Girl Scout Cookies, The Gourmet Way Here's How To Dress Them Up In Desserts From Cheesecake To Pie.

We may have peaches in January and apples through July, but, try as we might, we can't get some products to budge from their traditional seasons.

Without fail, August brings Silver Queen corn, November brings pumpkin pie, and the new year brings a rush of Girl Scouts to fill our cupboards and expand our waistlines with a deluge of cookies.

Unlike any other sweet, Girl Scout cookies have the rare ability to assuage the guilt of gluttony with a redemptive dose of scout support. You can't buy too many, because every box casts a vote for the future. And you can't eat too many, because you know full well that the next day is likely to bring another green-frocked tyke petitioning for your patriotism.

What is there to do but to throw another Thin Mint down the gullet?

In an effort to help you through this onslaught, we have come up with some decadent desserts that dare to gild the Girl Scout cookie lily in ways previously unimagined. Bypassing the obvious, we have not included such perennial favorites as dunking Trefoils in milk or peppering a sundae with chopped Thin Mints. Rather, we have created a bit of gourmet Girl Scout cookie gastronomy.

Here's a White Chocolate Cheesecake punctuated with gobs of molten Samoas, a Peanut Tagalong Pie in a Peanut Butter Do-si-do Crust that makes plain pecan pie seem downright staid, and a double-thick cherry-filled sandwich cookie cloaked in a sheath of semisweet chocolate. We also offer a trifle made from Trefoils and spiked with raspberries, bananas, brandy and orange-scented cream, and an ice cream log girdered with Thin Mints.

Though none of these will stem the tide of Girl Scouts at your door, each is guaranteed to make the last box of this year's investment as welcome as the first.

THIN MINT ICE CREAM LOG

1/2 gallon mint chocolate ice cream

1 package (10 ounces) Thin Mints Girl Scout cookies

Place a tablespoon of ice cream in the center of one of the cookies. Top with another cookie and another tablespoon of ice cream. Continue alternating cookies and ice cream until you have five cookies and four layers of ice cream in a stack. Hold in the freezer. Make five more stacks the same way.

You will have 10 cookies left over. Chop these coarsely, giving you about three-quarters cup of chopped cookies. Set aside.