Desserts and sweets are an inevitable part of the holidays. From fruit cake to apple pie, everyone has their own decadent tradition. But there’s a sweet treat that seems to be universal and widely adored during the most wonderful time of the year. You guessed it! Cookies.

State College is home to one of more than 70 ‘Insomnia Cookies’ locations. This establishment specializes in making fresh, warm cookies. Better yet? They’re delivered straight to your dorm or apartment. Insomnia Cookies make for the perfect late-night study snack, especially during finals week. But what if ordering a dozen cookies and milk isn’t exactly in your budget? Onward Chef has you covered. Behold: how to make your very own insomnia cookies.

You’re probably wondering what makes Insomnia Cookies different from any other type of cookie. In our opinion, it’s the freshness, warmth, and creative flavor combinations. In this post we’ll teach you how to make a Penn State inspired sugar cookie.

What You’ll Need 

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup of butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 bottle of blue food dye

Step 1:  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, stir together your flour, baking soda, and baking powder.

Step 2:In another bowl, cream together your sugar and butter. Stir until smooth. Next, beat in the egg and vanilla. Step 3: Gradually mix in your dry ingredients, stirring until you have perfectly blended cookie dough.

Step 4: Now before you get excited and plop your dough onto a cookie sheet, listen up! This is the fun part. Take a small separate bowl and put just a bit of cookie dough in it. Squeeze in 4-5 drops of blue food dye. Mix the dough and blue food dye together until it is completely blue.

Step 5: Now roll out normal cookie dough without food dye onto your cookie sheet. Use your blue cookie dough to add a pawprint design to each. One big circle and then three smaller ones surrounding it should do the trick. Now, do the same exact thing but reverse. Use your normal cookie dough to create the paw print pattern on your blue-colored cookies. You’ll have Penn State-proud cookies in no time!

Step 6: Bake your cookies for 8 – 10 minutes, checking on them now and then.

The final product: Ta Da! Your very own Penn State themed Insomnia cookies. The Nittany Lion would surely approve. Don’t worry if your pawprints look a little sloppy, we’re all in a rush to get back to cramming for finals.