I’ve been trying to stop saving things for later as much as I used to.
I have a tendency to think I should wait for the perfect thing to write in that pretty journal I bought or save that fancy lotion I received for a special occasion.
I did the same thing for a few months with a gift card for spices that a good friend gave me. I think, in my head, I kept thinking that the perfect time to use it would come along, and if I used it now, I would inevitably waste it somehow.
A couple weeks ago, though, I came across an article from Psychology Today that talked about our tendency to save things and why we tend to be drawn towards just holding on to something instead of just enjoying it or using it.
So I bought my load of spices.
And I was so, so happy, especially for this week’s recipe, when I was able to pull out a bag of beautiful, flaky sea salt to sprinkle on the top of every cookie.
This recipe comes from the blog “Sweet Boake” by Elanne Boake. I doubled the recipe and added extra rosemary and vanilla in my version. You can find the original at https://sweetboake.blogspot.com/2018/02/salted-rosemary-chocolate-cookies.html.
Salted Rosemary Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 1 cup butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon coarse or flaky salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and prepare a couple baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
- Add the sugar and rosemary to a small bowl, and stir, pressing the rosemary as you do to infuse the flavor into the sugar.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until it’s smooth, and then beat in the rosemary sugar for at least two minutes, until the mixture is light yellow and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
- Beat in the cocoa powder, flour and baking soda until the mixture is smooth, and stir in the chocolate chips.
- Scoop the cookie dough out in about one-inch scoops and place them a couple inches apart on your prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle a little salt onto the top of each scoop.
- Bake, one sheet at a time, for about 12 minutes or until the edges just look set and the top is starting to crackle.
- Let them cool on the baking sheet before storing them in an airtight container.
These were delicious. The rosemary was subtle but a perfect addition to the dark chocolate and salt. I never thought of using rosemary this way before, but this is a dessert that will absolutely go in my recipe box for future use.
I could see these as a fabulous treat to have with tea.
And I was so excited to get to use a thoughtful gift, rather than waiting for the “perfect” time to do so. As the Psychology Today article said about constantly saving items or tasks for later: “You become the collector of a life you aren’t quite living, carried from one save to the next by a current you never agreed to.”
Pull out that special thing and use it today, and then reward yourself with some delicious cookies.
This first appeared in print Nov. 12, 2026.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
