Sometimes You Just Need a Cookie for Breakfast
The sanctity of the soft cocoa cookie.
It’s Sunday morning and I’m woken up by a series of buzzes near my head. I grab my phone and hold it so close to my eyes it almost touches my nose. (I am NOT putting on my glasses this early!)
A family text is buzzing away. We are all checking in with each other as the covid cases rise, the economy collapses, our neighbors’ election looms before us.
I don’t know about you but I need a mental vacation from the neverending stream of bad news updates and doomscrolling.
I need
— and what the WORLD needs now —
is chocolate, sweet chocolate.
Yes, I’m talking about something serious here. I don’t mean “oooo, let’s make some wishy-washy cake or some half-assed pudding”. No, people. No. C’mon get in the game!
We’re going… all in.
I select the sacred “The Mennonite Treasury of Recipes” cookbook from the shelf.
Let us turn to hymn — I mean page — 171. Sliding the beloved parchment over the large ring binding, I seek out the section titled “Cookies and Dainties” until I find the batter encrusted leaf caressing the words “Soft Cocoa Cookies”. The chapter title is deceiving because what these cookies are gonna do to your tastebuds definitely won’t be dainty!
It is the recipe of ”Mrs. Mary Block from Steinbach, Man.” and clearly, she consulted God on what ambrosia tastes like and then totally nailed this dessert. Like Moses or one of the apostles, she tooketh her chisel and scratched down the measurements and ratios of ingredients so that the whole world could be saved by the power of cocoa.
Blessed Mary transcribed the following words from her Lord:
I sayeth unto you that thou shouldst eat this cookie at any time of day, when thou feelest thou needest a small piece of joy to enter thy body.
And it was good.
OK, I got a little carried away there but forgive me. I had just devoured said cookie while cuddled up in bed with our lurchers. The cakey morsel of euphoria was savored with an oat milk cappuccino (how pretentious does that sound?!?!?) and I’m surging on a chocolate high.
For the love of every country with a climate capable of growing the cacao bean… if you love chocolate like I love chocolate, I do believe this cookie will fix everything in your life — at least for those 2 minutes you are eating it.
What am I getting my knickers in a knot about? OK, I’m sharing Mary’s recipe with you but promise me this: when you nibble on your first handful of bliss, I would like you to think of your happiest thoughts, your most joyful memories, and throw out some positive vibe to this suffering world.
I have revised Mrs. Block’s recipe ever so slightly to my taste. I’ve also let you know how long to bake them because contrary to popular Mennonite opinion, not everyone knows how long to bake a cookie.
Soft Cocoa Cookies AKA Mennonite Ambrosia AKA A Mouthful of Heaven
1/2 cup butter
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa (I make mine heaping!)
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/3 cups unbleached flour
3 tsp. backing powder
1 tsp. vanilla
Method: Cream butter and brown sugar. Add egg. Sift dry ingredients (I sift 2–3 times for added fluffiness) and add alternately with milk. Add vanilla. Drop by teaspoon on greased pan. Bake in 400 deg. F oven for 10–12 minutes. They are very nice with white icing. (They really are. If you don’t know how to make “white icing” consult your bag of icing sugar please!)
Suggestion: If you’re having an extra tough day, you know what to do. ADD MORE CHOCOLATE. I chopped up some pieces of a Baker’s premium brand dark chocolate 70% cacao and carefully, lovingly shoved it into some of the cookies. You know, just to see what would happen.
If I tell you what happened, this article might get censored. Let’s just leave it there, shall we?
May the goodness of chocolate follow you all the days of your life. Amen.
