Buttery Ganache Cookie Cups

Two weeks until thirty. I have been quiet about it in the sense that I have not been talking about it, but I have been thinking about it with the kind of sustained attention I give to things I want to understand rather than things I am anxious about. Thirty is not a problem to solve. It is a threshold to walk through with both eyes open.

I want a quiet birthday. Not a party. A dinner at the neighborhood Italian place — the one on 95th Street that has been there since before I was born — with Ryan, while Patty watches the twins. I want the chicken vesuvio, which I get every year we go, and I want tiramisu for dessert, which I am not sharing. Some victories are private. The tiramisu is mine.

Ryan asked what I wanted and I gave him the above list and he wrote it down, which is his love language: he writes things down so they do not have to be said twice. He called the restaurant on Monday. I heard him on the phone in the kitchen confirming the reservation and I sat on the couch in the living room and felt something that is not nostalgia but is adjacent to it, a feeling for the specific person who made this reservation and who is married to me and who checked the hospital bag three times and who slept in a hospital chair and who texts happy birthday in exactly the right register. I am very glad I married this person.

The twins were in the bathtub and Ryan was on the phone and the apartment was full of small noise and warm light and the smell of the slow cooker soup I had made for dinner, and I thought: at twenty-one on that bench outside the science building I could not have imagined this. I could not have imagined surviving what happened that night and building something this specific and good on the other side of it. I am going to be thirty in two weeks and I am so glad I kept going.

The tiramisu at the 95th Street place is reserved, in my mind, for two weeks from now — and I am not sharing it. But in the meantime, something about sitting on that couch listening to Ryan on the phone made me want to make a dessert just for the feeling of it, something small and rich and entirely mine. These buttery ganache cookie cups are that: a little cup of something good that you do not have to split, a quiet way to practice celebrating yourself before the real night arrives.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 45 min (includes cooling) | Servings: 24 cookie cups

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
For the ganache:
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 24-cup mini muffin tin or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and powdered sugar together with a hand mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes. Add vanilla and salt and mix to combine. Add flour all at once and mix on low until a soft dough comes together.
Form the cups. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and press one into each mini muffin cup, pushing it up the sides to form a shallow cup shape. Use your thumb or the back of a small spoon to create a well in the center.
Bake. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the edges are just barely golden. The cups will puff slightly during baking. As soon as they come out of the oven, use the back of a small spoon or a rounded teaspoon measure to gently re-press the centers. Let cool completely in the pan, about 20 minutes.
Make the ganache. Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the heavy cream just to a simmer. Pour hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes without stirring. Add butter and vanilla, then whisk from the center outward until the ganache is smooth and glossy.
Fill and set. Spoon or pour the warm ganache into each cooled cookie cup, filling nearly to the rim. Allow to set at room temperature for 15–20 minutes, or refrigerate for 10 minutes for a firmer set. Dust with flaky sea salt or a pinch of powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Buttery Ganache Cookie Cups — A Solo Dessert for the Woman Who Kept Going