Maycember is in full swing, and I’m not sure we are going to make it.
You know Maycember, right? It’s the time of year where you are just as tired and stressed as you are in December. Only this time, with fewer cookies.
And honestly, that’s a shame.
Because what besides a plate of homemade cookies could make an endless slate of awards programs and graduation ceremonies and recitals and parties more pleasant?
I’ll tell you what: nothing.
Thankfully, I also like to bake when I’m stressed. (Why yes, I am diabetic, why do you ask?)
This time, I had a bag of multicolored chocolate chips lurking in my pantry from some wild fantasy I had in December (go figure) about making my own cosmic brownies.
(Spoiler: I did not make those cookies. Nor did I make homemade hard candy or copycat Christmas Tree Cakes.)
So when I ran across this recipe for Cosmic Brownie cookies on one of my favorite cooking blogs a week or two ago, I knew it was meant to be.
Last Tuesday, our household stress was rising to a fever pitch. One daughter came home that evening in tears. Turns out, being a teenage girl in 2025 is not any easier than it was in 1995.
Another spent the day tearing the house apart looking for her lost graduation stole. You know, the gold sash that every single Starkville High graduate wears. The one that says SHS class of 2025 on it.
The one I had no idea how to replace.
I snuggled them each for a bit and then got busy making these cookies. (To be fair, I’d also already helped look for the stole. I couldn’t find it, so chocolate was the only thing left to try.)
I baked the cookies – so far, so good – and had to wait for them to cool to add the ganache (yes, these are topped with ganache, girl queen).
Finally, I went into the living room to try one. Delicious! Amazing!
And as I placed the last piece of that cookie into my mouth, I suddenly spied a flash of gold out of the corner of my eye.
The stole!
It was still rolled up neatly, but it was mixed in with Zack’s shoes near the front door.
How did it end up there? Why was it even in that part of the house?
We may never know the answers to these questions.
What I can say with anecdotal certainty is that these cookies revealed it to my eyes.
Cosmic cookies! Cosmic cookies, indeed.
COSMIC COOKIES
(from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe blog)
Ingredients
Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1/2 white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder (in the can)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (in the box)
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
Ganache:
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips (I used a full bag of Aldi’s dark chocolate chunks)
Optional: rainbow coated mini chocolate chips (I ordered mine from Amazon, but you can skip these or use nuts or regular chocolate chips instead.)
Directions
■ Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Optional: lay parchment paper on cookie sheet(s). In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, white sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix until batter is uniform. Add flour and cocoa powder. Mix only until no streaks of flour or cocoa remain.
■ Place dough in 2 Tablespoon sized mounds on cookie sheet. (I used my smallest cookie scoop for this.) Leave at least 2 inches of space between mounds. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Remove from oven. Optional: Press hot cookies down gently with a flat-bottomed drinking glass. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet about 5 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
■ For the ganache, place whipping cream in a glass mixing bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap, leaving one corner open for steam to escape. Heat bowl in microwave just until edges of cream begin to bubble. (This took almost two minutes in my microwave; stay nearby and watch.) As soon as edges bubble, carefully remove bowl from microwave and pour in chocolate chips. Replace plastic wrap. Allow cream to melt chocolate for about 3 minutes and stir. If chips are not completely melted, replace plastic wrap and allow mixture to sit for another minute or two before stirring again. When mixture is glossy and smooth and cookies are room temperature, add ganache and spread out as one would spread icing. Sprinkle on rainbow chips. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].
Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 29 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
