Coconut Macaroon Sandwiches

These were AMAZING! I always love coconut macaroons and they just so happen to be gluten free. But it's not Passover and Pops (who loves my "coconut do-dads") wasn't around so I didn't want to make boring old plain coconut macaroons. I happened to have some left over plain buttercream lying around and decided to make macaroon sandwiches (inspired, of course, by traditional French macarons). Martha Stewart has a recipe in her Cookies cookbook for just such a thing. I used her proportions for the macaroon "dough" which was pretty much perfect for scooping and molding once chilled. They baked up beautifully and didn't fall apart at all (a problem I sometimes have with macaroons).



She makes a shortening based frosting. I generally don't use shortening in my frostings and certainly didn't want to make a something new when I had plain buttercream just waiting for flavoring. So I used her suggestion of adding creamed coconut (she also adds coconut extract, which I didn't have and couldn't find). It flavored the buttercream perfectly; it was coconutty, still fluffy (and perhaps even a bit creamier with the addition of the fat from the coconut), and overall amazing. I could have eaten it with a spoon!

Paired together the coconut macaroons and the coconut cream were even greater than the sum of their parts. The slightly dry cookie worked wonderfully with the creamy filling. The overall light texture and fresh taste was lovely on the particularly hot summer night when I served these. The same night I made a two other delicacies (I'll post them soon) but these were definitely the most popular! (I think they were my favorite of the night and that's saying something since both other treats were chocolate.)