Kazia Jankowski - big world | small kitchen

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Community Building

Writing this blog requires that I spend a lot of time alone. On the bus rides to work, I pop in my earbuds and scribble recipes and outlines. Weekend mornings, I wipe down my counters, pull out my tripod, and spend hours alone in the kitchen cooking and taking photos. Even as I write this, I’m alone on my sofa.

While I like the hours of creating, like a painter in her studio, this spring I began to wish for more connection to my readers. So I sent an email to the Denver Film Society (DFS), my favorite arts organization in town. My message was short: Could Big World | Small Kitchen and I make a globally flavored dessert for a DFS event? I pressed “Send” thinking of Mexican chocolate and Peruvian alfajores.

Before long, my iPhone dinged with an answer. DFS would love a dessert. Could I make something Japanese for a samurai movie night?  Sure, I said, wincing. Japan hasn’t exactly deposited a plethora of widely accepted, easy-to-make desserts onto the U.S. culinary scene. The country’s sweet red bean paste has only attracted a small number of U.S. Japanese food diehards. And Japanese matcha (green tea) ice cream and chewy mochi, while popular, aren’t exactly the foods of a homecook. (I wanted this recipe to be one that I shared on Big World | Small Kitchen.)

I bit my lower lip. This was a problem whose solution would demand even more time alone. I locked myself in my tiny apartment and pulled cookbooks off the shelves. What are easy-to-make desserts? I leafed through pages of cakes and bars, before settling on cookies. What Japanese flavors could I bake into cookies? Tangy yuzu? Green tea? I fiddled with flavors and recipes, until the puzzle finally came together: Coconut sandwich cookies filled passion fruit buttercream.

These cookies weren’t authentically Japanese, and I was fairly certain they were they were more dainty than the accompanying samurai movie. But I thought people would like them. The round, soft cookies were rich with butter and sugar, and laced with just a enough coconut to remind people of Asia. Their sweet-tart passion-fruit filling packed a mini-punch into the treat. And, the complete sandwich cookie, rimmed with coconut flakes, looked delicate and designed enough to sit on any Japanese bakery shelf.

The night I brought these to DFS, I carried 100 cookies in by myself, but as I set them out, people began to gather. Had I made these, they wanted to know. Where could they buy them? Did I sell these at Tony’s Market? Could they take another? The questions fired, the cookies flew off the table, and a few people even stuck around after the movie started, just to talk to me about food. Mission accomplished.

Coconut Passion Fruit Sandwich Cookies
Makes about 20 sandwich cookies

Sweet, buttery coconut contrasts tangy passion fruit in these elegant cookies—and the combo is absolutely irresistible. Luckily, this fancy cookie is fairly simple to make, and you can prepare it up to two days in advance, as long as you keep it refrigerated in an airtight container.

For the cookies:

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 ¼ cups sweetened, shredded coconut, divided
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter, room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the passion fruit buttercream:

¾ cup passion fruit puree*
¼ cup half-and-half
4 ½ teaspoons cornstarch
1 ¼ teaspoon beaten egg yolk
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
6 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon vanilla

*Passion fruit puree is available at Latino markets. Goya is the brand I used.

To make the sandwich cookies:

Arrange oven racks in upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Reserve ½ cup of coconut, and pulse remaining coconut in food processor, until coarsely ground.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low, and add flour and coconut. Mix until just combined.

Taking a level tablespoon of dough, shape it into a small disk about 1 inch wide and ¼ inch tall. Place disks on two parchment-lined baking sheets 1 to 2 inches apart. Bake, rotating sheets half way through, until cookies are just golden around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool.

To assemble sandwiches, spread 1 scant tablespoon of passion fruit buttercream on the flat side of half of the cookies. Top with remaining cookies. Roll edges in reserved coconut.

To make the buttercream:

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together passion fruit puree, half-and-half, egg yolk, and cornstarch.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook until mixture is very thick, and you can see the bottom of the pan as you stir, about 1 minute. Strain mixture into a bowl and refrigerate until cool, about 20 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed, until light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes. Add salt and mix to combine. Then, with mixer on low speed, add the passion fruit mixture. Combine until smooth, scrapping down the sides of the bowl. Mix in vanilla extract.

For printable recipe, click here.

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