Crank Up the AC and Bake Cookies With Your Roomate

By SARA KELLY

I lied to you last time when I told you it was fall. The truth is, most of the time, it’s kind of hot. We’re wearing shorts and eating things that taste like pumpkin.
What really matters, though, is the spirit of things, which brings me to this week’s recipe, adapted from www.passthesushi.com: Pumpkin Spice Chai Cookies.
Reminiscent of those nice Starbucks drinks, baking up a batch of these dazzlers is sure to bring back childhood memories of crisp autumn days and consumer-based marketing strategies. They are delicious.

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup (1 stick) butter at room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup chai spice mix
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
about half a bag of pumpkin pie spice Hershey Kisses
(available at Target in the Halloween candy section)

Recipe makes about 22 cookies
Directions:
In a large bowl, first beat the butter and sugar until combined. Then, add the egg.
You can let your roommate do this part; they like to help out sometimes. Just be sure to keep an eye out for them near the oven.
Next, add the vanilla extract, chai spice mix and other spices until combined. Finally add the flour and baking soda until you have a good dough going.
Refrigerate under plastic wrap for one hour. I used this hour to clean the bathroom and do my laundry for the week. It was so nice to get those tasks out of the way while I waited!
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Take a large tablespoon of the refrigerated dough and round it out until it is about two inches in diameter.
Place dough on a cookie sheet. Continue until all the dough is laid out and bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the oven.
Ok, now this is the fun part. As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, press a Hershey Kiss into the center of each one. Don’t touch them too much or they’ll melt. Leave to cool.