Cream Wafers with Grapefruit Blood Orange Filling

As I write this post, my valentine is off on a work trip, and I can hardly stand it. A lot of my friends think Evan and I are pretty independent because we have our own hobbies that, after years and years of being together, we don�t try to push on each other. He has his nerd things and video games and electronic music, I have cooking and being in nature and scary movies and reading. We�re pretty good about doing our own thing and being totally cool with it.
But what our friends might not see is that we�re also weirdly codependent. Have you watched How I Met Your Mother (3 full times through, like we have)? Because in a lot of ways, we�re a lot like Lilly and Marshall. We know almost every tiny detail of each others day� from every single item we ate to what conversations we had at work to what articles we read throughout the day. There�s an episode of HIMYM where Lilly and Marshall tell each other every detail when they go to the bathroom� we�re not quite there (yet) buuuuuuut we�re close. Just kidding. <Glances to the side>. Is that weird? Is it too much? Anyway. I hope our little mini snowstorm in Seattle doesn�t delay his trip home, because I wish he was here. Also I seriously can�t fall asleep without him. And I don�t really mean that in a gushy way� I just read a lot of mystery books and listen to a lot of murdery true crime podcasts and finished watching The Fall the first day he was gone. So you know, I basically lie awake staring at the shadows surrounding the bedroom door for three hours before falling asleep. 

Which in no way leads me here, to these Valentines Day cookies! Cream wafer cookies with grapefruit and blood orange filling, to be exact. Have you had cream wafers? I saw a photo of them around Christmas, and couldn�t get over how cute they are. The dough is super simple and almost boring: flour, butter, cream. Literally that�s it. Then you cut out the cookies, roll them in sugar, and bake them. On their own, they taste a little like pie dough, i.e.: butter and flour. But when you add the citrusy sweet frosting, something magical happens. It really brings the whole thing together. The cookies are soft but with a slightly flaky crunch type thing going on with the sugar coating, and the filling has that grapefruit tang I love, and is super pretty and naturally pink from the grapefruit marmalade (which I got at TJ�s and loooove on vanilla ice cream) and blood orange juice. Also these are tiny so you can pop one after another and not even realize you�re just consuming sticks upon sticks of butter. 

Also, I envisioned the perfect little teeny heart shaped cookies but I couldn�t find the right cutter� so I rolled some of the dough into a heart shaped log and just sliced those bad boys. They�re aight, but I definitely like the cut-out circle ones better. Oh, and yeah, I pipe frosting out of a ziplock baggie with the corner cut. So there's that. 

Cream Wafers with grapefruit blood orange filling

Cookie recipe from here, filling adapted from here
If you can�t find grapefruit marmalade, you can use orange marmalade, or your favorite thick jam. You can also use any citrus in place of the blood orange juice, but might not get that pretty pink color.

Cookies 2 cups all purpose flour 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream Granulated sugar Filling 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened 1.5 cups powdered sugar 2 tablespoons grapefruit marmalade 2 teaspoons fresh squeezed blood orange juice

Cream the butter until smooth, and add the flour and cream. Mix (with a hand/stand mixer or fork) until evenly combined. Roll dough into 3 balls, wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour. Heat oven to 375F. Put a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar in a shallow dish. Working with one dough ball at a time (keep the others in the fridge until ready to roll), on a lightly floured surface, roll to about 1/8th inch thick, and cut out using small (about the size of a quarter) cookie cutters. Dip each side of the cut-outs into the sugar to coat. Place on an un-greased (or parchment lined) baking sheet, and poke each cookie with about 6 little holes with a fork or toothpick. Bake 7-9 minutes. Cookies should be firm but not browned. Carefully transfer to wire rack and cool completely. For filling, mix together all filling ingredients (with a hand or stand mixer) until combined, light, and fluffy. Pipe filling on the inside of half the cookies, and top with the other half of the cookies to make little sandwiches.

Coconut Pecan Hot Fudge Sundaes

It�s almost Valentine�s Day! Let�s celebrate with ice cream sundaes! 

We�re layering chocolatey hot fudge sauce, vanilla ice cream, extra coconutty coconut milk caramel, and pecans! Yasss! We�re doing German Chocolate Cake style sundaes! Plus whipped cream, sprinkles, and a cherry on top, because that�s how we roll. 
Historically, German Chocolate Cake has been my favorite. As a kid, it was my chosen birthday cake each year. Less because of the chocolate cake part, and more because of the gooey, caramely coconut pecan frosting. About two years ago, I saw on instagram that someone had Talenti German Chocolate Cake flavored gelato, and I made it my mission in life to find it. Every store, every ice cream aisle. I checked. Every time. But alas, no luck. I was starting to think that maybe it didn�t actually exist, but then, a few weeks ago, EUREKA! 
So, after all that hype (I literally did a succession of these moves in Whole Foods when I found it), it was� meh. I mean, it was good. But like, it wasn�t great. It wasn�t two years of searching good, ya know? I could do better. But instead of making my own version of the ice cream, I decided to go the sundae route. For love-day! 
Whether you�re doing something naughty with the extra hot fudge with your sweetheart slash resurrecting the whipped cream bikini, setting up a Gal-entine�s ice cream sundae bar, or treating some little tiny loves to a special treat, these sundaes win. Here�s the drill: a layer of homemade hot fudge sauce in the bottom, a big scoop of vanilla ice cream (that hot meets cold part is my favorite!), some salty caramel that we make using coconut milk and then mix with shredded coconut, a sprinkle of crunchy toasted pecans, and then as many wacky, fun toppings as your pitter pattering hearts desire. 
PS. These little dino lovers are from our wedding! We metallic spray painted a full zoo/jurassic park�s worth of dinosaurs and animals for place settings, as a reminder (to ourselves) to have fun, be playful, and not take ourselves, or the material aspects of the wedding, too seriously. Now these little guys remind me of what a fun love-filled day that was! Insert a thousand heart and confetti emojis here, plus the ice cream one. And the kissy face one.

German Chocolate Cake/ Coconut Pecan Ice Cream Sundaes   
Both sauces make way more than you�ll need for two sundaes, but both store well in the fridge, and would be great for a sundae bar. Make both sauces ahead of time, so on Valentine�s Day (or whenever) you can just assemble everything.

Hot fudge sauce (recipe below)
Vanilla ice cream
Coconutty coconut caramel (recipe below)
Toasted pecan pieces
Whipped cream
Sprinkles, cherries, etc

In serving bowl or glass, layer: hot fudge, vanilla ice cream, coconutty coconut milk caramel (and a drizzle of the coconut-less caramel if you�d like), pecans, whipped cream, and desired sundae toppings. 


Hot Fudge Sauce
Adapted from Jeni�s Splendid Ice Creams

1 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup*
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces dark or bittersweet chocolate

Combine water, sugar, and corn syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, whisk in cocoa powder until thoroughly combined, then stir in vanilla. Add chocolate, and let sit for about 3 minutes. Stir the sauce until the chocolate is fully melted and smoothly mixed in. Serve warm or cool. Can be refrigerated for up to 2 months, and reheated in a sauce pan as needed. 


Coconutty Coconut Milk Caramel
Adapted from Epicurious

2 14 oz cans coconut milk
1.5 cups light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt (plus a pinch more if you want it extra salty)
1 cup shredded coconut

In a large pot (go bigger than you�d think), whisk together coconut milk, light brown sugar, and salt. Heat over medium heat until brown sugar is dissolved, then bring to a boil over medium-high. Boil, stirring occasionally, until it�s reduced to about 2 cups and has thickened to coat a spoon. This usually takes me about 30 minutes. Depending on the heat of your burner, you can turn it down� On my gas stove, it boils over like crazy over medium heat, so I kept it on a steady medium-low boil for 30 minutes. Just keep an eye on it and adjust as necessary.

Let cool, then mix 1 cup of the sauce with the 1 cup of shredded coconut. Set the remainder aside. Both can be refrigerated. 

* A note on corn syrup. Some of you may have read that ingredient and freaked out a little. Here�s the deal. In my opinion, a little bit of Karo corn syrup in a homemade dessert, when you�re indulging, isn�t the issue (if you eat ice cream sundaes on the daily, it might be an issue... but then... so will all that ice cream). Hidden high fructose corn syrup in every kind of prepackaged food where you least expect it� that�s where we run into problems. However, if you�re super anti, then you can try to replace the corn syrup with agave, but I haven�t tested that substitution. Or... you may want to rethink this whole dessert, it�s full of processed sugar�I mean... it's not a kale salad. It�s an ice cream sundae! If you want to know more, David Lebovitz has some really good thoughts about using corn syrup in cooking.