This is a classic no bake confection. We had this often while growing up; sometimes it was lovely sometimes not so lovely. Take the cookie crumbs. They should be made from plain, lightly sweetened, crunchy cookies. Did I just describe honey grahams? Hmmm. Not quite, but if you must, please don’t use the “Sensible Solution, Whole Wheat” Honey Graham or the Oreo Crumbs for that matter, because both will be horrid. I used plain homemade graham cookies from the freezer; sometimes I bake more than we need. Did I say use plain cookies? Chocolate chippers or nut cookies are fine, because they can be finely ground, just don’t use cookies with dried fruit in it, because the cookie dough has to be rolled thin and anything chunky will poke hole into the dough. The next thing is the sugar. Don’t put sugar into the dough; the cookies are sweet already. Never put jam into the dough to bind it. Finally, the neater and more precise you work, the better your cookie roll will look in the end. There you have it; this just about covers all my previous failures. Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest.
COCONUT COOKIE ROLL
Cookie Dough Layer:
4 cups plain cookie crumbs [such as Nilla]
1/4 cup soft unsalted butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup light [10%] cream
1 egg, lightly whisked to combine
Cream Layer:
1/2 cup soft unsalted butter
1/4 cup soft salted butter
1-1/2 cups icing sugar
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup medium coconuts
Making the cookie dough is done by hand. If you are concerned about depositing hand cells into your food, put on a pair of plastic gloves. [The same ones delis use for food preparation. Not the heavy rubber gloves we use scrubbing pots.]
• Grind the cookies in the food processor. Make sure there are no chunks left in the cookie crumbs.
• Add the butter and rub it into the cookie crumbs.
• Add the cocoa and combine with the cookie crumbs.
• Add the light cream and the egg.
• Disperse the cream and the egg throughout and kneed the dough until it comes together.
• Lay a 15X12 inch parchment paper on the table.
• Roll the dough out evenly until it slightly extends beyond the paper edge.
• When the dough sticks to the rolling pin, sprinkle it with icing sugar.
• Trim the edges with a sharp knife and discard what is not needed.
• Next, beat the butters with the icing sugar and the vanilla for 4-5 minutes until frothy.
• Add the coconut and beat to combine.
• With a large cake cream spreader spread the cream all over the cookie dough.
• From one of the long ends start to roll up the dough fairly tightly, being mindful not to roll up the parchment along with the dough. It’s a bit tricky and the dough will crack here and there but persevere. Once you rolled it a few times, you can use the parchment to roll it, just make it sure it remains a tight roll.
• Wrap it up in the same parchment and let the roll chill for a few hours before slicing.
• Slice it chilled, but serve it at room temperature.
