To me, there is no bigger wish for the New Year than world peace. The original recipe of these cookies comes from the French renowned pastry chef Pierre Hermé. Dorie Greenspan popularizes them by naming them world peace cookies. As the story goes: Dorie’s neighbor told her that a daily dose of these cookies was all we need to ensure lasting world peace. We’re hopeful for enduring peace. One cookie at a time; one day at a time.
These cookies differ from most by using two kinds of sugar: mainly light brown and about 27% granulated sugar (of the total amount of sugar used). Brown sugar, as Dorie explains, gives the cookies the chewiness. The amount of sugar tops any other ingredients, including flour or butter. That seems unusual! A good amount of “best-quality” bittersweet chocolate, as well as a sprinkling of salt, go into the mix. In the end, I get cookies that are crispy rather than chewy. More like a sable cookie that breaks easily on contact. That could be attributed to the use of turbinado (less processed than brown sugar made from the first pressing of sugar cane) rather than the regular brown sugar, which has more moisture in it.
Dorie warns us that the cookie dough can be unpredictable and crumbly. I thought the dough was well behaved, as I shaped it into a log and chilled it — until I tried to slice it. I finally saw the crumbly side of the dough, no matter how carefully I handled it. Not fully prepared for that, I had to resort to pressing the dough together to form cohesive but imperfect rounds on the cookie sheet and baked them. No harm done!
To see more world peace cookies by other bakers in all forms and variations, please see the blogroll at Tuesdays with Dorie. Wishing you peace and a very happy 2017!
10 Comments
creamandbutterblog
January 3, 2017 at 2:01 pmI thought it was a hoot how the dough rolled into the log with zero problems and then crumbled all over after slicing. Mine all got pushed back together too.
Mardi (eat. live. travel. write.)
January 3, 2017 at 4:23 pmIt's definitely unpredictable but it's worth it!
Cakelaw
January 3, 2017 at 8:16 pmYou'd never know that your dough did not behave – your finished cookies look fabulous.
flour.ish.en
January 3, 2017 at 11:06 pmAt least there are warnings before hand, making things less of an issue in the end.
flour.ish.en
January 3, 2017 at 11:07 pmI agree that these cookies are very worthy to make, for sure!
flour.ish.en
January 3, 2017 at 11:09 pmThe other crumbled dough went back to the fridge for another attempt. No harm is done.
Kayte
January 4, 2017 at 3:42 amI think those large chunks of chocolate were the culprits, it was hard to get the knife through them in a nice and neat manner. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it, as they say, it was the chocolatey chunks fault! 😉 They turned out just fine in the end and it is obvious that yours did as well.
kitchen flavours
January 5, 2017 at 1:45 pmHappy New Year!
Your cookies looks great! Agree with you that the dough falls apart when sliced, but the cookies turned out well! These are delicious and did not last long in my house!
TeaLady
January 13, 2017 at 12:31 amMIine were crumbly but I pushed them back together and they came out just fine. Trust Dorie!! Such a good cookie.
Teresa
January 19, 2017 at 6:43 amThis dough does have a mind of its own, but it's totally worth the extra care. I think your cookies look lovely.