A Tale Of A Wobbling 15 Month-Old Impulsive Food Thief: Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies

I have been meaning to check this recipe out ever since acquiring Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan for my birthday (thanks Josie!). It is a blogger favorite as food writers everywhere seemed to be swooning over these sandy, chocolate chunk laden cookies. I was excited by the salt in the recipe (I think chocolate and salt make an outstanding combination) but disheartened by the cocoa powder. I tend to prefer chocolate doughs made with real chocolate, not cocoa powder only.

Or so I thought.

These things are absolutely amazing. I made them for the Super Bowl, which is my day (ok one of several) to be naughty, and I think I polished off 6! Even more amazing, Sam, who is all of 15 ½ months and wobbling rather than walking, pulled a lightening fast maneuver to steal a second cookie off of the plate before I could get it out of her reach. And then she scuttled away and crammed it into her mouth to make sure I could not retrieve it! We had no idea she could move that fast—and this is a kid who has been moving fast her whole life.

If you like chocolate, you will like these. If you like shortbread or sables, you will like these. If you have taste buds, you will like these. I don’t know about world peace, but they certainly brought a mania of cookie gluttony to my house. I plan to make them again soon (yes they are that good—I rarely repeat recipes that fast) only next time I want to make 2 batches—one with the salt and one with some chipotle powder, another favorite combination around here…

World Peace Cookies

Source: Baking: From My House to Yours, Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

½ t fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (I used coarse Normandy grey sea salt from Penzey’s)

1 t pure vanilla extract

5 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

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, 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. 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 1 1/2 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. I found that after freezing the dough needed to sit for about 5 minutes, after which it is still frozen but just a little more amenable to slicing — bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 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.

Keep out of reach—even extremely unlikely reach—of tiny, greedy hands.