Coconut Squares, Coconut Kisses with Chocolate Cream, and Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip

ITS BEEN A VERY LONG TIME SINCE I POSTED...JUST BEEN WAY TOO BUSY WITH SCHOOL. Fortunately, I have been baking, just not posting. I have made a total of three different cookies. Two of them solo bakes and the third one, a buddy bake with good ol' friend, Joyce Chang. These first "cookies" were called Coconut Squares. They were different than any other cookie I have baked in that they were from the Bars and Brownies section of the book. So, yes, not exactly a cookie, but it did come from the book, so it definitely still counts. Nothing super special about the preparation or anything, and I realized much too late in the preparation that I did not have the right sized cake pan for the job. I had a 9 x 13 in. pan and the recipe called for an 11 x 7 in. pan...SOOO looks like I was gonna have to watch them the entire time they were in the oven. Thankfully, my anal-ness with respect to and determination not to burn cookies helped me approximate their time in the oven. And as usual, I knew I should check at least 5 minutes before the minimum amount of time the recipe calls for.SO, I did, and I was rewarded. They were just finished when I pulled them out! Perfectly Browned! Taste-wise, another winner. Some people, who seem to have not liked some of the previous cookies as much LOVED these ones for some reason, but my roommate and I agree that they were sub-par with respect to most other cookies I have made thus far. So, I would have to give them a 5.5/10. This, of course, accounting for preparation ease as well. I'm just more of a cookie man, so these just weren't quite cutting it for me.

These next cookies, though, definitely cut it...

They were called Coconut Kisses with Chocolate Cream...mmm, sound delicious, don't they?

If the picture isn't strong enough, let me try and describe these cookies. Number 1, they are doubled up, which is always better (2 cookies is always better than one). Number 2, they contained my new favorite ingredient, confectioner's sugar and it's beautiful and delectable mixture that is the cream that conjoins the two delicious cookies. Number 3, they have coconut, and let's just face it, everything that has coconut in some form is delicious. And if you

disagree, well, then something's wrong with you, because coconut is basically fat, and everyone knows that fat is delicious.

Let me say real quick, that this bake is dedicated to Aaron and Kathy, as they got me to bake these for their coming down to see me the day after SUNGOD, which, let me tell you, was eventful in itself, once again...

Now, preparation-wise, these cookies were different in that rather than mixing the coconut in with the other ingredients, like they were with the previous bar "cookies," i was told to roll them into little balls and roll the balls into a bowl with the coconut in it. Now, I don't know what went

wrong, but the recipe called for 3 tbsp of coconut and I think i ended up using like a cup or two. Don't get me wrong, all the better I say, but I made pretty generously sized cookies and I definitely needed a lot more than 3 tablespoons of coconut. So, like I said, all the better, and really, I'm glad I did because I have WAY TOO MUCH cocnut to be using like only a 20th of one bag or so. I finished rolling them around, gathering all the coconut they could, then ate one, again risking salmonella (hmmm), because the dough has to taste good for the end result to be good. And let me tell you, the dough did not disappoint. And, as I said before, the cookies were made up of two cookies, so I obviously had to eat another one so that I didn't have an odd number of total cookie halves...Mmmm....Delish, as my brother would say.

The cookies, for the most part, unfortunately, due to the varying sizes of the little balls, came out good, not exceptional, but good. DEFINITELY NOT

BURNED, but very much borderline. I commenced making the filling...This went as planned, then I began adding it to the cookies. One thing I definitely learned though, is that cookies need to cool before you add the chocolate and powdered sugar based filling...or else, as you can see in the picture, you get melt-y filling. This, in effect, made the cookie tops (and at this point they looked sort of like hamburgers), so the top buns, slide off. This was annoying, but I did not have time to wait for them to cool, so I got them finished, took the picture and ran away before all hell broke loose.

Taking into account prep time, deliciousness, and mood?

I would have to say that these cookies are among the big-leaguers, and get a score of 8.5/10.

BUDDY BAKE TIME!

WITH JOYCE CHANG!

Joyce and I have known each other for a good 6 years now I think. We both went to Homestead High School and both competed on the track team and also both were in band. While she played a string, and I played a wind instrument, we still seemed to find some common ground between us. I feel like we've known each other forever, and it's probably because I get this very nurturing, motherly sense from her. Let's just say that if I was going to have anybody take care of my home or sickly self, I would want it to be her. To make it clear, however, I would like to point out that she is no pushover, solely at-home wife either. She is one of the most ambitious people I know, and to be completely honest, I sometimes am a bit scared of her if she is determined, or is not on my side of an argument (debate was one of her specialties, if I recall, back in high school). Further, she's an amazing friend and I have spent countless hours talking to her about everything that went on in our previously much more integrated lives and in our now, very distinct lives.

This post separates itself not only through the buddy-ness but in the type of cookie we were going to make. Now, if you have yet to see The Book, you should know that a lot of the cookies inside of it are very specialized in that they require ingredients most people do not necessarily carry in their cabinets at home. While this is annoying in its own way, I have learned a lot about grocery stores now because of it...but the point is, we baked at her place and she had a tasty looking recipe already picked out that she had the ingredients for, so we decided to make them, straying out of the book, while keeping constant the theme of cookies.

They were called Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Oatmeal cookies have always been high up on my list of favorite cookies, so I was excited to make them. The prep time for this was very quick as there were two, now very seasoned bakers, working at it at one time (three if you count my buddy Melissa that also joined us for the bake and who is well known for her birthday gifts that typically involve some baked good).

Yay for wet hair!

As you can tell, we were having tons of fun as we rolled the dough up into pretty large sized drops and put them on the sheets. They baked fairly quickly and we took them out to start them on post-oven baking (on the hot sheet).

They did this, and not long after we got to taste them...

They were falling apart as i scooped it up to my mouth (usually a good thing, and today it definitely was, as it means the cookies were melt-y and warm so that they would split like they would on a commercial for example). And then I placed it in my mouth...

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!

They were SOOO Good!! It disintegrated in my mouth as all of the tiny little chocolate chips melted and became one with my tongue. Then all of the delicious oatmealliness came down and just blew my taste buds out the door. It was one of those time when you just go into a place of complete relaxation; when someone talks to you and you just cannot respond; when all of your other senses fail because your tongue is caressing all of your senses' energy to focus on this tangible version of multi-faceted LOVE between chocolate, sugar, oatmeal, shortening, flour, baking powder, and salt. Overall Rating, 9/10 for classic-ness, deliciousness, simplicity, and lightly weighted with 'fun while making them.'

THANKS JOYCE!!!!!