My Sunday baking marathon continued with these little chocolate gems:
World Peace Cookies
I’ve made these cookies many times over the past couple of years. I can pretty safely say they are my favorites.
They’re small, buttery, deep, dark chocolate sables with bittersweet chocolate pieces. But that’s not all. A hearty dose of fleur de sel heightens their flavor and keeps them from being cloyingly sweet. They flood your taste buds with a mix of sweet, salty, and bitter; it's pure cookie joy.
World Peace Cookies have an interesting history. This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan and can be found here. It was Greenspan’s neighbor, Richard, who renamed them World Peace Cookies after deciding that there would be world peace if everyone ate them daily.
Originally, however, they were called Korova Cookies in her book Paris Sweets. Korova was a milk bar in Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and the name of Pierre Hermé’s restaurant, where Hermé first created them. Greenspan adapted her recipe from his.
If you’re a lover of Paris and/or macarons, you’ll know that Pierre Hermé makes, arguably, the best macarons in Paris and, perhaps, the world.
He is known for his mastery of classic flavors, but also for complex, interesting, adventurous, and sometimes even whimsical combinations like white truffle and hazelnut, wasabi and grapefruit, and even foie gras.
World Peace Cookies have that same sense of mastery. Every ingredient is so beautifully balanced with the others that they come together to create something divine.
Actually, when I was making them on Sunday I started sifting the flour and cocoa together when I noticed what looked like a yin-yang being formed.
It was a perfect metaphor for these sweet and salty cookies.
Maybe this totally negates the whole “world peace” aspect of them, but when I eat them all I can think of is “Mmmm. It’s a perfect chocolate bomb in my mouth.” (Do you hear Tom Jones in your head singing “chocolate bomb” to “Sex Bomb” the way I do right now? If you didn’t, then you might now. You’re welcome!)
The recipe itself is really easy and quick to make. The only trick is to make sure you don’t over-mix the dough when you add the flour/cocoa mixture. The dough should seem very crumbly/sandy before you add the chocolate pieces.
From there, it’s fairly easy to shape it into logs.
Once the dough cools in the fridge, you cut it into rounds and bake them. The rounds might fall apart a little when you cut them, but just press them back together. I usually end up with about 52 cookies since I make the logs a bit thinner than the recipe suggests.
Once they’re baked, I dare you to eat just one. Forget potato chips. These are so much more enjoyable and decadent. I don’t know if they could bring about world peace, but I’m sure they would at least put a smile on a lot of faces, which makes them perfect for sharing.
I've also found that sprinkling some fleur de sel top of these Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies makes a nice sweet and salty cookie that reminds me a little of World Peace Cookies. The addition of steel-cut oats also adds a really interesting chew and crunch to their texture. If you love the World Peace ones you could give those a try, too.
Tomorrow I'll post about the lemon cookies I made and finish up this mini baking series.
I think I saw one Huile d'Olive & Vanille (olive oil and vanilla) in the box. Strangely (or maybe not so strangely), I'm looking forward to tasting that one the most.