Coconut Whoopie Pies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
White of 1 large egg
3/4 cup lite coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 1/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Coconut Fluff Filling:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup marshmallow crème
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
2 tablespoons lite coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

Position oven rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. 

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, shortening, and sugar until fluffy at medium speed of an electric mixer. Add egg and egg white, and beat until incorporated. Add half of flour mixture and half of coconut milk to creamed mixture; beat at medium speed just until blended. Add remaining half of flour and coconut milk and vanilla; beat until blended.

Using a 1/4-cup ice cream scoop, drop batter into 12 mounds onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Or drop batter into 24 mounds by well-rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle half of the mounds with coconut. Bake for about 10 minutes for large cakes and 8 minutes for small cakes (just bake them the way you like them). Remove from oven and onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Spread flat side of the plain cakes generously with Coconut Fluff Filling. Top with remaining coconut-topped cakes, pressing down lightly to seal them together. 

Coconut Fluff Filling:

Beat butter and marshmallow crème in a large mixing bowl at medium-high speed of an electric mixer until fluffy, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. Beat in confectioners’ sugar, coconut, coconut milk, and extracts. Makes about 1 3/4 cups.

My notes: This recipe is almost perfect. I still want to tweak it a bit next time, but wanted to share it with you whilst I do so. I made it almost exactly as the original recipe. My only change was that I added coconut to the cookie batter itself, because I thought it seemed like it needed it. The original recipe said to bake the cookies til they have cracks in the top, which is ridiculous. Who likes dry cookies? Not me. Next time I will make a double batch (12 total small cookies are just not enough), and instead of this filling (which really is very good) I'll try Karla's which you can find here, but I'll use coconut milk and coconut extract in it.