A couple of Sundays ago, I returned home to my friend's house to find them all playing video games (surprise!) and joined them in sitting on the couch. Then suddenly the video games became a truly awful movie which sadly featured James Franco, Natalie Portman, and Zooey de Chanel, among others. Not wanting to watch it, and instead wanting to take advantage of all the ingredients we had to use up in my friends' summer house before they move out, I was relieved when Micah asked if I would want to make something. “You don't want to watch this?” I asked laughingly, to which I received a look which clearly said, no. Heck no. So we left the showing of the dreadful movie and go to work on these World Peace Cookies.
After making these cookies, I'm really unsure as to why we were not constantly stocked with parchment paper this summer. For the first time all summer, the bottoms of our cookies were not burned, even with our not so good baking sheets. It was amazing! All thanks to Simon who had the impulse to make toffee and ended up purchasing not just parchment paper but a candy thermometer. Now maybe we can make the delicious Brown Sugar buttercream frosting my sister told me about or even tempered chocolate for these amazing looking chocolate cups we've been wanting to make! Anyway, back to these cookies. So while I don't quite think they'll bring world peace with their deliciousness, they were pretty good and as Micah said, it was just what he wanted.
A note: Though it says you should refrigerate these for 3 hours before slicing and baking, in our eagerness to eat these cookies we skipped this step and simply made the cookies of flattened down balls of dough. (Lets be real, Micah wanted his chocolateness and he wanted it now so he put these cookies in the freezer to cool them down faster). Despite our shortcut methods, they still tasted delicious to me and I liked the fact that they didn't have the store-bought slice and bake look of the cookies when I made them last summer. Plus we got to eat them sooner. Win on all fronts.
World Peace Cookies (found in many locations on the web but we found it here)
Ingredients
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 (this is essential)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips (we used regular chocolate chips and it worked fine though I suppose if you're slicing these it might be better if they're smaller...)
Directions
1) Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together. (I'm always too lazy to sift so I skipped the sifting and just mixed these dry ingredients together before adding them in step 3)
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.) (As previously mentioned, we were too lazy to do this)
Baking preparations
1) Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
2) 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.
3) 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. (or put them in the freezer if you're impatient...)
