Well friends, the past couple of weeks have been pretty terrible across the world, there’s no two ways around that. With more than half a million people having contracted COVID-19, and nearly 25,000 dead from it worldwide (www.worldometers.info/coronavirus, as of today), we are all in the grip of fear and grief, and it’s difficult to be hopeful. There is hope though, if you look for it – medical staff and other essential workers putting their lives at risk for us all, neighbors helping each other out, whole communities coming together (in a properly socially distant way of course) to support small businesses and artists, and so much more.
With everything going on, baking may seem like a trifling thing, and maybe it is, but it’s something that brings a smile to our faces, so I think that’s enough to make it worthwhile. And it seems that Dorie Greenspan (world-famous cookbook author, and one of my personal favorites) would agree. These cookies are her recipe, adapted from the original by Pierre Hermé and aptly called World Peace Cookies, as they are so lusciously chocolatey and buttery, you’d swear they have the power to bring about world peace. Maybe these cookies alone can’t spontaneously cause world peace, but they certainly do soothe the soul.
The Recipe
Since this isn’t my original recipe, I’ll offer a link to the one on Dorie’s website at the end of this post, rather than writing it out like I usually do. I want to give credit where credit is due, and I also think everyone should be acquainted with Dorie Greenspan (if only electronically) as she’s a delightful and highly skilled cook, baker, recipe developer, and writer. If you’re a cookie fan (as I assume you are if you’re reading this post), you need to own her cookbook Dorie’s Cookies – it’s full of some of the best cookie recipes I’ve tried (including this one, as well as one of the meringue recipes I based my own meringues off of).
When I make these cookies, I follow Dorie’s instructions exactly, except I like to add a bit of flaked sea salt to the top before baking. You don’t have to do this – they’re perfect without it – I just love a good sweet and salty cookie. I also like to use dutch cocoa powder, because of its extra fudgy flavor, but regular cocoa powder works great as well (they’ll just turn out lighter in color than mine). Other than that, I’ll let you check out Dorie’s recipe and instructions for all of the delicious details.
Find the World Peace Cookies recipe here.
Enjoy, my friends! I hope you’re all staying safe, healthy, and hopeful.
Take care,
Jamie