One would think that Church Window Cookies would be very, very difficult to mess up. There are only five ingredients in it, after all, and pretty much the only thing you have to do is melt and stir.

And yet.

Let me tell you a few good ways to do it wrong.

First, make sure you don’t buy the right amount of ingredients. Next, pay no attention to that fact. Proceed with the recipe as written, using too much butter for the amount of everything else in the recipe. This will ensure that your cookies do not have the right consistency.

Second, get distracted while the butter and chocolate is melting. It’s best if you can walk away and not notice that the chocolate and butter are burning slightly in the pot. This will ensure that your chocolate is a little gritty and that the pot is just that much tougher to clean.

Third, forget to add the vanilla. Easy to do, as there are a whopping five ingredients to this cookie.

Fortunately, it’s hard for chocolate and marshmallows to taste bad. They can be ugly easily enough, as we have shown today. But they are almost always edible.

Church Window Cookies
1/2 cup butter
16-ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16-ounce package colored miniature marshmallows
2 cups flaked coconut

Melt the butter and chocolate chips in a heavy saucepan over medium heat; mix until smooth and creamy. Remove from heat, and stir in the vanilla and the marshmallows. Scatter about half of the coconut onto a large baking sheet. Form the chocolate mixture into two logs on top of the coconut. Use the remaining coconut to coat the logs. Refrigerate until the logs are firm, about 1 hour. Cut logs into 3/4-inch slices.