Disappointed

So I didn't win my first baking contest, where I entered my chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons. (Sniff.) The really sad thing is that the recipe I made only made 18 cookies, and I had to give them 12, I gave one away, and Todd and I ate two right after they were baked, so I only have three left. (I guess that could be a good thing, too. Wouldn't want to get sick of them.)

The good news is that my friend, Julie, did. She won in the most creative category, for chocolate sandwich cookies with peppermint filling. She got the recipe for the chocolate part from epicurious.com (the Dark Chocolate Cookies recipe, but she chilled the dough until it was firm enough to roll into balls), then made the peppermint filling with a combination of peppermint extract, confectioners' sugar and a tiny bit of cream (it was thick enough that she could roll it in a ball then flatten it). The thing that put her into the winners' circle, though, was that she placed a small star-shaped cookie cutter on top of the assembled cookie, then dusted it with confectioners' sugar to make a pattern. Hooray Julie!