Day 28: Pee Wee's

These cookies are named for my Grandpa Pee Wee. I think he would have enjoyed them.

Hooray, an invented cookie turned out great, at least I think I invented it, I never bothered to really check. The inspiration came from one of my favorite holiday traditions, making a big German's Chocolate Cake. My late grandfather's birthday was the day after Christmas. When I was little my mom would always make a German's Chocolate Cake for his birthday and take it to him on Christmas. I continued the tradition as an adult until he passed away in 2008 just weeks before his 80th birthday, and I have not made one since. Not for any romantic or sad reason. Honestly I think it's because without an occasion  I will most likely eat all of the frosting before it makes it on to the cake.
Before I get to the cookies, a few notes on German's Chocolate Cake. (I am so sorry if I offend anyone here, or offend your personal tastes.) Please do not use any other recipe than the one printed on the inside of the box of German's Chocolate(also linked above). Do not substitute the ingredients, do not add chocolate frosting, do not try to make it look pretty. Just follow the directions on the box and everything will be fine. There, I felt that had to be said once and for all.

the cake should look like this and nothing else

We all know the Coconut Pecan Frosting is the best part of the German's Chocolate Cake right? So I thought of  this cookie as an excuse to just eat the frosting. Eating it out of the pan just feels so wrong at Christmas time. We, that's right we-I have a guest baker today, used a box of chocolate cake mix for the cookies but made the frosting from scratch, which by the way is the only way it should ever be made. This would be a lot better using the German's recipe adapted for cookies, but I needed to keep it simple for my guest. Maybe one day I will go back and give it a try.

Now on to my guest baker. today I had my son Patrick, 19, do the baking. All of these thoughts I have on baking need to be passed on, no matter how illogical or mundane. I imagine him married some day, in the kitchen with his wife, teaching her to make cookies like his mom. Oh wow, I am going to be an amazing mother in law aren't I.

Seeing how Patrick was the baker today and not me, I asked him to write a few notes on the blog. I also promised him he could write whatever he wants and I wouldn't read it until after I posted. So without further ado....here's Patrick...

Though I'm defiantly not one of the most coordinated people in the kitchen, for the blog's sake I decided to make today's cookie and give my input from someone who isn't the best baker. Now first off, as my mom repeatedly kept telling me in the kitchen, you can easily mess up this cookie & frosting if you start to rush yourself or slack off. As for the cookie's themselves, they're probably the only cookies I have ever made that actually turn out to look like a cookie and not just a blob of fried dough, just make sure to keep and eye on them once they come out of the oven and make sure to not mess with them too much other wise the will break apart and not take the proper shape. As for the icing, make sure you keep and eye on it while you are stirring because the icing will come out wrong if you don't keep it moving for the full 12 minuets; and if you see little brown specks in the sauce, that is normal. That's about all I can think of for this recipe, not too sure on how to end this think... so yeah.