Bon Appétit (September 2010)
We were thrilled to see Dorie Greenspan's recipe for World Peace Cookies in this month's issue of Bon Appétit.
It wasn't that we're such big fans of World Peace Cookies (we had never had them), but we are huge fans of Dorie's cookies in general. Back in February, we spent a weekend in New York City to see friends and play a game we like to call "see how many meals we can pack into three days."
Our trip happened to coincide with CookieBar, a six-day pop-up cookie shop put on by Dorie and her son Josh in a Park Avenue salon, for Valentine's Day. We loved the concept and made it a point to visit while we were in town.
So before we get to the World Peace Cookies, here's a quick recap, seven months late, of our trip to CookieBar.
The menu at CookieBar had eight kinds of cookies. We'd like to say that we tried all eight, but we had other meals to get to, so we did our part and ordered three cookies.
First up was a Chocolate Chunker. This is a doozy of a cookie made with Valhrona bittersweet chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, cashews and dried cherries. Our mouths are watering just thinking about it now.
Next up, was Our Best Chocolate Chip Cookie. The photo we snapped on our phone here is poor, but we loved the shape of this cookie: a perfectly thin, flat disc. It was an outstanding chocolate chip cookie.
And lastly, for something different, we ordered a Coconut-Lime, made with toasted coconut and fresh lime zest. Though we're chocolate devotees when it comes to cookies, we loved the tart sweetness of this cookie.
The cookies were so good that we considered going back for more, but then talked ourselves out of it because we had an early dinner reservation. But we loved having this experience at CookieBar and have mentioned it to friends several times since then.
So we were excited to flip through Bon Appétit and see this recipe for World Peace Cookies. We loved the other cookies so much, we had to try these ourselves.
Similar to Momofuku Milk Bar's Crack Pie, we made these cookies while at the beach in North Carolina for Labor Day, using a temperamental beach-house oven and whatever ingredients were available to us at the Food Lion.
In terms of process, there's nothing in this recipe that's unlike other cookie recipes we've made, except that once the dough comes together, it is formed into logs and then refrigerated for three hours. The recipe tells you that the dough may be crumbly, but we were surprised to see just how crumbly ours was. To bring ours together, we kneaded it a bit and even added a bit more butter.
Once chilled, our dough remained crumbly and wouldn't slice as we hoped it would, so our cookies weren't the beautiful, thin discs pictured below. However, they were delicious. If you love dark chocolate, this is the cookie for you. They're super dark, rich and delicious.
We're chalking our problems with the dough up to our surrogate vacation kitchen. Regardless, with these ingredients, how can you really go wrong?
Before we go, we should mention that Dorie actually has a new book out called Around My French Table: 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. We haven't read it, but we gave Zach's mom Brenda a copy for her birthday. She's been tearing through it and loves it so far. The gist of the book is that Dorie teaches you to learn simple French dishes that you can make at home. We look forward to reading it ourselves.
Now, go off to make some World Peace happen.
World Peace Cookies
Bon Appétit (September 2010)
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(This photo: Bon Appétit)
• Makes about 36
• PREP: 25 minutes
• TOTAL: 1 hour (includes baking and cooling time)
Ingredients
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 11 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 5 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 85% cacao), chopped (no pieces bigger than 1/3 inch)
Preparation
• Sift flour, cocoa, and baking soda into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth but not fluffy. Add both sugars, vanilla, and sea salt; beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; beat just until blended (mixture may be crumbly). Add chopped chocolate; mix just to distribute (if dough doesn't come together, knead lightly in bowl to form ball). Divide dough in half. Place each half on sheet of plastic wrap. Form each into 1 1/2-inch-diameter log. Wrap each in plastic; chill until firm, about 3 hours. DO AHEAD Can be made 3 days ahead. Keep chilled.
• Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using thin sharp knife, cut logs crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on prepared sheets. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies appear dry (cookies will not be firm or golden at edges), 11 to 12 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.
