DIANA ROSS’ FAVORITE COOKIES & MAHOGANY

Diana Ross  |  Motown Publicity Photo, 1977

The magnificent Diana Ross has commanded a fabulous career in music spanning over six decades. Growing up in the same Detroit neighborhood as Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy, Ross joined the Primettes with Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard while still in high school, eventually signing with Gordy’s Motown label after their graduation in 1961, paving the way for the newly-christened The Supremes’ unprecedented success throughout the 1960’s. Ross began to break out on her own in the late ‘60’s, which lead to her many hit records as a solo artist, including the iconic hit I’m Coming Out, currently applicable to both Pride month and exiting shelter-in-place. Celebrate the incomparable Ms. Ross (who just blew out the candles for her 76th birthday this year) and enjoy her favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe – which has its own tale to tell.

Motown legend has it that Diana Ross and the Supremes were some of the first fans of Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies back in the day when Wally Amos was a music executive and treated his clients to his Aunt Della’s cookies. Ross encouraged Wally to make those Amos cookies Famous – and the rest is history.

 

FAMOUS AMOS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3/4 lb. unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup Crisco oil or corn oil
  • 1 1/2 packed brown sugar
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  • 4 cups flour
  • 7 oz. flaked coconut
  • 6 oz. broken pecans

DIRECTIONS:

  • Combine as listed and shape into 2” balls
  •  Place 2” apart on an ungreased baking sheet
  • Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes
  • Transfer at once from baking sheet to paper towel or rack to cool

Pair your cookies with a glass of milk (or a buzzy cocktail) and cozy up to a screening of campy, rags-to-riches classic Mahogany, the story of a girl from the South Side of Chicago who fights her way up through the ranks of the fashion industry to become a top model and designer. This “big, lush, messy soap opera” (Roger Ebert) also stars the eternally charismatic Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Perkins channelling Richard Avedon, and, of course, produced a #1 hit in Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To).

Mahogany is available to view on IndieFlix