No-Bake Cheeseburger Cookies (National Cheeseburger Day)

Happy National Cheeseburger Day!!  Can you tell I'm amused by these national holidays?  :-)

Since I LOVE cheeseburgers like CRAZY, this is one goofy holiday I HAD to celebrate!!  So I'm sharing a recipe (that's almost more like a craft) that we've made in my family for a long time.  I have no idea where it originally came from, and I think each person who makes it makes it her own in some little way :-)

To make your very own tiny cheeseburger cookies, you will need: 

• Nilla Wafers

• Grasshoppers (or Thin Mints, if you're lucky enough to have some on hand)

• White Icing

• Food colors: Red and Yellow (gel if you have it) and Green (liquid is better... I used gel here)

• Light Corn Syrup

• Shredded Coconut (If you hate it, you can leave it off - but it's super-cute!)

• Sesame Seeds (again, optional, but very cute)

First, separate your icing into two bowls - color one yellow and the other red.  I only used a little less than a quarter tub of icing for each color, and made a dozen cookies.  (Since this is more craft than recipe, my amounts are pretty approximate!)  Place the yellow and red icings into separate zip-top bags, and snip a tiny piece of one corner off each bag. 

Put about half a cup of shredded coconut in a zip-top bag, along with a few drops of green food color.  Zip the bag and shake it up!  If the "lettuce" looks too light, add more food color gradually  If there is extra color floating around, add some more coconut to soak it up.  

Lay out some Nilla wafers, flat side up.  (I work in batches of about a dozen at a time.) Pour a little puddle of corn syrup onto a small dish.

Dab a small amount on the flat side of each Nilla wafer. (Only do one or two at a time, so it doesn't set on you!)  I use a baking-only paint brush.

Press a Grasshopper onto the dollop of corn syrup.  

Now it's time for toppings!  On my real cheeseburgers, I don't want any toppings except possibly bacon and the occasional fried egg... on my cookies cheeseburgers, the more the merrier (and cuter)!  First, I pipe on some of the red icing to look like oozing ketchup.  It always ends up looking like sloppy flowers.  It won't mush out much on its own as you assemble, so you have to pipe it to look that way  :-) 

Next, I do the "lettuce" because I like to have it sandwiched between icings to keep it in place.  Put a big pinch of the green coconut over the "ketchup" and make sure some of it is sticking out the sides...

Pipe some yellow icing over the lettuce, in similar "squish" patterns to the way you did the ketchup.

Pop another Nilla wafer on top of the "mustard" while it's still soft.  It'll hold the cookie on, no need for more corn syrup yet.  

Now, these are pretty stinkin' cute already, but the next two steps just put them over the edge of adorable.  Brush a thin coat of corn syrup on the top of the top "bun" to give it a shiny, toasted-bread look.  Then sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of that.  If you skip the seeds (I do fairly often, because I don't always have them in the house), still go ahead and put the syrup on top.  It really is the perfect realistic touch!