“What am I going to say about these cookies?”, I ask my husband.
“That they’re delicious? You could say that.”
These cookies are delicious.
These cookies, originally the creation of Pierre Hermé, legendary chocolatier, then adopted by Dorie Greenspan, are a dense chocolate sablé. Few ingredients and not a lot of fuss for a pretty fantastic payoff. This recipe, now widely circulated online, was publised in Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Baking: From My Home to Yours’, one of my most favourite baking books ever. I strongly encourage anyone who bakes to BUY THIS BOOK. It has never ever failed me, and any recipe I try gets rave reviews.
I can’t believe I waited so long to try this recipe. I hope you love it as much as we do.
[Recipe] World Peace Cookies
Makes about 36 cookies
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 325F. Make sure the oven rack is centered.
In a medium-sized bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together.
In a large bowl with a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix, being careful not to send flour dust everywhere. You may want to start by mixing by hand. Mix for a minute or two, then assess — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, mix a bit more; if not, continue mixing 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 enough to incorporate the chocolate into the dough.
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 about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours.
Working with a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are about a 1/2-inch thick. The dough may crack as you’re cutting — don’t be concerned – you can press any crumbled bits back onto the cookies. Arrange the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about an 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. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes, until they cool a bit. They can then be transferred to a cooling rack.
Notes:
– 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.
– Packed airtight, these cookies will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days. They can also be baked then frozen for up to 2 months.
– This dough can be frozen in log form for months.
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