When Life Gives You Crumbled Cookies...

...make parfait! This month's Daring Bakers challenge was truly a challenge. After moving back to the United States, finding out that our oven didn't work, cleaning up the house and the aftermath of a winter ice storm, and having to attend a memorial service in Baltimore, we've been busy, busy, busy!

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network. Since we had the option to only make one, I chose the Milanos, a family favorite. Unfortunately, though, when I went to bake them, I thought I didn't have any parchment paper, so I just baked the cookies directly on the cookie sheet. If you ever make these, parchment paper is not optional. They stuck to the sheet, and since I baked two sheets at once, I had a lot of cookie crumbs to deal with.

Not to be daunted, I used the leftover cream and chocolate and made parfaits for dessert that night. The funny thing is that the parfaits were more popular than the cookies themselves (which I finally baked correctly when I found a hidden roll of parchment paper)! The cookie recipe can be found at the Food Network site, although I don't highly recommend these cookies (unless you'll be making parfaits). I substituted creme de menthe for the orange zest in the chocolate, which was yummy, but I felt that the cookie itself was a little too lemony and tasted too much like powdered sugar.

They sure do make a pretty cookie, though:

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