Features

The cookies crumble

By Josephine Campbell jcampbell@timesleader.com
Features Staff

Though it’s difficult to believe an opened box of Samoa Girl Scout cookies would last long enough to be chopped, nestled within a pan and baked into scrumptious blondies, that’s exactly what Chef Jen Yemola suggests.

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Daisy Girl Scout Mikayla Saccketti, 7, and Chef Jen Yemola create a Thick and Minty Mountain Side during a taping of the show ‘Jentastic Sweets’ at the Laurel Mall in Hazleton. A slight mishap in measuring doused the Hazleton girl with a minty fragrance.

S. JOHN WILKIN photos/THE TIMES LEADER

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Chewy Samoa Blondies contain a middle layer of crushed Samoa cookies, caramel, coconut and chocolate mini chips. Of Chef Yemola’s recipes using Girl Scout cookies, it’s the only one that requires an oven.

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get your cookies

Early Girl Scout cookie booth sales begin Friday; find them at http://cookielocator.littlebrownie.com/ or gshpa.org.

Cookies ordered from Girl Scouts will arrive Feb. 25 in the Wilkes-Barre service area.

This year’s varieties are Samoas, Trefoils, Thin Mints, Tagalongs, Do-Si-Dos, Lemon Chalet Cremes, Thank U Berry Munch and Dulce de Leche. They are $3.50 a box.

At a taping Saturday of her television show, “Jentastic Sweets,” the bakery owner, celebrity chef and pastry instructor led a trio of Hazleton Girl Scouts through recipes she’d developed. Each dessert included Girl Scout cookies, which are sold this time every year to fund Girl Scout programs.

“I wanted it to be quite simple for girls to make,” said Yemola, to help them “get their feet wet” in the kitchen. To that end, only one of her three desserts requires baking.

Yemola’s first assistant, Sera McManus, 8, of Brownie Troop 4276, learned a neat trick to slice bananas for the Banana Cream Pie With Trefoil Crust.

Leave part of the peel on, Yemola said. Slice it, then lift it by the casing to tip the fruit right into the bowl.

As McManus stirred lemon juice with the banana slices, Yemola readied the pudding. “I usually make my own” rather than use instant, she said, but this was simple enough for young cooks to put together.

After they assembled the pie, Yemola handed the spatula to her young assistant, who concentrated on spreading the whipped cream over the pudding layer.

During the quick cleanup and setup for the next recipe, samples were handed out by lottery.

Though taping of the half-hour program — which should air later this month on WYLN Channel 35 — took more than an hour, the small crowd of Girl Scouts and families who’d braved the snow remained attentive. The crew set up shots, rearranged boxes of cookies and covered the labels of name-brand products with tape — a struggle when it came to the ice-cream carton.

Several do-overs dragged the taping out, as when the mixer wouldn’t start the first time Yemola tried to fire it up for her Chewy Samoa Blondies.

On the next take, Jayme Tillett, 15, Senior Troop 4201, poured in white and brown sugars and sifted together the flour, baking powder and salt, while Yemola kept up a running commentary of what they were doing, with tips for bakers, too.

The dessert also can be made in a square pan, she said, demonstrating how to line the greased pan with parchment paper to prevent the bottom from sticking. “Don’t overmix the batter,” she advised.

After spreading half the batter into the pan, they added chopped Samoa cookies, chocolate and coconut. Then Yemola generously added caramel from a squeeze bottle, explaining that the written recipe uses melted caramels, but this chef cooks from scratch.

The remaining batter was spread on top, then set aside as Yemola displayed previously made blondies.

“You and me are going to have some dessert,” she said to her third Hazleton assistant, Mikayla Saccketti of Daisy Troop 4207, who helped prepare Thick and Minty Mountain Slides.

The chef scooped vanilla ice cream into a blender, added “about seven” Thin Mint cookies, then handed her helper a measuring spoon and a bottle of mint extract.

When the 7-year-old poured an avalanche of extract, Yemola jumped in to help.

“That’s OK. You smell really good,” she consoled her, smiling warmly and wiping down the table. The Daisy added green coloring to the mixture, and they whirled it together.

After pouring some into glasses, each used a pastry bag to garnish with a dollop of whipped cream (“More!” said Yemola) and topped them with cherries.

“The point of the mountain slide is you mix the whipped cream together” with the ice cream, she said, demonstrating as they stirred and sampled the chilly treat.

Yemola, well known for her stint on the Fox reality show “Hell’s Kitchen” with Chef Gordon Ramsay (she came in third), revealed that she, too, had been a Brownie in her youth.

“And look how I turned out.”

BANANA CREAM PIE WITH TREFOIL CRUST

1 package Trefoil Girl Scout cookies

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 3.4-ounce package of instant vanilla pudding mix

1 1/2cups milk

1 teaspoon banana extract

2 cups whipped cream, divided use

2 bananas

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Process the Trefoil cookies in a food processor until finely ground (reserve a small amount for garnish, if desired). Add the melted butter and mix well. Press into a 9-inch pie pan and refrigerate until cold.

Place the pudding mix into a medium bowl. Add milk and banana extract and blend with a hand mixer on low speed until incorporated. Fold in 1 cup of the whipped cream. Set aside.

Slice the bananas medium-thick and toss with the lemon juice. Arrange in the cookie crust. Top with pudding mix. Finish with remaining whipped cream and Trefoil crumbs, if desired.

CHEWY SAMOA BLONDIES

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks of butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

1/2 cup packaged caramels

1 teaspoon milk

1/2 box Samoa cookies, crushed

1/4 cup mini kisses

2 tablespoons coconut

Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan with spray and line with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugars and vanilla extract. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the flour mixture last and combine well.

Place half of the batter evenly in the bottom of the pan.

Heat the caramels in the microwave until soft and warm. Add the milk and mix well until smooth. Spread on top of the first layer of batter. Sprinkle with the crushed cookies, mini kisses and coconut. Spread the rest of the batter over the filling.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

THICK AND MINTY MOUNTAIN SLIDE

2 cups great-quality vanilla ice cream

1 cup whole milk

1/4 teaspoon mint extract

8 drops green food coloring

Thin Mint cookies (about 7)

Whipped cream

Maraschino cherries

Chocolate sticks

Add the vanilla ice cream, milk, mint extract, food coloring and cookies to the base of a blender. Blend on high until thick and creamy. Pour into serving glasses and top with whipped cream, a cherry and a chocolate stick.

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