World Peace Cookies

These sables were created by French pastry maestro, Pierre Herme and was first recorded under the name Korova Cookies in Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan.  In her subsequent book, Baking: From my Home to Yours, Greenspan renamed this World Peace Cookies, as her neighbour became convinced that a daily dose of these cookies was all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness.  When I first read this, I remembered thinking, hmmm...let's see.

The verdict ?  Cookies are usually not my cup of tea, but these cookies are so incredibly and ridiculously good (and addictive too).  The combination of chocolate and fleur de sel (an exotic salt) makes these cookies so appealing.  I just love the salty burst of flavour and can't seem to get enough of them.  At the rate I am going, I may just be at risk of waging war with my skinny jeans.  Not so world peace after all.  On second thought, who needs skinny jeans when you have these cookies (and world peace, of course).  I am in deep trouble, aren't I ?

You will need:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
160 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp fleur de sel or 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
150 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Preparation:
Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

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.

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.

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 need not defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 160 deg C.  Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

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 one 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. 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.

Makes about 36 cookies.