World Peace Cookies

Jenjen made them. Deb made them too. So did Anita.

“There must be something about these cookies…” I thought. Something really good to cause such a commotion.

The only way to find that out was to bake them – and here you are, ladies and gentlemen: one of the most delicious cookies I have ever eaten, certainly the most delicious I have ever baked.

My cookies turned out great but they tended to be a little bit softer instead of crispy. I would love to hear your opinion about it – did I make them correctly?

World Peace Cookies

175g all-purpose flour
30g unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
155g unsalted butter, at room temperature
145g light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
½ teaspoon fleur de sel or ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt – I used salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
140g bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous ¾ cup mini chocolate chips – I used semisweet but will bake them again using bittersweet

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder together.
Beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
Pour in the dry ingredients and mix just until combined - 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 – I weighed the dough to make sure the parts would be even.
Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 4cm in diameter. Wrap them 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 making- bake for 1 minute longer.
Preheat oven to 160˚C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
Using a sharp knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1 cm 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 3cm between them.
Bake the cookies on 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.
Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet until they’re cold – that’s when they’ll be firm.
Serve them warm or at room temperature.

Makes 36 cookies – I got 46.

* Anita was the only one who wrote to refrigerate them for 1 hour. I did as she said because I was short on time – it worked fine because the dough was already pretty hard.