Full confession: until a few years ago, I turned my nose up at all coconut desserts. All of them. And then one day, the angels spoke to me and I ate an Almond Joy. Boy, did I feel like an idiot. It was delicious.

Since then, I’ve come to realize how much a heap of coconut on top of a dessert can change the game. And when that heap of coconut happens to be couched in easy, gooey German chocolate frosting, so much the better.

For the past few days, my family has been enjoying the benefits of Lancaster, PA. If you’ve never been there, it’s home to kiddie amusement park Dutch Wonderland, designed for kids aged three to eight or so. It’s pretty much a barrel of fun for your little crumb-crunchers. But that’s not the most exciting part.

It’s also home to Turkey Hill ice cream, and they have a museum and ice cream experience. As part of admission, you can not only create an ice cream flavor, but you can also have unlimited ice cream samples. Do you know how big those samples are? A scoop. YES. A whole scoop, my friends! Talk about heaven on earth!

We recently had lunch with a family who informed us that wherever they go, they look for food factory tours, especially those involving chocolate. And I’ve been thinking about it since then. Those people are geniuses. Who wouldn’t make that part of a fun family vacation? And next time we hit Lancaster, I see that there are also pretzel factory tours. Sign. Me. Up.

While I’ve had my fill of ice cream over the past couple of days, it’s comforting to think that waiting for me at home are these brownies. I can never get my fill of brownies. Brownies are always there for me. And these are quite special.

Filled with giant chocolate chunks and smothered in German chocolate frosting, these are pretty hard to resist and not difficult to make. Remember, liking German chocolate doesn’t mean making a cake every time. These brownies are a perfectly acceptable way to get your cravings taken care of without taking out the round cake pans and building layers!

It’s Friday and after all the vacationing, I’m pretty much exhausted. Food factory tours will do that to you, as will kiddie amusement parks. But summer calls for all kinds of activity, not to mention indulgence. Make these brownies part of your season!

Since this is the time of year that people usually count their blessings and express thanks, I have to think about the amazing teachers I work with. I don’t write about my job much here, but as many of you know, I’m a full-time, National Board certified high school English teacher. It’s a very intense job and my days are anything but relaxing, especially since my downtime is nonexistent with three small kids at home. But man, do I love it.

I’m lucky to work with some amazing people. For years, I’ve developed friendships in the trenches of teaching and as I get older, my department feels like a second family. A lot of my baking goes to these wonderful teachers, so many of whom are underappreciated. And boy, when we get together, we know how to party.

This German chocolate pie is a product of Friendsgiving, hosted by one of my best work buddies. She’s amazing, and her favorite treat is anything in that flavor. So, of course I had to go all mashup with this pie.

I’m just gonna say this: a woman I don’t even know was at the dinner and when she tried the pie, she walked across the room and hugged me. It was definitely a high point. I used a graham cracker crust and a dense, fudgy brownie base. The frosting is a simple stovetop concoction that I got from a fabulous blog, Two in the Kitchen. Check it out!

I might be done with pie for a little while, but I’m sure not done with my buddies at work. They make even the roughest days one laugh after another, and baking them treats is just one way to show my gratitude. And for all you non-teachers out there, just remember how hard we work for you and your kids. We focus too much on the negative sometimes, and there are so many amazing teachers in our schools. Appreciate them this holiday season!

So what do you do when your buddy has a birthday in September and her favorite cookies are Samoas? And there are no Samoas to be had?

Well, make one, of course. A giant one. In a cookie cake!

This cookie cake is the product of two weeks of thinking and a subsequent two seconds of sheer inspiration.

See, my friend loves coconut. German chocolate cakes are her favorite, but I’ve done that before. So what could I do to make her birthday super special? I hunted everywhere, scouring cookbooks, browsing endlessly on Pinterest. I looked at Samoa bars, Samoa cakes, everything. And nothing struck me as the one.

Then I remembered how much I love cookie cakes! And a vision took place in my head. The cookie base is made with a lot of brown sugar, as well as caramel bits, to get that caramel flavor into the mix. There are also chocolate chips, both baked into the cookie and melted on top. And finally, a ring of coconut, drizzled with caramel and striped with hot fudge to resemble a Samoa.

I had to toast some coconut, which works well on parchment paper in a 350 degree oven. Just be sure to watch it, because it’s sweetened and therefore burns very fast!

It worked. It was delicious. And I don’t have a slice to show you because I gave the whole cake away. So instead, I did a step-by-step for you. The cookie before being spread with melted chocolate:

And after:

And coconut going on top. Can we get an “oooh” or an “aaaah?”

Finally, the caramel drizzle and fudge stripes!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Everyone should get their favorite on their birthday. Loved ones of mine, are you listening?! So here’s to my friend, the coconut lover. Hope your day was amazing!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 and 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
• 1/2 cup caramel bits (Kraft brand)
• 1 and 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut, toasted (see post above)
• caramel sauce (jarred or homemade)
• hot fudge sauce

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray. Cut parchment paper to fit the bottom for easy release and then spray the sides again with pan release spray or cooking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add the flour, salt, and baking soda, beating until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated. Finally, fold in 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips and the caramel bits.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the center is no longer jiggling. Watch it carefully to avoid overbaking. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

When the cake is cool, toast the sweetened coconut for 5-10 minutes in the oven at 350. Watch it carefully!

Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips in the microwave for 1 minute. Remove and stir until smooth, and spread evenly over the cake’s surface. Gently press the toasted coconut in a ring pattern around the cake, working your way inward as you go. Leave a circle in the middle with no coconut to mimic the Samoa.

Gently drizzle caramel over the coconut. Fit a piping bag with a medium-sized round tip and pipe the fudge stripes evenly over the top of the surface. Allow the fudge and chocolate layer to set for at least an hour before serving.

This is year 15 for me as a teacher, and every year, I love it just a little bit more. Teaching is unpredictable and active and just so much fun. I laugh a lot at work. But then, I find people funny. Kids especially. I know that my own kids get really mad when they think I’m laughing at them (i.e., all the time), so I will do a better job of hiding my smiles at work. Maybe.

To make my esteemed colleagues feel a bit better about returning, I’ve made some treats. One of my teacher buddies can’t have gluten, and guess what? She’s been teaching for over 35 years. So I think she deserves these bars! They’re a sea of goodness. See the gooey sea?

They’re a twist on traditional magic bars. Instead of a graham cracker crust, the base is made of gluten-free refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough. Use Immaculate Baking if you can find it, because it’s the best! And piled on top, instead of just the usual chocolate chips, pecans and coconut are also gluten-free chocolate cream sandwich cookies and some white chocolate chips. Nothing to hate here! It looks like snow. And chocolate. And cookies.

People never realize these are gluten-free. There’s just too much going on. And they’re addictive, thanks to the generous can of sweetened condensed milk that gets poured on top. I always use fat-free, because again, nobody can tell the difference. I love being healthier at no cost!

If you have a gluten-free buddy but you’re not the biggest baker in the world, this is for you. It’s easy, quick and impressive. And it makes enough for the whole office!

Happy back to school season, everyone. Take comfort in the end of summer with the happy knowledge that apple and pumpkin desserts will be returning to your favorite food blogs everywhere! But for now, let’s just focus on getting those backpacks stocked and the kids awake.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz. gluten-free refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
• 1 cup chocolate chips (milk or semi-sweet)
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped pecan halves and pieces
• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1/2 package gluten-free chocolate cream sandwich cookies (like Glutino), broken into pieces
• 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (I used fat-free)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.

Using your hands, make flat discs out of each piece of cookie dough. Place them evenly in the prepared pan and press down to make a thin, even dough. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven.

In this order, sprinkle the remaining ingredients on top: start with the pecans, then the coconut, then the chocolate and white chocolate chips, and finally, add the broken cookies. Pour the condensed milk evenly over the top of the pile. The idea is to get all of the ingredients in each bite.

Bake for 25 minutes until the top is golden brown and bubbly. Cool completely and cut into squares. These bars will be super sticky, so be prepared! Store in an airtight container.

In those long-ago days, I pretty much always hoped to find a big chocolate chip cookie behind the glass cases at Firehook. They were so good. I still think about those big cookies! But one day, I saw a big bar wrapped in plastic. It was called a seven-layer bar, and I’d never heard of that before. Don’t think I’m oblivious. It was like thirteen years ago!

When I tried the bar, I couldn’t believe all the fun packed into that one square! Coconuts and pecans and chocolate chips, all atop a fantastic graham cracker crust. I later learned that this concoction is also known as a Hello Dolly or a Magic Bar, and you know, I preferred the latter name. Those bars taste like magic!

There aren’t seven layers, anyway. That’s a total misnomer. What’s magical about the whole idea is that a simple little can of sweetened condensed milk resuts in the gooeist result ever. So I got to thinking about that, and guess what? I figured a pie would be even better. All of that amazing stuff packed into a smaller space, and in pie form? It had to be a good idea!

And it was. This pie came out as a cross between a pecan pie and a magic bar, and it was so easy to make. Despite the fact that the pie packs a serious sugar punch, I still saw people taking more than one slice. That speaks for itself.

So if you’re a whiz with magic bars, or even if you’re not, this is a good pie to take to your next whatever. People will be impressed because they’re always impressed when a homemade crust is involved, and you can once again save the day!

Besides, you have to make this. It’s magic. Don’t mess with magic.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup pecan halves and pieces
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup sweetened coconut
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk (I used fat-free)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a pie plate with cooking spray.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and chocolate chips for about one minute. Stir until melted and well combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar, stirring again until the mixture is crumbly. Press the crumbs into the pie pan, moving them up the sides to make a pie crust. Bake for 5-10 minutes until set and then remove from the oven.

Layer the pecans, coconut and chocolate chips into the pie crust, in that order. Pour on the sweetened condensed milk.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pie is bubbly and browning at the edges.

Onward! A year ago, I was reading my Good Housekeeping magazine (which is kind of ironic because I’m not that good at housekeeping) when I saw this three-ingredient recipe, just in time for Passover. It looked so fancy and elegant, but it turned out to be the easiest thing in the world to make.

This one’s for all you intense chocolate lovers out there. The chocolate filling is rich, so much so that a small slice of this tart will suffice. But that didn’t stop me from going back for more than what my body recommended, because this was just so sinfully wonderful!

And the crust is made out of coconut macaroons, i.e. one of the Passover staples. You can use the infamous ones that come in a can around this time of year, or you could make your own. Or, as a compromise, I used Jennie’s packaged chocolate chip macaroons that are really moist and delicious. It saved me a step. Besides, I’m making my own coconut macaroons later in the week, and I want to enjoy them solo. So this was a good way to go.

You just press the cookies into the tart pan, and voila! Crust. Perfect for pouring the chocolate filling into. Then you just chill until set, and you have an Impressive Dessert.

If you are using this dessert for Passover and you don’t like to mix milk and meat because of kosher dietary laws, you can use non-dairy creamer (like Coffee Rich) instead of the heavy cream. It works just as well!

Prepare to wow your guests. They’ll want to eat this year-round, Passover or no Passover! And for our gluten-free friends out there, this fits the bill perfectly!

Ingredients:

• 10 oz. container coconut macaroons (I like to use chocolate chip)
• 1 cup heavy cream or non-dairy creamer
• 16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Instructions:

Press the coconut macaroons into the bottom of a tart pan with a removable base, working the cookies to move a bit up the side.

In a saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until smooth.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the crust and chill overnight. Cut into wedges and serve!