Oh Joanie - I'm sure they taste great. I know you are disappointed but thank you for making me laugh.

do you have kids? i bet they'd love your "mess"! save it for ice cream topping

what do they call it on the cooking shows when it falls apart "deconstructed"?

: )

Ha! Joanie your post reminded me or something I saw a while ago that made me laugh. I had to go find it...

http://justsomething.co/the-34-most-hilarious-pinterest-fails-ever/

Yes! Thank you for your efforts and for sharing your results. If it's any consolation, I bet they still taste awesome! (this is often in the back of my mind - you follow something to a t or so close to it and the results are not stellar). Again they do look yummy!

Yeah, it's why I don't usually print the picture on the recipe. I am also not a baker or crafty, but I really admire those who are! :)

Mtn....Great idea to save them for ice cream topping!

Amylou...those are hysterical...now i dont feel so bad!

Does anyone else find baking cookies exhausting? Im always wiped out after a few hours in the kitchen. Is it being on my feet, the heat of the oven?

i have to remember to look at these pics next year and step away from the cookie sheets!

I can cook all day,but I don't like baking. It's exhausting. I think it's all the measuring,and the anxiety about it turning out right.

I hope this is not insensitive, but I can't stop laughing.

I leave the baking to my husband, and the fancy cookie baking to the pros.

You do know, don't you, that the three cookies in the photo from the WaPo cookie list are the only ones out of the 48 that they made, that turned out. The other 45 are in a big messy pile similar to your big messy pile, which actually looks really good. :)

I got a nice chuckle out of that too. It reminds me of all those "Pinterest fail" photos that every once in a while pop up on social media. I agree that smashing up that first batch and putting on ice cream is probably pretty delicious!

I love you for sharing those joaniepoanie!

Oh my gosh, Joannie, I love you!

Daisy and all....I’m laughing too so no offense! I did save some for ice cream and threw out the rest... once I was able to pry them from the wire rack!

The last batch I made without the marshmallowes came out fine. Obviously the recipe is wrong calling for the marshmallows to be put on top before baking. I think if I had put them on the last two minutes they might have come out OK.

I hope you posted because you knew it would make us laugh, and I can't quit giggling. The sans marshmallow pools look quite good.

amylouise...I just went down the pinterest fails rabbit hole. This one was posted at the bottom of the page. I have tears streaming down my face....

http://justsomething.co/22-of-the-most-hilarious-kitchen-fails-ever/

I can't even count the number of baking (and cooking in general) fails I've had. Thanks for the laughs!

I'm glad I had finished my glass of wine before I saw your WaPo cookies. And, yes, I do not bake cookies. That in and out, and coax more by the teaspoon onto the sheet, and back into the oven, and out and onto the cooling rack, then make more room on the counter, ad nauseum. The closest I come is bar cookies. Once a year. At Christmas. For my only child.

ETA: I think you should go on-line and rate the recipe, inserting your photos.

Rate the WaPo Cookies

Amylou, omg thank you for the laughs! I was howling and crying, my DH thought I had lost it, even the dog seemed concerned.

I haven't laughed that hard since the WW recipe cards

http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html

You know, those marshmallows were probably either placed on the cookies in the last few minutes of baking (and someone forgot to put that in the recipe) or styled for the photo shoot with a kitchen torch after baking as you would creme brulee -- because baking them on top of the cookies could be a bit touchy. Yeah.

Looks just like my baking skills! Love, love, love! Those Pinterest "nailed it" were hysterical! I can't begin to describe how much just one (of many) of last year's Christmas desserts cost in terms of time, effort, and money; it did turn out well, tasted great, and looked beautiful, but NEVER again! Just not my cuppa!

Joanie, while they may have been joined at the hip, at least yours slightly resembled 'cookies'. Plural. You made me recall the time I wanted to make delicate and buttery lace cookies, first attempt. I precisely followed the recipe and instructions, and opened my oven door to a cookie. A 15x11" cookie, rectangular.

Joanie that was hilarious, I laughed out loud and you are such a good sport to share it with us. Lol

Joanie, you are so brave to put it all out there. I’ll wager most of us have had similar fails. And doesn’t it seem to happen when we’re making something to take to work or somewhere to impress? The Pinterest fails are hilarious!

Your experience is one reason I don't buy cookbooks anymore and usually only make recipes with a lot of online comments/reviews. I recall seeing a cookbook author once brag about the fact that *all* of the recipes in their book were actually tested in a kitchen. It was the first time I realized how often recipes are big mistakes that no one actually ever tried. Or were created by three fine arts grads and a CIA chef, with a food stylist and a photoshopper.

Thanks, Joanie. I have had so many similar failures that I have lost count. I'll bet they taste delicious!

Haha! Ever try that Nutella and puff pastry Christmas tree that was all over Pinterest last year? I did. It came out too awful to photograph, camera breaking awful. (Tasted nasty too).

OMG, Mtn!!! Those WW recipe cards are literally the grossest looking food I have ever seen. Just looking at them made me completely lose my appetite....I suppose that's where the weight loss factor comes in..... :)

i would pay someone to see them make and EAT the "Rosy Perfection Salad."

I was on WW in 1974 (or maybe it was 73). It was pretty gross...a friend and I were doing it together - living in a remote rural town. She and her hubby and me and mine ate most of our dinners together. She and I would have WW "wine" which was some kind of saccharine chemical laden pink diet pop with a tsp of vinegar added to make it "taste more like wine." Served in the finest crystal glasses!

OMG we laugh about that now.

Dee, just being able to spell that is a feat! I don't think I would fancy them, but they are so elegant.

I repeat: OMG mtn! Those recipes are crazy. I felt like Monica on Friends at recipe card #17.

17! 17! 17!

Mtn, they are just little cream puffs. The construction is the bear.

Delilah....thanks...good idea to send the Post the pics of failed cookies, rather their failed recipe! Lol.

Those WW cards are hysterical. The first time I did WW was in high school in the late 60’s. It was pretty austere in those days. For months on end for lunch I took plain tuna in one container and grapefruit juice in another, which was room temp by lunchtime. Yummy! And you had to eat liver once a week, which would literally make me gag.

Looks just like my baking attempts. I really bite at baking and have only had luck with coffee cakes. I'm a very good cook but will never be a baker.

Dee, ohh are they filled with cream, i did not know that. What holds them together? I thought it involved honey, which I do not care for.

I love cream puffs and they are surprisingly easy for the impact they have.

Amylou-Thanks for that link. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. That hedgehog cake-oh my!

Mtn-Oh my word, those WW cards. All of it looks nauseating.