Brain Food

Beloved Kogod professor Edward Wasil has the recipe for combatting test anxiety.

For more than 20 years, Wasil, who teaches in the Department of Information Technology and Analytics, has brought in dozens of homemade cookies for his MBA students to enjoy while taking each of his exams.

"It's part of my legacy," said Wasil, who has five times been named Kogod's Graduate Professor of the Year, an honor voted on by students.

An expert in network optimization and decision analysis, he read a New York Times story years ago that positedthat decision fatigue could be linked to low glucose levels. Cookies could combat that, Wasil thought.

"In some cases, students didn't have a great experience with their undergraduate quantitative classes," he said. "I want to make sure that the experience they walk away with from the Kogod School is a good one. Having cookies at exams is part of that."

The day before exams, Wasil's wife, Teresa, bakes eight dozen of the sweet treats: Italian wedding cookies, toffee, or classic chocolate chip. Wasil's job is to ensure she has all the ingredients and to place them in individual bags.

Students are welcome to chomp on as many cookies as they like. After exams, Wasil walks around Kogod, sharing leftovers with other students and staff.

Over the years, Wasil-who joined Kogod in 1985-has distributed thousands of cookies, missing just one exam. Even when classes moved online during the pandemic, he remained committed to baking it happen, mailing the confections to students in all corners of the globe.

"I don't ever want to walk away from something that's making my students pleased with their experience," he said. "It's a labor of love."

Giant toffee chocolate chip cookies

Adapted from Betty Crocker's Ultimate Cookie Book

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup margarine or butter, softened

½ cup shortening

¼ cup honey

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 12-ounce bag miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup almond brickle chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix brown sugar, margarine, shortening, honey, and egg in a large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add chocolate chips and almond brickle chips.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls two inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 11-½ minutes or until golden brown. Makes about four dozen cookies.

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