Be afraid, be very afraid...

...when a cucumber and a tomato recommend a cookie recipe.

Lukas was checking the "extra options" on the Veggie Tales Lord of the Beans video we had on loan from Netflix and found a cookie recipe.  Bob and Larry narrate the recipe while happy children make the cookies with their mom looking on and helping occasionally.  When I came back from taking Natalie and Konrad to soccer practice, I found Lukas writing down the recipe, pausing the video every few seconds so he could get it completely accurate.  He did a great job!  He wrote down a very accurate recipe! But...

...I think Bob and Larry left out a few helpful hints.

The recipe is a basic sugar cookie recipe that you form into shapes with a hole in the middle, bake, then put crushed Jolly Rancher candies inside, return to the oven for a few minutes, and have a fun, pretty cookie.  What could be more simple?

Today Lukas and I made the cookie dough, then put it in the refrigerator for an hour, as instructed.  Lukas wanted to immediately crush the Jolly Ranchers in the Cuisinart, so I had him unwrap the candies.  When I returned, the candies had already started sticking to each other pretty well.  My decades of wisdom and experience with cooking and candies told me to not chop the candies until after the cookies were formed.  Lukas and I had a little "discussion" about this, with him saying, "Mom, the instructions were to chop the Jolly Ranchers right away, before making the cookies."  I prevailed.  I am Mom, after all.

So an hour later, the dough came out of the frig, and Lukas formed the cookies on a cookie sheet (if you're wondering, the other kids were watching a movie...there is NO WAY ON EARTH I would attempt a recipe with the possibility of crushed Jolly Rancher candies cascading around my kitchen with four children in attendance...I used the bribe of Cars to keep the other kids occupied).  Tom is outside working to keep our house beautiful...it is Labor Day, after all!  Then when the cookies were popped into the oven, I crushed the candy in the Cuisinart. 

That's the mistake I made.  I waited an hour before crushing the candies.

I should have waited an hour and 15 minutes to crush the candies, or until the cookies came out of the oven, because as soon as I poured the candy bits into a bowl, they started to stick together and harden.  Fortunately (or unfortunately?) I realized this pretty quickly, so I started stirring the candy to keep it in a loose bunch of bits, instead of a solid mass of bits.  The cookies were in the oven for 10 minutes and I stirred the entire time, very careful to not spill sticky gooeyness over my kitchen.

Then the timer rang and I pulled the cookies out and it was obvious they weren't done...back they went for another 3 minutes, with me stirring candy bits the entire time.  Of course, Lukas is watching Cars while the cookies are in the oven.  Despite my best effort (constant attention!) the sticky candy sticky bits are starting to win the sticky battle and stick together permanently.  Sticky!

The timer rings again and I decide the cookies are done, so Lukas comes in to fill the cookies with the candy bits (the fun part, right?)  But with the battle to become one solid, bowl-shaped candy reaching a climax, the candy bits react to the slightest bit of heat coming from the hot cookies below the spoon, and stick to the spoon.  Lukas fills a cookie, I stir the candy to make it come apart again.  Over and over.  Finally I fill in the last few cookies to get it over with.

So my new life lesson learned is:  don't crush Jolly Ranchers until THE LAST possible minute.

Now I have to go lie down to recover from the adrenaline rush of trying to make sure Lukas' fun cookie project didn't end up down the drain, where I really wanted it.