* The dilemma of a search to replace Hydrox cookies! *

Many of you have visited this page to get the recipe for my Grandmother's wonderful "MINT DESSERT" (in my opinion, the perfect dessert for a Christmas Day dinner!) 

Before you take the recipe, ask yourself these questions:  Do I want to be famous?  Can I handle the fame?  If you make this recipe, you will be famous within your circle of family and friends.  Year after year you will say "What can I bring for the feast this year?" and year after year you will be answered:  "Oh, of course, you must bring your Mint Dessert!"  So I am warning you right now, IF you do not want to spend the remainder of your life supplying your friends and loved ones with their mint dessert fix, leave this page immediately!

BUT, a few years ago I thought I was going to have to look for a new specialty because they stopped making Hydrox cookies!!

Now, I am sure there are a few of you who are saying: "Well, duh, that's simple.  Just use Oreos."  But you would be wrong.   Oreos have a different flavor and obviously a different texture as well.   The crust was a soggy, gluey disaster!  Oh, not everyone could discern the difference. But for those who could -- In my family it was approximately 64.7%** -- the plates told the tale.  Large sections of crust left on plates! Let me repeat: "Disaster!"

That first year, I had avoided "Droxies" because of the huge amount of cream filling, thinking it would make the crust too.....something.   But the next year, following the Oreo fiasco, I used them anyway and they worked out acceptably well.

Now for the rest of my SAD, SAD tale.  Sunshine sold their bakery to Keebler (hence the disappearance of Hydrox and the invention of Droxies).   But then Keebler threw in the towel on competing with Oreo and stopped making Droxies, too!  NOW WHAT DO I DO?

In 2002, I used Chocolate Elfwiches.  They worked - but not perfectly.  'Too chocolately' was the consensus of some.

In 2003, my sister, Susan, told me that HyVee makes a chocolate-with-white-cream-filling cookie under their own brand name called Dunksters that she thought seemed "pretty close".

CHRISTMAS WAS SAVED!  Dunksters aren't exactly Hydrox (the chocolate taste is smoother, less biting than the good old Hydrox) but the cookie holds up when crushed, mixed with melted butter and packed into the pan.  The crust didn't sog up and there was no yucky Oreo aftertaste.  Plates came back to the kitchen cleaned of cookie crust crumbs.  Things were much happier at the Abbott house this year.   BUT Dunksters aren't Hydrox.

Maybe Keebler could make Hydrox again - just for every Christmas season.
It would be the responsible thing to do, Keebler.
HOW ABOUT IT?

~~~~~~~

** some 'knew something was different' but couldn't be sure exactly what it was and 'ate it anyway'.  The younger children weren't as likely to notice (but this might be attributed to way, way too much sugar over the course of a 24 hour period and the novelty of eating a meal with their cousins at Aunt Susan's house)