Cookie Sandwiches with Dulce De Leche, Macadamia Nuts and Coconut

First it started with Alfajores. I had watched Ingrid Hoffman of Food Network's Simply Delicioso make Alfajor, a cookie sandwich with dulce de leche in the middle. I really wanted to make them for a triple birthday party (three friends with birthday all at once), but didn't want to make them from scratch. So I experimented with refrigerated cookie dough and canned dulce de leche. The first dough I purchased had far too much sugar in it and the cookies spread too thin while baking. I proactively searched for a cookie dough with less sugar in it, not necessarily a low-sugar dough, but I compared cookie doughs to each other and bought the one with the least. This time, the cookies were more solid and chunky and perfect for cookie sandwich making. I smeared dulce de leche onto to the backs of two cookies

Then I got the idea of adding coconut to the the dulce de leche. Why not? Give it a more tropical kick. I made the Coconut & Dulce De Leche Cookie Sandwiches along with Peppermint Chocolate Ganache Cookie Sandwiches to a Christmas party I attended last year. These cookie sandwiches were such a hit that the word "orgasmic" popped up several times in conversation.

Fast forward to this week, when I decided to add chopped Macadamia nuts to these cookies. I needed mouths to feed, so when Kevin allowed me to accompany him as his guest to a party, I thought I'd bring the sandwiches with me. They were a total success! People gobbled them up. Also, Kevin made Carrot Cake Sandwiches (see recipe here) and they were a hit too!

Ingredients:

Refrigerated sugar cookie dough

Can of Dulce de Leche

Finely chopped Macadamia nuts

Shredded Coconut

Warning: Nestle just recalled all their cookie dough because of E. coli bacteria so please make sure you are careful when purchasing refrigerated cookie dough!

Instructions:

Bake a whole mess of sugar cookies and let them cool. Make sure they are roughly the same size otherwise it'll be difficult to make the even shaped sandwiches.

Chop macadamia nuts to a fine chop leaving some chunks in the mix. If you can't find unsalted macadamia nuts, don't fret! Just add the nuts to a strainer and run them under cold water and pat them dry before chopping. It will get some of the excess salt off. Also, salt goes well with caramel anyway so you can't really lose in this scenario.

Prepare one bowl with chopped macadamia nuts and one bowl with shredded coconut.

Smear a generous amount of dulce de leche on the back of each cookie.

Dip one cookie into the macadamia nuts and the other cookie into the coconut and sandwich together. You can always sprinkle the nuts and coconut to the dulce de leche if you desire. Be careful how you pick up the sandwiches as you don't want to have smears of dulce de leche on the outside of the sandwiches (not pretty!).

Once you assemble you are ready to eat!

Had all sorts of camera FAIL and only this picture survived. Boo!