KAYA & COCONUT COOKIES

MAKES 20-30 / PREPARATION 25 MINUTES / COOKING 10 MINUTES

A South East Asain twist on a classic raspberry jam-filled cookie that’s perfect for snacking.

80g sugar

200g butter, softened

2 eggs

100g fine desiccated coconut

200g plain flour

100g kaya (pandan and coconut jam,

available from most Asian supermarkets) icing sugar, to finish

Heat the oven to 160℃ fan bake.

Use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment to mix the sugar and butter until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Combine the desiccated coconut and the flour and add it in three lots, mixing until the dough just comes together.

Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper to roughly 3mm thick. Put onto a tray and into the freezer for 5 minutes.

Remove the top sheet of baking paper. Use a scalloped round cutter to stamp out as many cookies as possible. Use a smaller star cutter to stamp out the centre from half of the cookies. Reroll the leftover dough and repeat. Return the tray to the freezer for another 5 minutes.

Remove the bottom sheet of baking paper and place the cookies onto a lined baking tray, leaving some space between each one. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through. The cookies are ready once they are golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

Pipe the kaya onto the whole cookies, then place the cutout cookie on top and gently sandwich them together. Finish by lightly dusting with icing sugar.