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WORLD PEACE COOKIES
Source of Recipe
Dorie Greenspan
In her new, thick blockbuster of a book, "Baking: From My Home to Yours, " published by Houghton Mifflin, Dorie Greenspan reveals all.
Deeply chocolaty World Peace Cookies will be a hit, either passed after dinner or as a gift.
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Servings: Makes about 36 cookies
--These cookies, the brainchild of Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, with whom Dorie Greenspan wrote "Desserts by Pierre Hermé," caused Greenspan's neighbor, Richard Gold, to say that a daily dose of these is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness. You can't eat just one. The salt is important to the taste; don't skimp on it.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 stick plus 3 Tbsps. (11 Tbsps. altogether) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. fleur de sel or 1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store- bought mini chocolate chips
1. Sift 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 butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla extract and beat 2 minutes longer.
3. Turn off mixer. Pour in dry ingredients; drape a kitchen towel over 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 more times; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds longer, 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.
4. Turn dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it into half. Working with half at a time, shape dough into logs that are 11/2 inches in diameter. Wrap 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 1 minute longer.)
5. When ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
6. Using a sharp, thin knife, slice logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds may crack as you're cutting them; don't be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange rounds on baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.
7. Bake cookies 1 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 just warm, at which point you can serve them, or wait until they are room temperature.
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