I continue to catch up with some favorite Christmas Cookie recipes – but find it a fine occasion for some chocolate in mid February. Happy belated Valentine’s Day to all.
Sea Ssalt from France. You can get sea salt in any grocery store in the U.S. too!
A little dose of chocolate is always a good way to celebrate with family, friends and neighbors. These cookies became an instant favorite of mine about 10 years ago. The secret ingredient, is sea salt. The salt combined with dark chocolate – and a crispy cookie is totally satisfying. I really like these better than chocolate candy…the best of all sweet treats!
It is important to sift the dry ingredients together.
Dough is ready to be rolled into cylinders. It will be sandy in texture but when you pinch it together it will hold.
I discovered the recipe on a weekly email from Lynn Rosetta Kasper from The Splendid Table. She wrote of the recipe, that it is the brainchild of French chef Pierre Herme. The cookies are typed as sables; buttery, sandy textured but with dark chocolate and salt. The recipe calls for fleur de sel which is an off white sea salt that has a hint of the sea smell – but brightens up the flavor of the cookie remarkably. The cookie name comes from Kasper’s friend who boldly stated that if everyone in the world were to eat these cookies, our outlook would be filled with happy, harmonious thoughts of world peace! I must say my family and I agree.
dough divided into mounds before forming and rolling into cylinders.
one cylinder ready to be wrapped
wrapped dough ready to be chilled.
As with most of my favorite cookies – the dough is made ahead. Rolled into cylinders, wrapped tightly and refrigerated (or frozen) for baking at a later time – at least 8 hours, I recommend. The cylinders and simply cut with a knife and placed onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Because of the chocolate chunks, the sliced dough can sometimes fall apart. Not to fret – they can easily be pushed or pinched back together and baked with no trouble. These will last in a well sealed cookie tin for several weeks to a month – but I believe they really are best within the first day or so after baking.
World Peace Cookies
Cook time: 12 minutes
Yield: Makes about 36 cookies
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 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 pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
Instructions
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 dry ingredients, 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. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
6. 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.
7. 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.
Notes
recipe from Lynn Rosetta Kasper, The Splendid Table blog. copywrite Dori Greenspan, 2006.
Recipe can be doubled, but I would not recommend tripling so ingredients are mixed thoroughly without having to over mix. I typicallly make 6 batches of these to get through the Holidays…baking about a double batch at a time. The dough can be frozen easily and sliced within about 30 minutes of removing from freezer.
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