Bakers are notoriously nice people. Read any blog post by PJ Hamel and the lovely New Englanders over on the King Arthur Flour "Baker's Banter" blog and you'll see what I mean. Even the complaints are fairly worded and as even-tempered as the lightly beaten egg getting mixed into a nice ham-and-cheese gougère.
In the high-stakes world of professional bakers, though, you'd expect that the dog-eat-dog pressures of being a business owner might trump the natural niceness that seems to come standard with every shiny new set of measuring spoons. I guess those annoying Cake Boss people would be a good example of that. But then again... there are the unflappable hipsters of Charm City Cakes, so...
All this is by way of saying that, in a community where niceness is nice, Dorie Greenspan has to be right up there in the race for Miss Congenial Baker. I've heard dozens of interviews with her, and she seems unfailingly kind, upbeat, and encouraging. She's someone I'd not only like to learn from, but whom I'd love to have over for tea... and cookies of course.
What better person, then, to introduce these now-legendary cookies to a planet in peril? In her book Paris Sweets, they were called Korova Cookies (named by one of her French baking mentors), but in her fabulous tome Baking: From My Home to Yours, she gave them an auspicious name: World Peace Cookies. Quite a claim for a mere sweet treat.
But this is no mere cookie. To say that this recipe is admired is more of an understatement than saying that Suzanne Summers has obviously had "a little work done." Do a Google search for "Dorie Greenspan World Peace Cookies" and you get nearly endless pages of results leading to this excellent recipe. In fact, one of those results is on this very blog! Yes... this recipe bears repeating; these cookies are THAT good. Even Dorie herself repeated them in two books! That's good enough reason for me to repeat them here.
Cookies, especially at Christmas, are often whimsical confections made for children and the young at heart of all ages, but these cookies are made for the adult palate. Dark, lush, lavish, and salty -- they are a complicated taste with a simple message: the world needs more chocolate. Thank you, Diva Dorie, for spreading the good news!
WORLD PEACE COOKIES
Do you like chocolate cookies? Try a nice batch of chocolate-chocolate chip. What if you love chocolate cookies? How does a double-Dutched chocolate meltaway sound? Are you obsessively plagued with thoughts of rich chocolaty goodness that transcends not just taste and smell but mind, body, and time itself? Then maybe you're ready for World Peace Cookies.
I have made these cookies on many occassions, altering the ingredients only slightly each time. What I can tell you is that Dutch-process cocoa powder works wonderfully well, and I think turns out a superior cookie in this recipe. I did use the hard-to-find Black Cocoa (the stuff that makes Oreos and Dark Chocolate Cake mixes so black) in my most recent batch and... I think I'd not use it again, as it introduced an element that obscured the true deepness of the chocolate you do use.
I can also tell you that adding a bit more Fleur de Sel than she calls for here is quite wonderful, as one of the finest aspects of these cookies is the surprising salty tang you get from each and every bite. And also, while you can use a combination of chocolates, be sure you use one with as much percentage of cacao as you can find (unsweetened works well, too!), and never any less bitter than semi-sweet. Anyone attempting to put milk chocolate of any pedigree into these cookies can only be said to deserve what they get. And what they deserve is not to be described in polite company!
World Peace Cookie dough can be made ahead, formed into logs, tightly wrapped in plastic and frozen for up to 2 months. No adjustment to the oven temperature is necessary (see Dorie's notes below), but if frozen quite solid, they are harder to cut, especially if you've made them biggish. Try heating up a good strong knife in hot water, drying if off before you cut, or let the log defrost overnight in the fridge for easier cutting.
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 stick plus 3 Tbsp (11 Tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ⅔ cup (packed) light brown sugar
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ tsp fleur de sel or ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 5 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous ¾ cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
Preparing the dough:
Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don't be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1½ inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)
Getting ready to bake:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are ½ inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you're cutting them — don't be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won't look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.
Makes about 36 cookies.
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Since we heard from the
illustrious Kay Starr yesterday... let's hear her again! This time,
remixed by an expert DJ. I'm really into DJ-remixed Christmas music
these days, and there seems to be no shortage of collections out there.
These cookies intrigue me....
Posted by: Christine | 12/16/2009 at 11:21 AM
They should, Chrij. They are delicious! I've made them so many times, I'm actually surprised you've never gotten to taste one.
They are very easy to make and because you do them in two steps (dough, then bake later), they don't take much time all at once.
Posted by: Kyle Minor | 12/16/2009 at 11:38 AM