oh... world peace is so lovely

I know, I´ve been a bad, bad blogger. I´ve been teasing you about the famous world peace cookies forever. Thing is, when I made the first batch, they were a little thin, so I was waiting for my eventual surrender to the freezed log to try them again and see if they would end up any thicker.



And I´m pleased to say they did.



Now look at that sturdy little pile of chocolate... I think I´m in love.



Sorry, momentary lapse... Now, going back to the beginning. In case you haven´t heard about this cookies. They were developed by Pierre Herme and reprinted by Dorie Greenspan (in that lovely book of hers I can´t wait to get my hands on, but thanks to food bloggers I can get to enjoy some recipes in the meantime). The technique is fairly simple... what is hard is to wait for the full 3 hours of refrigerating they suggest you wait before you bake the cookies and the wait till they chill a bit... that´s just mean of them. Seriously, could you resist this?:



Confession time: for the first batch, I just refrigerated the dough for around 1 1/2 hours, which was probably why they ended up thin because they spreaded way too much.

One thing that could be improved in my rendition of the cookies was the sugar... they ended up a bit too sweet at times, though the "problem" was easily fixed by eating them with a tall glass of milk, yum! But I think it was I didn´t use fleur de sel, and the bit I used of sea salt wasn´t as noticeable as I´ve read it was in other blogs.

Either way, they are very, very, and I mean VERY good, so you should definitely try them if you haven´t already.

Since my pictures didn´t turn out as great as they could, I recommend you check out these other entries about these cookies with lovely pictures and great posts.
Smitten: In which world peace eludes me
Milk and cookies: Spotlight on World Peace cookies


World Peace/Korova Cookies Paris Sweets, Dorie Greenspan (also reprinted in "Baking: From my home to yours")

1¼ 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 teaspoon fleur de sel or ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous ¾ cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Makes about 36 cookies

1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.
2. 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.
3. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour, 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.
4. 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. 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.)
5. GETTING READY TO BAKE: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
6. Working with 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.
7. 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.

SERVING: The cookies can be eaten when they are warm or at room temperature.

STORING: Packed airtight, cookies will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days; they can be frozen for up to 2 months.