until they are set.
You can keep your finished cookies in an airtight container on the counter for a few days, or put them in the freezer. I don't think mine are going to last very long . . .
Makes 48 cookies if you are the boss at rolling, or more like 30-ish if you're like me and like them a bit thicker.
Adapted from Canadian Living
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