I never knew about Hi-Hat cookies until I started reading food blogs. And Julianne is the master, so I learned from her!

This is my first attempt, so bear with me. For a while now, I’ve been trying to come up with a chocolate-covered strawberry concept in a cookie. Originally, my plan was to do something simpler. But then, how could I resist a hi-hat?

For the past few weeks, work has been raining down on my head at a faster pace than usual. I have research papers to grade, recommendations to write, my classroom to clean out, my desk (!) to organize, and that’s just the beginning. Add to that the normal stuff, like work and blogging and childcare. It’s no wonder that I want to avoid life and just watch episodes of The Mindy Project.

I’ve started watching that show recently, which means I’m behind the rest of the world, as usual. It’s really funny, and I’ve always been a fan of Mindy Kaling. But why on earth did she choose to pretend to be an OB/GYN? If you’ve ever come within 50 feet of that kind of doctor’s office, you know that the show portrays it (and the doctors) with a complete lack of realism. I mean, they seem to just hang out all day on couches talking about life. If I were an OB/GYN, I’d be kind of offended at the portrayal of my profession’s incompetence and laziness.

But I’m not, so the show is pretty funny. And it’s always thrilling to have a female role model who isn’t a size double-zero. Mindy is smart, funny, and she probably works pretty hard to make her life look super fun. So maybe I should write a show about teachers where they never grade papers and spend most of their time chatting in break rooms.

With hi-hat cookies. Let’s not forget the cookies. Have I mentioned that teachers love cookies? Because when these came into work, they were gone in .02 seconds. Maybe it’s all the frosting that’s piled on top.

The base of this cookie is a strawberry cake mix. I figure life shouldn’t be that hard, so use shortcuts. Then you pipe a tall swirl of chocolate frosting on the cookie with a round cupcake-sized tip. After some chill time in the fridge, these cookies get dipped in a chocolate topping and then are chilled again to set.

I actually keep mine in the fridge at all times, since I like colder treats. If you keep them at room temperature, make sure your house isn’t stuffy or humid. They’ll melt. But the frosting will be nice and soft! And if you run out of frosting, you can make some simpler cookies, like this:

Either way, these hi-hats do wind up tasting just like a chocolate-covered strawberry on steroids. If you really want to go wild with the sprinkles, you could even do some fun decorating or piping to make them look more festive. Either way, it’s time to try making hi-hats. It’s lots of fun!