[But I die and go to cookie heaven.] When Dorie Greenspan included Pierre Hermé’s recipe for to-die-for chocolate cookies in her Paris Sweets cookbook, she called them Korova Cookies (Sablés Korova), after the restaurant off the Champs-Élysées for which Pierre Hermé created these cookies, not the milk bar in A Clockwork Orange. In her most recent book, she calls them World Peace Cookies, as her neighbor became convinced that a daily dose of these cookies was all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness.
While world peace is truly a lofty and admirable goal, it’s unfortunately not cutting it in my apartment as if you were standing in front of me holding one, I would probably try to take it from you. (Just ask my husband.) I don’t know if it because this is another frantic entry in those 28-day, must eat chocolate or else I will die, files or because they are the best chocolate cookie I have eaten in my entire life but there is nothing peaceful about my relationship to them.
My original intention was to do what I typically do when I want to make something gloriously unhealthy but limit my intake of it — bring the remainders to work, foisting the calories on those youthful things with whom I share cubicle walls. But, unable to part with them, we’ve hidden them in the freezer which I can assure you, is not working either. They’re not even particularly charming when frozen, but they do still exist, or at least several of them do. So there’s that.
If you haven’t yet abruptly stopped reading this tired-and-typical battle of weak will versus good intention and rushed to the kitchen to gather your butter and cocoa, perhaps this will convince you: the cookies are as sandy and light as you would expect from a sable, but dark as midnight and as zeroed-in on flavor as a pressed fudge brownie. It’s impossible to eat one warm from the oven without a milk chaser, right from the carton. Those tiny dabs of bittersweet chocolate are like that good thing that happens on a day you thought couldn’t get any better. “For me? You shouldn’t have!” But she did. And I did. And it’s getting bad, so bad that I didn’t work from home today as I had originally intended to for the sole purpose of putting some distance between me and World Peace. I’m sure you understand.
World Peace/Korova Cookies
- 1 1/4 cups (165 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup (25 to 27 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 11 tablespoons (155 grams or 5.5 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup (packed) (125 grams) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 5 ounces (140 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
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 mixture, 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 needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)
Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F (160°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.
Serving: The cookies can be eaten when they are warm or at room temperature — I prefer them at room temperature, when the textural difference between the crumbly cookie and the chocolate bits is greatest — and are best suited to cold milk or hot coffee.
Do ahead: Packed airtight, cookies will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days (Deb note: not a chance); they can be frozen for up to 2 months. They can also be frozen in log form for months, and can be sliced and baked directly from the freezer, adding a coupld minutes to the baking time.
They look abosolutely delicious and your pictures are gorgeous.
(and I voted for you!)
This is awesome. I love the cookies!
Oh. My. God.
Ok, right after I post this, I’m trying these cookies! It’ll give me something to do while my no-knead-dough is rising… Yes, you have convinced me to try it, I’ll let you know how it came out! Also, I’ve made it my project for this month (and probably a few to come) to read ALL of your archives, as I’ve only recently discovered your site. By the way, I LOVE it! I want to try so many recipes of yours I’m not sure there’s enough hours in a day! Best of luck on the Food Blog Award, I will definitely vote for you!
I just received her latest cookbook for Christmas and have been dying to make these! Yours look gorgeous (and extremely yummy, of course). You have convinced me to finally free up an afternoon and make them! Who needs to do laundry?
these look so good. and here i was hoping to have a healthy weekend. now, the weekend before work will be spent making and devouring the above. the goal is NOT to fit into the brand new, too-expensive work suit. :)
My brother got the Paris Sweets cookbook for Christmas, and I am still coveting it on a daily basis.
I love love love that cookbook. I got it from the library though.
Of course I voted for you… you rock.
ok so earlier i came here to look at that pizza dough recipe again so i could stir it together (and i did!) but then i looked at your flickr and saw those pictures and learned their name in the tags and then hunted down greenspan’s recipe because this post wasn’t quite up yet and i couldn’t wait and now.. oh. Now.
These are perfect.
Reading your post about these cookies was the perfect chaser to the cookie/s and milk I had a few minutes ago.
OKAY…You had me at chocolate. Since you teased yesterday I’ve been eagerly anticipating the appearance of this cookie recipe. I was given chocolate that was lovingly produced in Belgium and I believe these cookies are worthy of a bar. And, because it so highly reccomended by our the lovely authoress, I’m saving this page as it’s own favorite so I’ll be sure to make them after I move.
As my opinion towards the nomination: DEB YOU’RE HILARIOUS! Do you know how many times I have to stifle laughter at work when reading your prose? Sheesh woman, you’re the Erma Bombeck of cooking in my book!
Congratulations on your finalist status — very richly deserved :)
I’m taking your mention of mushrooms as the sign that I was right – you’re the person I must ask. What would you do with a pound of dried shiitake mushrooms? I received 2 bags, 1/2 pound each, and want to put them to good use.
Ideas?
Please?
omg, I think it’s a sign.
I’ve seen these cookies on 3 of my dearest blogs (yours is included)…
I don’t have a choice, I’ll have to bake them!!!!
You are…….amazing!
You’re in the lead… Yay! Congrats and tomorrow the kitchen awaits… Looking forward to a cookie and a chaser!
Well, I can’t tell you about the bread yet, but right now my appartment smells like a chocolate factory! Those cookies are divine! My husband says they are the best cookies he’s ever eaten, and I definitely agree! Thank you so much for the recipe, I will be baking them over and over again once my kids get a taste! IF there are any left in the morning!
Deb! I’m so happy for you! You are so far in the lead, but then, all of your fans know you’ll win. I have to agree with Jenifer about your being the Erma Bombeck of cooking! You never fail to impress and make me laugh. Ccngratulations.
I MUST try these cookies! Oh, and any idea how long those beautiful brownies can be left in the freezer? I just found a package I hid there about 2 months ago. I sure would like to have one…two…three…
Oh. My. God. I have never eaten a better cookie in my entire life. I also have never eaten a dozen cookies quite that quickly. These are DANGEROUS.
Please stop twisiting my arms, I just baked a cake I really can’t bake these cookies. You’re hurting me!!
Hi Deb,
i’ve been wanting to make these cookies FOR EVER – but did try to resist. I’m ashamed to say I can’t anymore: ‘cocoa powder, butter… come to me, loves.’
xoxo
– fanny
ok, now just a minute here….i have been touting my World Peace Cookies at my blog since before Christmas, not one bit aware (or caring) that there actually WAS a cookie that was called this intentionally. Do we need a World Peace Cookie Off???? Should there be voting?? A duel? Clashing of swords??
Oh…..wait, it’s about Peace, right? I guess then dueling is out of the question, huh?
I suppose if anyone was going to top me in my quest for the best chocolate cookie, it has to be you, Deb
These look divine–and came out of my oven tasing divine, but something went terribly wrong with the texture. They melted into one big, shiny puddle: greasy on the bottom and thin like tuiles. What could I have done wrong? I followed the recipe, but used salted butter and a hand mixer. Any advice for next time would be great as they do taste wonderful!!
Hi! These look great. I don’t know how the cookies are, but the dough tastes awesome! Most of it is resting in the fridge, but I ate the “scrap” pieces. I can’t wait another 2 hours to bake them. I guess I should go clean the kitchen now, it should take up some time…
Ok, so I know this page is all about the cookies, and rightfully so, but I said I’d tell you about the bread so here goes… It is wonderful!!! I never thought bread could be that good or that easy!!! Thank you for the wonderful recipes. Now back to reading your archives…
I second LyB’s opinion on the bread – I made it today and was very impressed with it. Now I want to find a pan to make a higher loaf. I used a 2.5 qt corning ware round casserole dish and it turned out lovely and higher than most of the pictures that I have seen, just not high enough for my taste. My house now smells all yeasty.
I feel remiss in not mentioning this earlier, but I so did NOT wait three hours for my dough to chill. Three hour waits and impulse/PMS-driven cooking are different languages. About 30 minutes in the freezer did the trick.
Lizzy – Not sure, except that something clearly went wrong. Egads. Try it again if you have the energy left, I can’t imagine (unless it’s an oven temp issue, but even that would give a different result) it could happen twice!
Q: could I sub coconut oil instead of butter to make these vegan?
I don’t see comments from anyone else who has tried it but I think I’d choose Earth Balance or another vegan butter before coconut oil, which liquefies more quickly.
Mmmmmmm, I so wanted to make these the first time I saw them and now even more so. Your pictures are lovely…. Mmmmm… upper east or west you say? ;p I’m so there…. it’s about that time…
I’m wondering if there’s a difference in taste or baking if I use a European butter like Kerrygold or a supermarket brand? Also, what bittersweet chocolate brand is best for this? I purchased a Valrhona dark bittersweet bar (71%) at Trader Joe’s to chop up but now I’m worried that it’s too bittersweet. Help!
oh – I lol at your 28 days chocolate post. Too funny! I’m just about as predictable… my chocolate splurge should be popping up any day now!
I’ve had the scrumptious cookies before, but no one ever offered an explanation of the name. Thanks, and I agree, world peace WOULD ensue if everyone could eat these everyday. Salt and chocolate always go so well together.
yeah i only waited two hours… i ate cookies and watched kill bill. i think i over mixed them a bit, but next time they will be better. they’re really good cookies though, i’m glad you’ve shared the recipe. :)
Ok, the cookies were yummy, though I must admit, a bit on the dry side. This of course is my fault. I grated the chocolate instead of just chopping it into chunks, and I used my hot air oven, so the oven was probably too hot and the cookies got too much.
But! I then got a great idea! I’m gonna try it again, though making the logs thicker, and the slices thinner. Then, when the cookies are done and cooled off, I’ll slap on some vanilla cream and make home made oreos of them. Any ideas on a filling recipe?
I love these cookies! I baked them last night and admit to not refrigerating them at all! I couldn’t wait! Thank you for the recipe and I love your blog!
I made these on Sunday. We all really enjoyed them but agreed that they tasted like brownies. I think I might rather eat a brownie, but that’s my own preference.
I made these cookies over the weekend for my boyfriend and he thoroughly enjoyed them! He’s not even a big fan of chocolatey cookies but loved these.
I also brought a few for my office mate who exclaimed to me today that these were probably the best cookies I’ve made so far (he’s my official taste tester for baked goods).
Thankyou for sharing this recipe!
I made these and they were so great! Not overly-painfully-chocolatey, but just enough.
Question: Any tips to keeping the cookies together when slicing? None of mine stayed in one piece!
Smell delicious but had the hardest time keeping the dough together when slicing… as a result they were hard to form and then came out of the oven looking a lot less cute than yours! What did I do wrong?!
I tried. I really tried. Think I might have overdosed on the butter, and my oven is hotter than it says- but my cookies just dissolved into chocolatey pools of goo.
I’ll just have to give them another go…
I made these yesterday and baked one roll today. DH had me bag them up immediately to be removed from the house! He loved them. I’m not a big chocolate fan, but they were quite yummy. We’ll see what the office tasters have to say tomorrow! Definite repeater for me!
:-)
Oh Holy Cow!!! I thought I made cookies that make other cookies jealous. Boy was I wrong. These are divine!
YES! These do get into the chocolate cookie hall of fame. Lovely flavor and we adored the chunks. Didn’t taste like brownies to me, no way were these cakey.
Oh, man. These were included in the splendid kitchen email before xmas, and I made them. I made 7 batches. I’d forgotten about them until a recent request from a friend saw me summon up all my energy (life is *hard*) and make them again. For a real salt fix (and delicious burn on the tongue), I sprinkled each with a few tiny rocks of fleur de sel before baking. Gah!
I couldn’t make mine the pretty brown yours were (maybe there’s something funny with my cocoa powder), but I made a batch and split them between a friend’s open house for her son’s wedding and my boyfriend and his touring bandmates, and in both cases, they disappeared almost immediately! Thanks for the recipe.
Mother of god, I made these last night. I wanted to eat them all. ALL. And then lick the pan. I did manage to force myself to give a few away, but only after I ate myself silly on cookies for breakfast.
How can you call these “World Peace” cookies? The name invokes good feelings because descent humans long for world peace and by eating this cookie that end must somehow be getting closer. And yet this cookie does nothing to further our progress towards that goal. I could see if this cookie were composed of ingredients easily acquired and common in most areas of the world then we could all enjoy this cookie and put our trite controversies behind us. But instead this cookie instills hate. I can make this delicious cookie and freely enjoy it whenever I want while my less fortunate fellows cannot; this freedom to enjoy this wonderful cookie is one more freedom that the oppressed envy and hate us for.
i made these last night, as [drumroll, please] the First! Ever! batch of cookies i’ve made as an adult (that’s what 2 decades of an eating disorder will do to you… ). i ate a few, the friend i’d invited over for dinner ate a few, then i packaged the rest in a little box i’d drawn cartoons on and left them on the doorstep of an overworked 30-something friend in need of a pick-me-up. just plopped them on his doorstep, rang the bell, and ran. this morning i got a note: “best cookie sneak attack ever!” yep, i’ll be making these again.
I made myself sick on these this weekend—so worth it anyway :)
yea…these are just about the best cookies there are. we don’t make them anymore (and by we, I mean I) because “we” eat them all in one sitting. it’s pretty bad.
I quickly scrolled through but didn’t see any other questions about substituting a GF flour blend in these cookies. Think it could work?!
I was SO looking forward to making these, and the raw mix tasted great (I have an egg allergic friend I was looking forward to having taste these) but I dont know what I did wrong, must have had too much butter as it just spread out into one burnt crumbly mass in the oven :(
I will have another go later but totally disappointed, and clearly it was something I did.
I took these out of the oven a half an hour ago. They are SO fricking good! I had to walk out of the kitchen after eating two with a big glass of milk. Thank you so much! They are going to be great at my cookie swap!
Blue — Any chance you forgot the flour? I’ve been known to do that–uh, like two nights ago–so your mess rings familiar. I hope you try again. I promise that they are worth it.
I had the opposite problem. The dough tasted good but after baking, the cookies were way too dry and a crumbly. Maybe I got the flour to butter proportions wrong. I don’t know, could I have used 1 1/2 cups flour ? Would that had made this much difference? Oh well. I’ll give it one more try.
Just made these for third time this week (shock and horror for my hips) and they just keep getting better and better! This time I added dried cherries to the batter and they are amazing! I know not to mess with perfection, however…….. they. are. darn. good!
I have been having the same problem with hiding cookies in the freezer! I make cookies, tell myself I’ll freeze most of them for moderate, gradual consumption, and then proceed to gobble them up within a few days anyway. It’s easy to convince yourself that life is too short not to enjoy something so good. Can’t wait to tempt myself with this recipe.
Okay, I know these are supposed to be “World Peace Cookies,” but seriously, the fights that have broken out in our house over who gets the next one? Not contributing to any peace yet.
I have, however, guaranteed my friends will love me forever with these as a gift. :)
After gearing up for months I finally made these cookies, and have no idea what I did wrong! The dough was so crumbly that I could barely roll it, and a few hours later when I tried to slice it, the rolls crumbled back into pieces! (Of course, then I had to eat some of the dough, which was fantastic!). Any thoughts before I try this again?
Came across your recipe by accident and made these on Saturday. They were extremely popular.I explained the reason for the name to Patrick, my 11 year-old grandson, who would have happily eaten the lot. . . His reaction was that they would cause a war because people would be fighting over them! So in this family they will be known as “World War lll Cookies”
I’ve made these twice now and both times they were a crumbly mess. The dough was delicious (I mean, I seriously ate like half of it before baking. Seriously. Really.), but it would not press into a log. I forced it into a log shape with some plastic wrap and put it in the fridge and then when I tried to slice it, it all just crumbled apart. I’m certain I measured the ingredients right. Maybe some butters have different water content? I wonder if I could add a tablespoon of milk or cream to the dough to bring it together…
I just tried these (the “logs” are in the freezer right now) and the dough was VERY crumbly. I halved the recipe (I am 100% positive my amounts and ingredients are all correct). I got it to press into roundish shapes that vaguely resemble logs, but it was practically dry. I did use Earth Balance (soy margarine) instead of butter, as I’m a vegan, but I’ve baked everything else with it and it works wonderfully. Just how crumbly should it be?
Easily some of the most delicious cookies ever.
Same problem! Dough is too crumbly. I put the crumbled mess on a plate, microwaved it to soften the butter and re-rolled the dough. It rolled a lot better and Im going to slice it tomorrow, hoping it wont all fall apart. Good luck to everyone else!
My friend and I made these a few weeks ago while I was visiting her, and we had the same issue with the dough being extremely crumbly (although we managed to sort of get it into a log, and then once it had been in the fridge for an hour it cohered a bit better).
BUT, I just made them at home, and the dough wasn’t crumbly at all. I don’t know what can account for the variance; my friend did the measuring last time and I did it this time, so maybe it’s even just a matter of her overmeasuring flour and my undermeasuring it…
For the people with crumbly dough – I beat the butter a long time, more than the full two minutes with the sugars. Is it possible the butter isn’t creamed as much as it should be? Or was maybe too cold? Try warming it up and beating it a little extra than the 2 minutes?
kitt — Interesting theory! This time I did beat the butter for several minutes, *and* I think the butter might have been closer to room temperature than it was last time. If that’s what the source of the difference is, it’s amazing that so much change could come from such a small discrepancy in ingredients.
Elise, Ross, etc. — Yes, the dough is indeed a bit crumbly. Dorie warns in the recipe above that it probably will crack, and just to squeeze the cookie disks back together if they do. I find that taking them from the fridge rather than the freezer (which I often use for longer-term storage, i.e. planning ahead) helps, if nothing else, leaving it out on the counter for ten or fifteen minutes. I also find that it is the end pieces that crumble the most for me. I am glad that it has no effect on the final taste, however!
what a letdown!! i was looking for something to rival the “dark chocolate oatmeal cookies” from epicurious and this is not it. i highly recommend the epicurious cookies and will use my remaining chocolate to make up a batch of those. i may or may not try these again.
i’m not a novice baker and i thought these sounded like a good holiday cookie. i had the same problem as others: dough was almost too crumbly. i had a lot of trouble slicing the dough and it fell apart. i also could not incorporate the amount of dry ingredients called for in the recipe without a lot more beating than the recipe indicates. i found it very hard to get all the flour blended.
the first batch cooked at 325 burned in less than 12 minutes (the bottoms) so i lowered to 300 and subsequent batch did not burn. i followed the recipe pretty exactly (i could not find mini chips so i used regular sized chips and chopped them up a bit, but they were too large for me to cut even 1/2″ slices). the only other change i made was to use fructose instead of sugar (which i always do).
the dough tasted fine but the baked cookies are pretty nondescript, kind of bitter and bland (except for what remains of the chips).
Well, I am no great cookie baker, but I loved these, and I think they turned out pretty well. Yes, the dough is tough to handle, but with a bit of perseverance I battled it into submission and managed to make the logs and roll up and in the fridge. I did the cutting VERY SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY and most were fine. I used the mini morsels and they were perfect. I must admit to overbaking them a bit – they could have been a LITTLE less crisy. But the flavor was tremendous, and my family loved them. I am all set to do again and watch the bakign time.
A friend sent me a mini-batch of these in a holiday care package, and I instantly remembered them from your post. Hers had a definite salt hit, which I love. I’ll have to ask her if she sprinkled on more fleur de sel…
I’m not much of a chocolate fiend (a traitor to my sex, to be sure) but these were gone before any of the other cookies in the box.
I found one “alternative” solution to the crumbly dough. It did form into a log, but when I tried slicing, the chocolate chips would be stronger than the dough and instead of just “chipping” apart, the whole segment of log with crumble. I noticed that the longer i worked with the dough, and softer the dough got, the easier it was to cut. I microwaved the logs for about 15 seconds just to soften it all a tiny bit, and they cut with ease. Some still broke, but were easily pressed back together. Im sure I will try this recipe again to see if the outcome is different. I haven’t been dissatisfied with a single recipe from this site…and there is still so much more to explore…
Hi, long time reader, first time commenter.
I just finished making these and found that most times I tried to slice the log, the slice crumbled into tiny pieces. I do wonder if, as Ross found, that slicing them warm would be easier. That, or I’d prefer to just keep the dough in the mixing bowl, take tablespoon-size scoops out, and form those into flat cookie shapes. I felt rather silly slicing and re-forming each cookie from bits of chocolate dust.
That said, THESE ARE AMAZING. I needed a gift to thank a young frenchman for a bottle of wine he brought me back from Paris and I knew these would be perfect.
Hi Deb, i’m from Singapore, first time commenting. i wasn’t sure if these cookies would live up to all the hype, but they DID. Thanks for sharing. This will go into my personal recipe file for life!
Sigh. Delicious. Sigh. Pierre Herme is my dream prince. I lived in Paris over the course of a few months, and my two sweet-toothed friends and I would pass his pretty little shop every day on the way to school. His macaroons are just a splash. Can I sigh over these beautiful little nougats once more? Sigh.
So I finally got around to making these… only a year or so late. And, well, this is the sound of me dying of happiness and going to dessert heaven. These cookies are incredible! They’re like a chocolate opera with faint caramel harmonies. They’re not just good — they’re two-glasses-of-milk-per-cookie good. I will definitely be making these again… like in two hours, which is when the current batch will be gone.
(By the way, I had no trouble incorporating the flour or cutting the chilled dough… perhaps because I used VERY soft butter to start with.)
Hey – I’m in a bit of a jam – please help!
I love these cookies and made them a few weeks ago. I’m moving next week, and trying to empty out the pantry and get rid of *everything*. Can I use self-rising flour for these? How much baking soda do you think I should leave out?
These would be a perfect thank you to everyone who is helping me move – but I really don’t want to buy more flour until I’m settled in my new kitchen…
I’m not generally a huge chocolate cookie fan, but these were indescribably good. Had a little trouble slicing the dough (a lot less trouble than most commenters, it seems), but I just ate the scraps. As delicious as the cookies are, I think the dough might be even better.
I tried these (twice) last week, one batch for us, another one (after trying them) for a friend’s birthday party. The first batch I did with 72% cocoa chips, and it tasted better than the second batch, which I did with 55% “fondant” chocolate. My, there are some cookies still left from the first batch, and I don’t who to give them to… I guess I’ll have to eat them! :-)
I had no problem with the crumbliness while making the logs, but the discs did break a lot of times while slicing. I think, like Deb says, that leaving them on the counter 5 minutes helps, but also the thinness of the knife. I tried with a regular knife and everything fell appart, and then I tried with a “cuchillo jamonero”, the one that is used to slice cured ham, and things changed radically.
Thanks for sharing!
one major complaint: no raw eggs in the dough! how am i not supposed to eat it all!?
Well, I know I’m a little late, but I just wanted to tell you all: add one egg and a couple tablespoons of instant espresso for total cookie joy.
Hey! Just made this recipe and had my gang try them: they blew the gang’s minds, I can tell you that :-) And believe me, those guys, they’re not easy to impress, since they are used to me using them as guinea pigs for anything edible that I fancy making. I used brown sugar (the kind that’s called rapadura or mascobado) and these. cookies. were. SCRUMPTIOUS! The touch of fleur de sel is just what they need to kick up the strong cocoa flavor. I used 70% cocoa chocolate for the chips, and used good quality organic butter and spelt flour. I used a sharp kitchen knife to slice the logs, and had no trouble at all with crumbly bits. And the smell, and the look when they start to voluptuously spread in the oven… and the taste once they’ve reached room temperature, the crumbliness, the concentrated flavor explosion. Heaven indeed. I have copied the recipe in my little red notebook, the one with the very few recipes I just KNOW I want to keep making and be able to pass around as people come to me begging for the recipe. I wanted to post them on my blog, but the gang did not leave a SINGLE one of them for me to take a picture, so it’ll have to wait until next time I make them. Which, I’m guessing, shouldn’t take too long.
i just made these and planned to send them to a friend for his birthday/a congratulations on his poem being published . . . i ate 6 of them on the way to work (my commute is NOT 6 cookies long) and i’m afraid he’ll be getting significantly more tissue paper than cookies in the even that i don’t polish them off before i make it fedex kinkos. yum.
basically the greatest chocolate thing i’ve ever baked! i’ve been linking all of my friends to this recipe since i found it, but they’re all too LAZY to do it (just kidding, guys, if you’re reading this! but BAKE THESE NOW, YOU’RE MISSING OUT).
…i do sort of have to complain about the the whole shape-chill-slice process, though. the second time i made these i just scooped out tablespoonfuls of the powdery dough and used my palm to press it into the scoop’s hemisphere shape. they turned out pretty well again (just a teeny bit more crumbly), and i saved so much effort! ;-o
Just made these cookies, I had a similar problem to many of you as they were very crumbly. It was a little bit difficult to get them into a roll, and then most of them crumbled when I tried to slice them. My butter was not quite at room temperature, and I used regular sized chocolate chips, so those things could partly be to blame.
Despite the problems they are quite delicious and the saltiness is a fantastic addition!
I’ve been making these for over a year, with a hand mixer. I also do variations – drop the cocoa powder for regular chocolate cookies, use white white chunks instead and for Halloween used extra dark bars with select orange pieces. This is a good basic recipe that can be played with to suit different tastes. Always a hit whenever I make them.
Mmmmmmmmm I just made these as a thank-you for my high school teachers (just finished high school here in Australia). I always feel like I want to bake but not necessarily eat stuff, plus the concern of calories, I understand completely! So I am planning on, in your words, “foisting” them on my teachers. I’m sure they’ll love them, I know the one I tried was delicious. Thanks again Deb every recipe from your site works :)
YIKES those sound scrumpsh. And I have all the ingredients in the house, too. I think I have a date tomorrow with AN ENTIRE BATCH OF COOKIES.
cookies without eggs? is it just me, or will other people be having similar difficulties having anything left to put in the oven? mmm, cookie dough… ::sighs::
These are absolutely delicious! I actually made these with 3/4 c whole wheat 1/2 c ap and they have a more substantial (but subtle) texture that I really like. Try it if you like! Thank you for this recipe!
Oh Deb… ooooooh Deb! I threw in some ground-up coffee and ground-up candy cane. Best grown-up Christmas cookie I have ever tasted in my life!
Thank you SO much for sharing this one, even if I am almost two years late.
These cookies are amazing. Moist, but not too dense and just chocolatey enough. Delicious.
i did not believe in the addictiveness of these cookies, of which you wrote. trust me — i believe now. :) amazing.
The first time I made this the dough was really crumbly too and not coming together, so I used my bare hands just until it got soft and doughy. Messy, but it got the job done! I tried it again today with dark chocolate chips… Mmmm.
I just made these and, like cheryl, my dough was really crumbly so I packed each slice in a tablespoon measure and then popped it out onto the baking sheet. Worked like a charm.
I also highly recommend the addition of Skor toffee bits (I used the Chipits ones with no chocolate). Delicious!
These are undoubtedly the best cookies ever. No problem with all the crumbly stuff thanks to saran wrap and the freezer. Just love them and surely with all the “World Peace” being baked this week it will help with the general feeling in the air. Yes?
I love your blog.
AmyRuth
I have heard many of my foodie friends raving about these cookies, so as we have had some snow-days in England this week (practically unheard of here!) I finally got round to making them… and they are truly fabulous. As my husband is currently away I thought it safest to only bake half a batch (I have frozen the other log of dough), and it’s a good job I did as I have eaten the lot I baked already. Irresistible.
I used white chocolate chunks in them which worked really well with the intensely dark cookie.
Thanks for the addition of the metric measurements – I printed the recipe out before you did that, and spent ages trying to work out how much butter was in 11 tbsp… Well worth the effort though!
I’ve made these twice and they are fabulous, but impossible to get on the cookie sheet in one piece. I’ve chilled them for a brief time and overnight, and neither worked, lol. Maybe next time I’ll try forming circles from spoonfuls of unrefrigerated dough.
It went like this: I frantically searched the kitchen for, and found, 3 sadly small stashes of quality bittersweet choc., and even then I probably just barely made the chocolate requirement ounce-wise. I chopped it up finely, and hoped it was enough. I was just under 3/4 of a cup of finely chopped chocolate. However, I then stupidly messed up, and threw in 2 sticks of butter into the dough instead of the 1 stick plus the extra Tbl.;compounding that, I somehow overlooked the fact of required chilling till it was time to bake! Consequently was furious w/ myself. Refrigerated the dough overnight, and baked them this very morning. I didn’t get 36 out of the batch – perhaps 24, but I decided who cares at this point? Mon Dieu, despite my dumb plebe mess-ups, these babies are real Come Hither Cookies. I will make them again, for sure. A new addition to the repertoire has arrived! My youngest son comes home from school in less than 45 min. and boy will he be thrilled when he sees what I have wrought. I can hear him now, “Oh, WOW – thanks!” They are brilliant w/ cold milk. Be sure to USE PARCHMENT PAPER on the PAN, and let them cool TILL FIRM enough to handle. The later took a lot of patience on my part! Next time I will follow the recipe instructions, and DOUBLE the BATCH.
Follow-up: My son was VERY happy w/ these chocolate cookies! He even thanked me.
these.were.divine. -thank you for sharing the recipe. BTW, I baked some both without and with the chilling step- the first ones as soon as the dough was mixed and then the rest as directed by forming into a log and refrigerating- because I didn’t want to wait! So the first half I scooped onto the sheet with a small scoop and flattened to the 1/2 inch thickness specified for the slicing and maybe baked a little short of the 12 min. The only difference I discerned was the appearance – the chilled and sliced cookies were “prettier” and the first were more rustic.
I made these and they were delicious! However, the dough was so crumbly that I had to add a small egg, but after that it worked fine.
I think it’s hilarious how a cookie seems to have mysteriously disappeared in both pictures- the empty grease circles give it away. ;)
So, you’re gonna update the recipes with metric measurements! That would be such a big relief for someone like me, living in Europe. I’m always in trouble when it comes to cups. So thanks, Deb! And thank you for this blog, this really is by far my favourite food blog, and maybe the only one that I use recipes from. Best, Agnes.
I add metric measurements when they’re available, or when I think to figure them out. They’re in this recipe, not many others.
Have made TWO batches in the past two days. First batch- crumbly but delicious. Then I read readers comments and heeded the advice to be sure the butter was at room TEMP. YAY!!! HUGE SUCCESS.
I gave a few to friends. They commented that couldn’t POSSIBLY be called WORLD PEACE cookies since anyone eating them would be fighting the others for their cookies! :-D
Why, oh why, oh why did I not see this YESTERDAY?! I made a whole batch of chocolate cookies from another website, and can’t feed them to ANYONE because they are awful. I should have made THESE!! I guess I know what I’ll be doing this evening….
Though it’s a hard fight between these and the cream cheese pound cake.
Thanks again Deb!
I made these yesterday. They are spectacular. I had no problems with crumbliness – over here butter gets to room temperature (30 degrees centigrade) very quickly – and I popped them into the freezer for one hour instead of refridgerating for 3 as it was 10.30pm and my husband HAD to have one before he went to sleep. I can’t wait to try the peanut butter variation Dorie talks about on her website!! I have a new confidence with cookies. Should have made a double batch!
I’d reiterate that the butter really does need to be a room temperature for these, and I think the dough mixing would have been a LOT easier if I’d had a stand mixer, rather than a boyfriend with (admittedly impressive) biceps, doing the mixing. I popped them in the fridge for about half an hour and then got sick of waiting and put them in the freezer for another hour – they sliced beautifully and didn’t crumble, but they did splurge out a lot in the oven and did NOT look like the beautifully-proportioned ones in the pictures. I am not deterred, however, as they were yummy, and it turned out they only went all thin and crispy because aforementioned kitchen help had turned the Rayburn up to roast his vegetables properly (not a euphemism). So next time I’ll make sure the butter is super-soft first and will keep the oven at 160. Has anyone attempted this with melted butter or would that be disastrous?
These are the best! Oh soooooo good. Sold out at school fair. Like immediately. Thanks Deb!
I have made these 3 times since finding the recipe in February and have another batch cooling in the fridge. They are the most requested chocolate thing I make now. I’ve had varied results with the dough, sometimes crumbly, sometimes not, but they always seem to slice well and bake up perfectly. On my first batch I sprinkled fleur de sel on the tops of half the batch before baking. People were so ga ga over the sweet/salty combination that now I bake every batch that way. Thanks for the recipe and the blog! This is my go-to website when I need something edgy and sure-to-be-good! By the way, the Moroccan Chickpea stew is phenomenal!
These cookies were better than I expected. And believe me, I expected them to be very good! — seeings how I’ve loved every recipe I’ve tried on SmittenKitchen. These are not like a typical chocolate chocolate chip cookie. They take it to a whole ‘nother level. These are very special chocolate cookies and easy too.
I made them, and they’re fantatic! I made a slight alteration for a friend that really likes raisins, and replacing 1/3 of the chocolate bits with raisins works great, too. Oh yummy yummy yummy. Someone come over and take the 10 cookies left in my kitchen away from me, quickly!! :-)
Yum, just had one still slightly warm out of the oven…heavenly. My sister made these once, and they were fantastic, although she complained about the chocolate chips causing them to break while slicing, and from reading above posts, I was also worried that my butter was too chilly still, so I killed two birds with one stone and gave my butter extra time to warm up while I sliced each little square of chocolate with a sharp knife- practically flaking it. The result was a cramped hand, but also easily sliceable dough, with only a couple cookies breaking into halves, which were easily reshaped. The flakes also mean that the chocolate spreads into more of the cookies, instead of retaining it’s chip form. Thanks for the recipe, my boyfriend is going to love them (if there are any left when he gets home)!
DIVINE!!!! I definately prefer salty to sweet and never have problems passing on cookies, cakes, etc. but I have already had two warm cookies. I am frantically trying to think of how I am going to stop myself from eating the whole batch by myself before morning…..
Chocolate chips are hard to come by where I live, so I cut a square of dark chocolate into chips. That probably explains why the logs crumbled so much when cut.
Thank you!!
Question – I loved these cookies but I have a question about the texture? Are they supposed to be like a “sandy?” Mine were kind of gritty for lack of a better word. My husband was totally turned off by the texture – my first reaction was great, all the more for me but I could kind of see where he was coming from and thought I should ask. I didn’t have any issues rolling in to a log or cutting – a couple crumbly bits but nothing significant. I find them kind of sandy but then once in your mouth they kind of carmelize – I don’t know if that makes sense. Any insight on texture would be helpful.
They’re a little sandy but they shouldn’t be gritty. Could they have been a little bit overbaked? (I’m just guessing of course. Always hard to say what might have gone wrong from this side of the computer!)
Thanks Deb – I only baked one log so the next one I’ll bake for less time and see what happens. I had workmates test them this morning and they agreed with me that they are awesome. My one friend stopped and said – wait this is a “fancy” cookie – this is no “regular” cookie. Needless to say I’m starting to think the husband is crazy.
I LOVE your site by the way – thanks for sharing with all of us.
Thanks Deb! It’s the second time I try to propagate world peace by making these cookies. The first time I was really confused by the crumbiness of the dough, so I added more butter. They tasted amazing; they were gone within the hour. However, they were shapeless and not too appetizing to the eye. The second time I followed the recipe word for word, and they turned out perfect! Follow the recipe and don’t fear the crumbling dough.
Update – baked the other log yesterday and I think I figured out what I did wrong – I think I baked the first batch at 350 and the recipe calls for 325 – this time they were perfect!! LOVE LOVE LOVE These are my new favorite cookie which I can never make again because I will eat every last one of them.
these are seriously the best cookies I have ever made! the raw dough tastes as though it should be the dough in a “cookie dough ice cream” flavour… thank you for sharing the recipe. And thank you for introducing me to Dorie – I’ll be making more of her recipes from now on.
I have a question- these are one of my favorite cookies, and I have made them for the past two years for christmas. Right now I’m brainstorming cookie recipes to send to my friend in Iraq, and I was wondering if you thought these would still be good without the chocolate chips. (And if I would have to adjust the cooking time)
Chocolate melts too much to send. In my memory these didn’t have chips, but now that I see the recipe, of course they do. I have a chocolate crinkle recipe on deck, but part of me would rather do a recipe I’m familiar with.
These cookies are next on my list to make. I’m curious how they compare to an amazingly good cookie in Clotilde Dusolier’s Chocolate & Zucchini cookbook in which she uses bittersweet chocolate, dutch cocoa and cacao nibs. The cacao nibs are what make her cookies over the top:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2006/02/chocolate_and_cacao_nib_cookies.php
So I’ll be curious to see how these cookies compare with Dusolier’s.
I made this particular cookie just to try it. I think that this recipie could be spiced up a bit by adding one of my favrioute things to add to a chochlate chip cookie, pecans. This gives it a richer flavor.
These might be the best cookies I’ve ever made – thanks for the recipe! I added dark chocolate chunks…so chocolately but not overly sweet! By the way I’m a big fan of your site here :)
I made these cookies last night for a dinner party, and besides being incredibly delicious, they are also perfect for mini ice cream sandwiches! These are definitely my New Favorite Chocolate Cookies–they’re tasty, the ingredients are easy to find, and they’re not overly fussy.
Hm I can tell from looking at the recipe that there may be too much flour. Usually crumbliness means there’s too much flour in the recipe. Thats also why very soft butter would help..add more softness to the dough. Also, flour can vary greatly by brand and type.
I will DEFINITELY make these since I am looking for a new chocolate cookie recipe (I’m currently using Ina Garten’s double chocolate ones- they’re decent). Maybe I will try adding a few tablespoons less flour first and see what happens. :)
Just made these today and all I can say is, following directions to the “T”, this recipe will yeild cookies that are yum, but mediocre. From a chocolate lover’s standpoint, these will not dissappoint. But regular chocolate chip cookies nix half the effort and are yummier, to me.
As far as being no-fuss, the first time, mine were overburnt, 2nd batch, overdone, 3rd batch, juusssttt right. But even with the goldielocks charm of the thrice-try batch, these cookies didn’t win me over. To credit the author :), these are yum, but cocoa powder is a tricky thing, and even meticulous methology can’t cure these cookies and fix em’ a place in my faves, or even my “likes”. Maybe it’s me; maybe it’s cocoa powder. But either way, I won’t be making these again.
Opps! Icky typos. Sorry!
*methodology
2nd batch *UNDERdone
hello again… alright I made these today. I take back what I said about too much flour – it was just right. After reading the other comments, I made sure the butter was VERY soft (zapped it in the microwave 5 seconds at a time until it got soft), and that did the trick. My dough was not crumbly at all, actually, it was just perfectly soft.
I didn’t bother to chill the dough/shape it into logs either, it’s one of those things that I hate doing like sifting flour, so I just measured them out with a tablespoon and flattened them slightly on the pan. Perfect!!
The taste is amazing. The cocoa powder gave it a really intense chocolatey flavour. I have only had one so far (but I ate a lot of dough), but the inside is chewy, fudgy, dense, and soft, *almost* like a brownie, and the edges slightly crisp. I used 70% bittersweet Lindt chocolate and it adds an amazing flavour. These are my new favourites. I love Ina too, but her double chocolate ones have more ingredients and are a bit dry – they will be replaced by these :D
The were incredible! I had to wake up early to take an extra batch to work! And yes, it did create a ton of tension around..they were just soooo delicious. No world peace, no. Cookie cold war, yes.
I never go wrong with your recipes and picks. I made these last night and are wonderful. I subbed for mint choco chips because I had a specific craving. Came out fantastic and sliced perfectly. Yes the batter was crumbly, but this cookie is NOT suppose to be uber chewy correct?
Just wanted to let people know. I tried the “technique” from the espresso shortbread cookies, where you roll them out in a 1-gallon freezer bag and then chill and cut them into 1 1/2 inch squares, and it worked WONDERFULLY. I always hated the part where you form it into logs and then when I sliced them they always crumbled. Using the freezer bag made it SO easy. I cooked them the same amount of time. Perfect.
Also, when I have made these and the dough seems a little dry, I just add a 1/2 t more vanilla extract. That is just enough to pull it together, and since it’s mostly alcohol, it doesn’t affect the final cookie.
These cookies are a favorite of ours, and with the freezer bag technique, I’ll probably be making them more often.
Thanks for this tip from 2009! I, in 2021, will be giving it a go this afternoon. I love these cookies and always bake them around Christmas to share, but slicing them is also my least favorite part.
For those who had crumbliness problems — I ignored the instruction not to overmix, and mixed until the dough held together. Then the crumbliness was not an issue, and the cookies tasted just fine. In fact, much better than just fine. In fact, WAAAYYY better than just fine. They are insanely good.
I had seen this recipe before and the name put me off. Yes, I saw the list of ingredients, but still the name “World Peace Cookies” made me think of something healthy and heavy and earnest, something out of the old Moosewood Cookbook and I ignored the recipe. Your title, Deb, intrigued me, and after reading your description I had to try them. And I have to say, they are more likely to spark fights than peace — fights over who gets to eat them. Just yesterday my husband took the last one, which was lying on a plate, and he thought was “leftover” but was in fact sitting and waiting for my 5-year old daughter’s 5-year old friend to eat. I ask you, does snatching cookies from a 5-year old sound like a recipe for world peace?
I thought I would add to the abundant discussion here to sing the praises of these cookies. They even survived the butchering of an inattentive baker (that’s me!). I made these gluten and dairy free, and cut down the brown sugar by about half. And, uh, I may have forgotten to add baking soda! I was distracted!
They were still delicious without leavening, but in the future I would probably keep the sugar as is, or only cut it a little bit. Most dessert recipes taste way too sweet for me and so I decrease the sugar, but these might actually be perfect or near-perfect as is.
these looks so good and I am going to make them soon, but just not today – I want cookies now!! : )
Hi, Deb – Ever since I first found your site last summer, I’ve spent about 5 hours her EVERY DAY. Your brown butter brown sugar shorties inspired a baking frenzy that I simply can’t (and refuse to) shake!
I’m planning on making these cookies tonight (though I should be writing my book and doing my laundry), but I’m considering eliminating anything peaceful about them and adding just a tad of chili powder for a kick of “yowza.” I’ll let you know how it goes!
The baking frenzy continues…. [Thanks, Deb! Your site has literally changed my life!]
Just wanted to let you know that I made the cookies with the little twist I mentioned above — adding about a teaspoon of cayenne and some chili powder for depth of flavor — and these cookies were…..wow wow WOWZA! After the third bite you really start feeling the heat of the cayenne! It was a fantastic addition to the rich, sweet chocolate flavor. My boyfriend thought they were a teensy bit too spicy (though still “edible”) but everyone else LOVED them and asked for the recipe.
Next time, I’d like to add the spiciness again, but I was thinking about making them a bit chewier and adding dried cherries for a little tang. What would you recommend for making chewier (rather than crispy) cookies? Adding egg? Shorter cooking time?
I finally made these today, after months of reading about them, and – thank you! They are so very good. Tonight I topped one with a scoop of Archer Farms Red Tart Cherry preserves, and oh my lord. Now when I watch Nigella Lawson make her chocolate cherry trifle, I’ll have a shortcut to ease my craving. Heavenly!
Oh my. I remade these, fixing the stupid mistakes I made before and… oh my. There are only 3 left in the tin, and I’m not going to say how long it took for me to eat the other 33, but lets just say that the rate of “one cookie per hour awake” is not quite fast enough to explain it.
So I’ve been stalking… er, perusing your beautiful, delicious, mouthwatering, mindblowing recipes and mentally filed away the ones I wanted to try on that “someday” day. That was until… I realized I’ve basically mentally made note of about 87% of your recipes. I’m very tempted to pull a Julie and Julia on Smitten Kitchen…
I just wanted to let you know that I’ve made these cookies 4 times in the last 2 weeks. The few people that I have allowed to enjoy them with me–including my husband–have fallen madly in love with both the cookies and your website. Maybe its time to try a new cookie recipe…? Nah!
oh, these are really good. thank you. really, really good.
Why worry if they are crumbly? When ever mine is a too crumbly “failure”, my family cheers as they now have a “refrigerator” cookie. Meaning, we leave the dough in the refrigerator and just eat them directly from there with a spoon, skipping the baking step. (Thanks for the tip on the butter temp though, I’ve been making these for years and wondered why I had variable results!)
Barbara Lynch adapts these slightly in her cookbook–she adds more melted chocolate and cinnamon. I had to literally tear myself away from the dough so it could chill in the refrigerator. SO good.
So good! I used peanut butter chips in place of the chocolate and they were divine.
Do you think these cookies would travel well? I want to send them over to a friend who is in a region of the world where Peace could do some good!
Love the site!
Kristen — I think so. I have to admit that I have almost no experience packing and shipping baked goods, but these are at least mostly firm with fairly stable ingredients — it’s worth trying! Best of luck.
I need help. Seriously, I require assistance. Please. It’s 5am and I’ve just raided the fridge. I had two painstakingly crafted logs of World Peace chilling in there, awaiting their fate as presents for a friend later today.
Two 8 inch logs have now mysteriously morphed into a pair of 2 inch… stumps. I don’t know what came over me, but it was something akin to demonic possession, I think. “Go on, Isla,” the voice cooed in my ear. “In the interests of quality control you really should sample that dough. You know, just to be on the safe side.” So I did. And, heaven help me, one slice and I could -not- stop.
I feel like I need a confessional box right now. Or flagellation with wet noodles. Or something. I actually paused mid-gorging to get a tub of dulce de leche ice cream out of the freezer, and I had a scoop of that with slices of World Peace on top. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the combination was quite possibly the most knee-knockingly, synapse-incineratingly lethal taste experience I think I’ve ever had. I kind of feel like I’ve just been hit by a truck, or ravished by a ginormous chocolate-smothered pirate.
Is this what a World Peace OD feels like? I don’t know, but I’m thinking that I shouldn’t make these things again unless I’m comfortable with someday being unceremoniously hoisted out of my home by a dozen burly paramedics armed with an aquarium whale sling and a crane. No more World Peace. No, definitely not. Nope. Definitely, absolutely not.
Not until next week anyway.
Try these with about 1/2 cup of whisky-soaked raisins in the dough. It adds a chewy, magical something that makes them even better (if that’s possible!
so good! made these tonight!
This is a dumb question, I know, but I got some espresso salt at Whole Foods this weekend. Do you think I could sub it for the 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel in equal amount or should I go for a little less?
You should be able to use the same amount but if you’re nervous, start with half.
lovedd itt!!! i cant stop eating themm!!! i feel fat but hey…. they are worth the calories… yummmmm.. oh and btw ur amazing!!!!
Oh shoot! All I have is wheat flour. Will that be bad?
So I have everything for these already in the pantry…should I? No, I fear not. I have studying to do. (But you totally know I’m going to be baking these off at 2 in the morning during a “break”).
I just ate the last one. My husband won’t be home until late tonight. If I quickly bake another batch and eat 35, there will be one leftover, and he will never be the wiser. Yes, they are THAT good. The flavor, the texture…it’s nothing short of cookie perfection.
Hi!
First of all- INCREDIBLE!! These are the most amazing things ever. Make them immediately.
Second- My boyfriend lives far-ish away and I want to send him some treats. Will these travel well? Any tips for sending goodies? What works best? (I just have to share these.)
My sisters and I catered a gallery opening in Williamsburg, BK this past Friday and packaged these for take-home treats with our business card attached and they are the only thing we’re hearing about (not our 4 course meal) – hah! These cookies are certainly a must.
YUM! I added a tiny bantam egg since the dough was so dry, but I’d like to try it without egg for some friends with egg allergies. After an hour in the freezer, I sliced and baked… very yummy! I think they would be great without the choc chips too!
do you have a favorite kind of cocoa for this recipe?
thanks!
I’m not new to making recipes from this site, and I know they have all been fantastic, but this.one.is.amazing!
I made these in a cooking class the other day, and we substituded fine salt with coarse sea salt. I was worried but the rich chocolate with the crunch of the sea salt is an out.of.this.world combo!!
Best. cookies. EVER. And they are even better day two. Next time I’m going to try the coarse sea salt that Katie recommends.
Can I substitue Dutch process cocoa for unsweetened?
Unsweetened can be either. I used Dutch process for this, but it looks like both lead to success.
Wow! Wowowowowowowowow! I’m a chocolate addict & these cookies are a visit to heaven. Your instructions were really helpful — the sharp knife for cutting, the warning that they might crumble & you can just piece them back together, and the fact that they won’t look done when the timer goes off. I simply trusted your directions completely, changed nothing, and they came out perfectly! I did make one mistake — my roll was only 1 inch thick instead of 1-1/2 inches. When I realized that, I just reduced the cooking time to 10 minutes. Besides, smaller cookies means I get to eat more of them, right?
Well, they’re still delicious, but I’ve made the recipe twice now and both times they’ve spread out into a very thin, somewhat greasy puddle. I’ve changed different things to try to get them to look the way yours do (that is, shapely and still 1/2 inch thick): once I weighed the ingredients, once I went by volume, for one batch I lowered the temperature to 300, I tried reducing the baking time to 10 minutes, and I chilled for 3 hours, and more. It made no difference. Ideas?
Re the spreading – I’ve made these three times now. The first time they did spread, although they were still delicious – big thin chewy chocolate cookies rather than thicker chunkier ones. The subsequent two times they have been absolutely fine. I don’t think it’s to do with the heat of the oven. The first time I made them I made them in logs that were about 2″ thick with very big chunks of chocolate. I think the key is to make the logs fairly small (1″ to 1.5″ as the recipe stipulates) and then cut the cookies generously thick (say a quarter to a half inch thick), and to make sure that your chocolate chips are small. The cookies will look pathetically small when you cut them off to bake them but they do turn into generous, thick, sandy-textured chocolate chip masterpieces once they’ve cooled.
In other words, I think they’re meant to spread, and the trick is to cut them very small and thick so that when they spread they spread into a proper cookie.
Hmmmm…I just made these and they turned out absolutely perfect. Did everyone make sure they added the baking soda? Also, I cut them larger because I used them in ice cream sandwich and they were still fine- didn’t spread at all. I wonder if it’s an issue with altitude or something odd like that? As far as the crumb issue- I cut mine after only freezing for a half an hour and yes they were crumbly but I did it VERY carefully so they didn’t fall apart. And if you’re looking for something festive- add some peppermint ice cream in the middle and roll in crushed peppermint candies- delicious!
Thanks for sharing yet another good recipe. I added a bit of cayenne pepper and topped it with sea salt as someone had suggested. Gave it a nice sweet, salt, hint of spice.
I had no problem with the dough being crumbly, and I only froze for an hour. (Impatience, of course. But then again, I also started making cookies at past 8pm.) Impatience also made me microwave frozen (salted) butter on 10 sec increments until mostly soft, omit the salt entirely otherwise, and just keep the kitchenaid a-pumpin’ until it became a soft gooey butter-sugar deliciousness.
I also used regular sized chocolate chips, but my knife is really sharp and a firm hand cut right through the chocolate chips. (Sharpen your knives, people!)
And.. they just came out of the oven… beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I love them! Boyfriend has already requested a large glass of milk and said, “I don’t know what those are, but I want milk with them.” Love it! Thanks!
There are a lot of things that can cause cookies to spread, those of you who had trouble with this. I summarize a bunch of them over here.
Hi Deb – I just made these, they’re very good! I like the bit of saltiness from the fleur de sel (which I used for the first time today). Do ya think I could sprinkle some on top for added fleur de sel goodness? Thanks for your input!
Just made these to bring to a housewarming, and they are spectacular! Butter was pretty cold, but it eliminated the need to chill the dough, which was easy to work with and sliced well. Must have sliced a bit thick though (or more likely, eaten wayy more dough than I thought…) because it only made 20 cookies. Came out a cross between brownie bites and shortbread! Yummm. Also substituted 1/4c. of all purpose flour with whole wheat, and used dark brown sugar over light. Will definitely try with some spice next time (and make them smaller). Thanks!
Cookie heaven is just one egg away from this recipe :) It solves all sorts of problems – crumbliness, lack of chewiness, etc. I had to make them 3 times to realise that!
Thank you, Deb, for all the wonderful recipes! With your help, I look like a real chef to my friends!
Just had one of these cookies yesterday bought in a local bakery.
It was so, so good that I just googled it by the off chance it was someone else’s cookie…and here it is! The one I ate had grey sea salt sprinkled on top- someone mentioned that above and was just a fantastic touch. If given a chance, this cookie really could heal the world.
Thank you for the metric measurements! I am studying in Germany this year and it is so frustrating to have to translate everything to grams, but now you did it for me :)
These are the very best. Absolutely delicious.
They look delicious but Deb you might want to update the wording of the recipe – i just got to the end and realised I haven’t included the baking soda! I assume I was meant to add it where you’ve put “add the flour”… oops! am sure they’ll still be delicious!
Thanks, Pip!
Hey Deb (and everyone else),
This was really easy to make. I was careful to warm the butter and cream it properly, which meant I had almost no crumbling while handling the dough. I didn’t chill it. I scooped tablespoonfuls of dough and made approximate disks with my palms. The cookies were fine–they didn’t spread too much and they came out as Deb said, looking like they weren’t quite done. I learned the hard way to let them cool entirely before even removing them from the pan–or else they crumble. Go figure.
The flavor was pretty good but, alas, it wasn’t mindblowing. I’d stick with fine salt and avoid the fleur de sel–made the salt too noticeable for me. I do like an intense, melty sort of chocolate cookie, but these are just a tad fussy too handle. But: perhaps they will “settle” and be mindblowing tomorrow. I wait with bated breath.
Peace,
Néné (longtime lurker, first-time poster, and SK fan :))
I’ve started making these a while ago and they’ve become a staple – easy, delicious and impressive every time!
I’m moving and in attempt to finish off the odds and end in my pantry, I made my last batch in my current place, using up the coco powder, chocolate chips, butter and… all whole wheat flower! They came out delicious as always. Slightly more substantial, with a great short-bread like texture. I may just use all whole wheat flower again next time!
Deb, these are a favorite of mine…a perfect combination! Thank you so much for the well-written recipe!
I posted about the cookies here:
http://thisistolove.blogspot.com/2011/06/world-peace-please.html
Just made these. So so so so so yummy!!!!
Made these yesterday, and they’re almost all gone today. They are incredibly good, hence I won’t ever be making these again – at least not for me – since I can’t seem to restrain myself. Thanks for the recipe!
Made these cookies last night — one of those eat-chocolate-or-I-will-commit-murder days for me too. These were just the ticket and the recipe worked perfectly. I’ll be keeping a log of this dough in the freezer for just such emergencies.
I just made these little pockets of joy and WOW. They are fabulous. My roommates are in love with me after I introduced this recipe to their lives.
Thanks!
They make these at Miette bakery in SF, they were my absolute favorite splurge. When we moved away, I was forced to discover how easy and inexpensive they are to make. Peeps are even more impressed with a little chili powder and a sprinkle of sea salt added. Going straight to the kitchen!
Hi there, considering flanking a slice of ice cream with two of these dark chocolate treats. I’ve read your description and read over most of the posts and still feel uncertain if these cookies have a little crunch to them. Do they? I prefer a cookie with a little crunch when making a ice cream sandwich, so I’m hoping these do, as I really do want to make them. Or perhaps they don’t, but others can speak of ice cream sandwich success with them? Thanks much.
Hi Amber — They’re sables, and sables should also have a little “snap” to them!
great! thanks for responding so quickly Deb. I’ll be making these puppies tomorrow night. best.
I made these as cooking therapy last night after a particularly brutal two weeks of 12-hour-day, office-on-the-weekends work and brought them into the office this morning. Everyone loved them! Thanks so much for a delicious recipe; these cookies were the bright spot in my weekend! :)
I came across this recipe a few weeks ago and I’ve made it twice already! These cookies are absolutely delicious. I love the rich chocolate flavor and touch of salt, and their simplicity. Thanks for sharing these and for such a great blog. I keep coming back for inspiration and new recipes.
Love this recipe but I obviously don’t know how one should go about cutting these cookies if they are frozen…tried a serrated knife and cut my fingers…owwww! Waah! Any tips?
These cookies are fantastic. Your directions are great, and as thorough as always. I’m not sure why many of the commenters had such crumbling issues; maybe their butter was too cold when mixing? My dough formed into beautiful logs and I only had a teeny-tiny bit of crumbling when I sliced them before baking. They are going to be part of my Thanksgiving spread.
Just a bit of advice for those without enough counter space for a stand mixer. I used a hand mixer, but then at the end just went at it with my hands. Knead and mix and smush until it looks like … well…. poo. Hahah, I’m totally serious, my boyfriend came in and said they looked like poop logs. This did not prevent him from eating these amazing cookies!
I love these cookies and have made them numerous times over the past two years. I always double the recipe and freeze the logs. I also always use the mini chips as they make slicing easier. My secret addition to these is a 1/2 cup dried chopped cherries per batch, they are amazing with the chocolate and salt. Thanks Deb!!!
We used to make these for a petit four tray at a French restaurant where I was a pastry cook, and they were very popular. We made a couple of changes: they were lightly sprinkled with flaky gray salt after baking, and each cookie got a disc of bittersweet chocolate placed on top as they came out of the oven. The chocolate discs melted and we always served them warm, within 20 minutes or so of baking. The famous French chef in charge of the place used to snarf them up like potato chips, then we’d have to scramble to bake more to replace what he ate. They were so good. Your post brings back happy memories!
I found Dorrie’s listing of the metric measurements and she has 180grams for the brown sugar. http://doriegreenspan.com/2009/02/world-peace-cookies-metric-measures-and-variations.html
World Peace?? They look great but recipe is terrible! All I had was a powdery mess…followed recipe to a “T”….Piled my powder mess into saran and hoping they bake later…does not look even remotely promising…hoping I did not waste time and money on a recipe only the pros can make from a commercial kitchen!
Alicia
St Louis, MO
Hi Jen — Thanks for bringing that to my attention. When I added weights to this recipe, I deferred to the ones she provided in her Paris Sweets book. At the time, I didn’t often work with weights — now I do daily and wow, many these numbers are very far from the ones I get in my own kitchen today. For example, I get 157 for 1 1/4 cups of flour. I get 155 for 11 tablespoons of butter. (The package of butter itself says that one stick weighs 113; her number cannot be right.) And I actually get 120 to 130 for 2/3 cup light brown sugar, not 180, not even close. So, I am going to remove the weights for now, until I can retest them according to the correct weights for these cup measurements. Thanks again, and sorry for the confusion.
These are my all time favorite cookies. Period. And I don’t even like chocolate.
These are very very good. I recommend them to everybody who likes either chocolate, sugar, or cookies; and to everybody who doesn’t.
I made these for my husband so we’d have something special for Christmas Day. They were a tad on the salty side, but the texture came out great! I used chocolate chunks instead of mini-chips, which I do regret because it definitely made the slicing harder. I would make them again, though I’d dial back on the salt a little for my personal taste and use mini-chips as you had suggested. Thanks for the recipe, Deb! I look forward to getting the weight version – I think I put too much butter in.
Im wondering if this delicious looking post has been forgotten about. Did you ever find the time to convert the recipe into weights? I would like to try them but worried about measurements since Australian cup and spoon sizes are different. Loving your blog by the way.
Hi Olivia — Not forgotten. I only added the note about having to remove the weights recently, but I’ll get back to them soon.
Hi, made the “dough” last night and think I may have made a boo-boo somewhere, it was less crumbly and morelike, well, sand. I have managed to press it together to make two sausage shapes and will see how they slice and bake tonight. It may be that I used too little butter as we don’t have sticks of butter in England sadly. That said, I remember that the dough was similar when I did a Zingerman’s class on Salted Pecan Sandies so fingers crossed!
Hi again Deb. Just wondering (for the sake of World Peace of course) if you could drop absolutely everything in your busy schedule to retest this recipe. Im itching to try them and too scared to have a go without the weights in case I waste some really good chocolate I received as a gift. I’ll come over and do the washing up if that helps.
O…M…G. These are really, really delicious. Addictive. I ate at least 10 over the weekend, and I am already thinking of making more. By thinking I mean obsessing.
I’m an American living in England, and I brought over my American measuring cups and spoons for situations just like this one. Well worth having a set of cups, as they’re small and cheap and make American recipes a lot easier to follow. I measured the butter by weight (4 oz. is one stick of butter, about 113 grams) and added 3 US tbsp, and it seemed fine.
I am a novice baker, and did all the mixing by hand. I let the butter come to room temperature first, and then I beat it for at least 7 minutes (workin the biceps, aw yeah), until the butter was really soft but not melty at all. Beat the butter and sugar together for awhile, too. Hand mixing made it really easy to add the flour mixture and to mix it just enough to stick together without overmixing.
I used a bar of 85% dark chocolate that I grated more than chopped (it’s pretty cold here and the chocolate decided that’s what it wanted to do). Used dark brown sugar instead of light. The dough was very crumbly and I was worried about consistency but I figured as long as it held together to make logs I’d be okay. I used the plastic wrap to make the logs, putting the dough into the wrap and using the wrap to roll it into log shape instead of touching it too much with my hands. That seemed to work, at least it stuck to the wrap and not my hands. I refrigerated overnight because I didn’t start making them ’til 9pm and I decided I would test my willpower by waiting to bake ’til the next day. After refrigerating the dough was still crumbly but managed to hold for slicing.
The end product was well worth the next day’s arm pain from mixing. Crumbly with bits of chocolate and occasional hits of salty deliciousness. And I felt like a bit of a gourmet being able to make them, woot. Thanks for this outstanding biscuit recipe!
This is long overdue, but…
I served these cookies at our wedding (~120 people) last winter, and after testing several recipes, mulling over different dessert options, these were the obvious choice to satisfy our range of guests! Everyone (the smart ones) loves chocolate, and because the dough can be made ahead of time, I was able to designate someone as “Chief Oven Operator” to tackle the slicing and baking. As most chocolate based recipes go, I recommend making these a day ahead so as to achieve full potency upon serving! Thank you, Deb, for bringing “peace” to my wedding experience :)
Hi, if anyone needs metric measurements, I have it worked out. Some numbers are rounded off… :)
156g all-purpose flour
40g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
156g unsalted butter
134g packed light brown sugar
57g sugar
1/2 tsp fleu de sel or 1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
142g bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips
Oh, and these are tested (as in I baked the cookies) and I had the crumbly dough problem but it was otherwise amazing. I hope I managed to help someone! :)
I made this recipe yesterday; the logs looked a little crumbly but it was ok, my mistake was that I froze them for three hours instead of putting them in the fridge for 3 hours :s
As expected it was terribly hard to cut them but they ended up nice. The flavor was intense and good but I wasn’t expecting them to harden so quick, they were great when still warm; however I put them in sealed containers after they were completely cooled and today they were crunchy and not chewy at all.
thank you! these are the most delicious cookies i have ever made! my husband requests these once a week now, and they dont last much longer than a couple of days because they taste so amazing. i omit most of the white sugar bc i like them a little less sweet. thanks again for some dangerously delicious cookies!
I LOVE these cookies, but I have to remember to measure my ingredients better, especially the butter, so my batter isnt quite so dry.
Huminahhuminah! These are BY FAR the BESTEST cookies i’ve ever baked in my life. I am very much a beginner in the baking dept. so I hand-mixed it and it turned out exquisitely! I gobbled 4 of them at once! Oh I will dream of them in my sleep tonight:) Thank you!
This was my second time making these cookies, and I made sure to measure everything exact this time, but the dough was still really crumbly and dry! So threw in an egg, some cayenne, and a dash of cinnamon. Yum!
Made yesterday, as peace seemed like a good thing on a Sunday. These are fantastic! After slicing and putting in the oven, I had my doubts that they would look like the photos. Happily, I was wrong. Waited the requisite period of time and tried one…oh, my! I made half and put the other log into the freezer for a cookie emergency day (could be today)! Great recipe. Putting into my binder of keepers.
Dear Deb,
I read your post and the comments about weight measures. You’re right: 180 grams of light brown sugar are too much.
Some European blogs report the Hermé recipe with 120 grams of brown sugar + 50 grams of caster sugar: so I think that 180 grams is, more or less, the total amount of sugars in this recipe.
But all the European recipes call for 175 grams of flour (that is 1 and 3/4 cup), while I use 125 grams (that is 1 and 1/4 cup, as you say).
What I think is that, bouncing from France to the US, the recipe has become an hybrid: some ingredients are correct in weight, some others in capacity measures… Which would explain why the dough is sometimes “crumbly” and breaks down when sliced before cooking…
If it can be of any help, these are the ingredients in grams I use:
125g all-purpose flour
35g unsweetened cocoa powder
150g butter
130g light brown sugar
50g sugar (but I don’t use it and the recipe works fine)
1/2 tsp fleur de sel
1/2 tsp baking soda
150g bittersweet chocolate
Thanks for the precious, great work you do with this blog… which I’m in love with.
Ciao from Italy,
Sabrine
Ok I made these and followed the recipe exactly. They are HEAVEN! But no way di the recipe make 36–I only got 20. I measured exactly and rolled them and cut them exactly as directed. Great recipe tho!
BTW, I also added dried cherries and macadamia nuts to the recipie.
I’ve made these 4 or 5 times at least now, thank you so much for the recipe! They are always a hit. Since I’m lazy I often end up using regular-sized chocolate chips (which I usually have on hand), it makes them a bit harder to slice but you can just kind of shove the pieces together on the pan, lol. I also usually end up using cocoa that’s meant for hot chocolate rather than the unsweetened kind. I made it with peppermint cocoa once and everyone loved the subtle peppermint-y flavor. :) The point that they won’t look done is very important! They are definitely better chewy rather than crispy, IMHO.
How much is one stick of butter?
4 ounces, 1/2 cup or 113 grams.
Thanks for great recipe. I love these cookies!
Sinful or heavenly?! I am leaning towards sinful because I CAN’T stop the desire to eat more! Thanks for the recipe. They turned out perfect and I’m sure friends will be delighed!
These were awesome cookies! I’ve made them twice in the last two weeks: First, I sent a batch and a half (kept a few back for quality control ;) ) to my brother overseas–they made the week-long journey no problem. Then I made a second batch with 85% chocolate since I had nothing between that and semi-sweet; I also didn’t refrigerate them that time. They were still so good! Planning a third batch after I finish your oreos.
made these for dessert to go with pre fast meal and more for break fast tomorrow night. came out perfect. i used a hand mixer for the butter and sugar. when adding the flour i switched to a spatula and incorporated everything else by hand and it came out great. Flouring my counter helped when shapping the logs. Was relieved to have instructions in the recipe about crumbling, which mine did a little. With reshaping they did work just fine. I used a tad less brown sugar because i thought there was enough sugar already and it was fine. Great PMS cookies (sorry guys….). have a sweet new year!
I love love LOVE this recipe. I tried a few with crushed candy canes on top. I think I would crush them finer next time, but they look really festive! I tried to roll the log in candy canes but that failed in the oven. I might try rolling them in something else to get a pretty edge on them… not that they need any help. They’re AMAZING!
I am a novice baker, and will admit, upon seeing the dough I was skeptical- first, it looked like a pile of chocolate dirt, then like two rather unappetizing chocolate logs, then I had to use a very sharp knife to slice after the dough was chilled overnight in the fridge. I was pretty sure I had failed at some point- overkneaded the dough when making the logs, not creamed the butter sufficiently with my hand mixer, overbaked etc. And yet, somehow, in spite of my rookie baking skills, I can only report that the cookies are DELICIOUS. Thank you for this recipe! (although some “in the process” pics might help others like me from panicking!)
I made these cookies few weeks ago and they spread a bit in the oven but still were amazing. Maybe it was the margarine I used instead of butter or I didn’t measure the flour properly. I just made them again using Greenspan’s metric measures and I think the dough looks better. I thought I’d share the link for anyone else that prefers weight measures.
http://doriegreenspan.com/2009/02/world-peace-cookies-metric-measures-and-variations.html
Thank you for the recipe Deb! Tomorrow I’ll try your roasted chestnut cookies:)
Dough is chilling now, but — I added peppermint oil and espresso powder (the latter to, in part, make up for being a little short on sorghum to make brown sugar). Oh GOD, peppermint and vanilla and chocolate…! Can’t wait to bake ’em off tomorrow morning. Sending most to work with my sweetie. Too dangerous to keep all at home.
I had the crumbly-chilled-dough problem, but it was nothing to manage; I just broke it up with a spoon over time and pressed/rolled chunks into balls. They’re deliciously deep and dark.
I made these and added a single egg, 1.5tsp cinnamon, and a scant tsp of ancho chili powder with the intent of making Mexican Chocolate cookies. They turned out delicious and my guests loved them. Followed the recipe exactly as written otherwise – and may not have needed the egg, but didn’t want the dough to be too dry – and it turned out great. Love it.
Planning on making these for my sick babies and I have a ? I read through all the comments and hopefully didn’t miss the answer :- I understand that the dough wi be crumbly but is it a MUST that it be shaped into logs&sliced? Is chilled dough with a cookie scooper out of the question due to the texture of the mixture? 3 sick kids only 1 mom,trying to save some time/steps but not if it’s indeed crucial to the outcome of the cookie! Thanks!
luvmychaos — This isn’t the kind of dough (like chocolate chip) that if you scoop it, it will flatten out in the oven. It needs to start closer to the shape that you want it to finish. Slicing and baking seemed the easiest.
Thanks Deb! They are chilling as logs in the fridge now!
My dough turned out very crumbly–am baking a second batch now and am hoping that an extra few days in the fridge will keep the dough more coherent. The dough is really crumbling apart when I slice it so some of the cookies are super ugly. But they sure are tasty.
Wow! These cookies are a dangerously quick and easy way to indulge a chocolate craving. Rich, dark, and intense in a way I did not expect from looking at the photos (I was thinking they’d be like a light chocolate shortbread with dark chocolate chips), they are stunning. There are quite a few chocolate/brownie cookie recipes on my to-bake list, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get to them now! This may be the only chocolate cookie I ever need.
Hey Deb! I made these cookies and seemingly followed the directions to a T, but for some reason the cookies totally flattened in the oven. I didn’t use too much baking soda and I had them refrigerated overnight. They sliced great and looked just right before baking them, but afterwards were flat and thin. Any advice?
Hi Annie — I’m a little stumped. I have general guidelines about the things that make cookies spread, but it’s hard to know if any of these are the culprit. I’ll update this comment if I come up with a better idea of what could be the cause.
I Made these for the 1st time because we had a cookie contest at work and they won 1st place. I am no baker but followed every detail. The unsalted butter was room temp, I used a hand mixer, I also used a timer when I added the sugars. They came out perfect. I did read all the comments and avoided the pit falls.I also added Dried Cherries as someone else did. I also iced them with a dark choc frosting and chocolate sprinkels. I then topped half of them with a few Dried Cherries, I topped the other half with wait for it……. BACON! The Sea salt lead me to it, perfect balance with bitter sweet chocolate, tart cherries,salty crisp bacon. 1st time out of the gate and they took 1st place at work now everyone is going to try this at home. I was up against some serious bakers too. I will pull out this chocolate dream again! Thank You.
Hi Deb! These cookies are in the oven right now. Well, by cookies, I mean an assortment of misshapen chunks. But I’m still excited to eat them… anywho–a question! I froze the logs of dough, and when I tried to slice the log into rounds, the frozen dough just crumbled and broke into the aforementioned chunks. Should I have let the dough sit for an hour? You mentioned that there was no need to defrost, but I wonder… let me know what ya think! :)
Sandra — They are a pest, I agree (sables = sandy) but if cut very carefully with a sharp serrated knife and holding the end of the log so the slice comes off in one piece, and not several, I promise it works. I use a small, gentle sawing motion. I hope this helps for next time. Now, crumble those chunks over ice cream and maybe save me some?
P.S. these are the greatest chocolate chunks I’ve ever eaten.
You know it! Thanks, Deb. Glad I have that second log to try out this brilliant strategy… and well, if all else fails, we’ve got ourselves a new recipe: ice cream chocolate sandy crumble. Hoooo nelly.
I just had to contribute that I made these a few days ago and they barely crumbled at all, baked up perfectly after a night in the fridge, and were surprisingly easy compared to all the hullabaloo I expected. :) As for the few crumbly pieces, it was easy enough to squoosh them onto a cookie disk or (more often) eat them. thanks for an awesome recipe!
I have made these a few times, but wanted to share the version I made this weekend for my fiance’s family. They were such a hit! Instead of the chocolate pieces, I mixed in 1/2 c. of peanut butter chips and 1/2 c. of mini chocolate chips.
AMAZING!!!
Plus, the peanut butter chips against the chocolate dough was just too pretty. Seriously, you need to make them with peanut butter chips. Now.
Made these after having my eye on them for awhile. I was really unsure about the rolling the crumbly dough into logs part, esp after what some commenters said about having trouble with it. Sure enough my dough was REALLY crumbly, not just a little. So…I added 2 eggs to the batter, dropped them onto a cookie sheet and baked them straight up. Really nice right out of the oven, a nice dark chocolate cookie with a more cakey texture. I guess the rolling and chilling part is what makes them so special, but I didn’t do it so I couldn’t tell you!
I saw these cookies when they first posted and thought they looked good. Over the years since, I have considered making them several times but for some reason which I cannot figure out now decided against it. (Was it the time to chill the dough? Obviously is wasn’t that they required some strange ingredient.) Thankfully, I was feeling like I needed something chocolatey and that I wanted to bake something with my 3.5 year old son who likes to turn on the mixer and (finally!) picked out this recipe. Man. This might be my new favorite cookie. I hate that I missed 6 (!!) whole years of being able to make these cookies. To make up for lost time, I made on thursday and then again tonight. And I might have saved 3 cookies worth of dough to bake and eat all by myself while my son was at preschool on friday. I used regular ole’ hershey’s cocoa and semi-sweet chocolate chips in batch one (what I had on hand) and then got some mini chips today for batch two. They do slice better using the mini chips, but I also liked the bigger puddles of chocolate I got when I used the regular chips. I loved the sandy texture and deep chocolate flavor. My only complaint is that I should have doubled the recipe – I made these for some dinner guests and was wishing there was more around for me to eat. :)
At altitude (I’m at 8000′) an extra tablespoon of butter makes all the difference. When I made these the first time, the dough was so dry as to be completely unformable. With 6 oz. (1.5 sticks) of butter, it was actually possible to roll the dough into logs and almost all of the cookies sliced without crumbling. The only other change I made was to let the logs sit on the counter for about 15 minutes before slicing. Needless to say, these cookies are fabulous!
I ate two of these cookies right out of the oven because you said that’s when they’re best. Then I ate another two in the middle of the night at 2:00am (don’t judge). Another for breakfast. I’ve got to get these cookies out of the house — do you give advice on this?
I’m not even sure if I made these correctly – i kind of forgot about the extra 3TBSP of butter – but oh my god are they good, even if they don’t look as pretty as the ones in the picture. They really don’t look done after 12 minutes, but trust. I’m going to go eat another one right now.
Cute and delicious, what more could a world want?
The best chocolate cookie I ever had . Buttery and the brown sugar gives them a sweet crispness with the indulgence of a chocolate brownie contained in a cookie. I can see why one would have a hard time keeping a distance. I am writing and my next move is pulling me towards the aroma of that (Sablés Korova). Thanks for creating my next addiction.
Were able to test out the measurements by weight instead of volume?
Am I the only one who found these cookies were underdone after a little over 12 minutes at 160?
Yup. These are fantastic. I didn’t have a whole 5 ounces of chocolate to mix in so I chopped up some hazelnuts to round them out. I was curious how they’d hold up the next day, but not a cookie survived the dinner party I made them for.
Hi Deb! I’m going to make these for my boyfriend – he’s South American and likes spicy food. I was ultimately looking for a cayenne chocolate cookie and decided instead to find the ultimate chocolate chip cookie and try adding cayenne. Do you think 1 tsp would work in this recipe? Not having made the original, I’m not sure…
Thanks! Lisa
I made these yesterday! Here some pictures
http://sillyapron.com/2014/03/04/weather-inspired-delights-part-3/
I just made these! The dough was really crumbly (didn’t read the other comments before making them) and wouldn’t hold shape at all despite fridging, so I added a generous tablespoon of peanut butter to one of the batches as glue. That worked! Then they were easy to make balls out of.
I mixed these up and refrigerated them overnight and just got them out of the oven. They are ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. I sprinkled a tiny bit more sea salt over the top and I’m actually afraid that I’m going to eat had the batch before my housemates get home. These are definitely going in my ‘cookies to impress’ folder!
These are really really fantastic. They always bake up uber-chocolatey, sandy, and melt-in-the-mouth mm-mm-good.
I always do the recipe as written, but omit the chocolate chunks… instead I mix in 1x recipe of Christina Tosi (of Momofuku Milk Bar fame + notoriety)’s, the Graham Crust… it’s 1 1/2 c graham crumbs, 3/4 tsp kosher salt, 4 tbsp milk powder, 2 tbsp granulated sugar, 4 tbsp melted butter, 1/4 c 35% cream (all mixed up and thrown into the stand mixer or bowl you’ve got the wpc batch going on in… toward the last couple of stirs, as it starts to all come together).
The wpc x tosi’s graham crust is KILLER!!! I sliced it into 42 cookies (random number but yea got a lot out of the entire log… didn’t halve the recipe) and colleaues SCARFED at work. sooo epic. thanxxx =3
Since these are the best cookies ever and have inspired sighs of joy from every party/work function/new mom I’ve ever brought them to, I decided that they’re the go-to cookie to bring along to labor & delivery to thank the nurses when i deliver! Chilling in the freezer now… can’t wait to put them in the oven, since that means it’s time for our little bun to come out of the oven!!
Fantastic cookie. and you’re right about the room temperature. in the interest of “science” i tested both warm and cool cookies and the cooled ones have a fantastic texture. Now if only I could find a way to deliver these daily to to Putin and ISIS… and start working on that World Peace
Just made these to bring to a meeting with my PhD committee–I have high hopes of their happiness-inducing power but also wanted to add a note. I followed the recipe, may have used a little too much or too coarsely chopped dark chocolate, and found that the logs could not be sliced directly out of the freezer. Letting them thaw a bit on the stovetop while preheating the oven (~5min) helped a lot.
Another note: they also seem to hold up better to baking when allowed to further thaw.
The first batch I sliced (faintly thawed to do so) seemed to ‘break’, resulting in dark-roast, espresso-like lacey cookies that while delicious (if you like dark roast) are not at all the same as the second batch, which had an additional 13 minutes of sitting, sliced, on a cookie sheet waiting their turn.
I have tried making these cookies two times before, and both times the dough was incredibly dry, crumbly, and hard to deal with. Even after chilling in the refrigerator, the logs were really difficult to slice into cookies because they would always fall apart and it was really difficult to even press them into anything that resembled a cookie! I saw the recipe on food52 today and thought I’d try to make them again to cheer up a friend, and there was a note there that REALLY helped me and I thought I’d write it here to help anyone else having great difficulty with dry or crumbly dough:
If measuring by volume, it’s important to measure the flour and cocoa lightly, as follows: stir flour briefly in the container or bag, spoon into the measuring cup until it’s heaped above the rim, then level it with a straight-edged knife or spatula. If you dip the measuring cup into the container, you’ll have more flour and cocoa and a drier, crumblier, more difficult dough.
My dough turned out not the least bit dry or crumbly this way. It resembled the normal cookie dough ratio of dry to wet. And the cookies are AMAZING!
Darn and blast……my dough is in the fridge but I’ve just realised that I’ve used 1 UK stick of butter which is more than double a US stick! Not sure it’s worth bothering to bake them but I’m desperate for a choccy fix. Botheration! Also my mix is too salty.
Help!! I made the World Peace Cookies today and don’t know what I did wrong. Maybe I mixed my dough too much?? It was too moist and sticky. I actually had to add some flour after I took it out of the mixing bowl cause it was sticking to everything. Is that what I did wrong. I managed somehow to get it into a sticky mess of a log and they are in the fridge so hoping they will bake okay. I bake a lot but am very much a novice when it comes to knowing how to correct things. I really don’t know what I did wrong. Any suggestions or comments I would appreciate.
It’s okay if the dough is sticky, that’s why we chill/firm it before slicing or rolling it. Hope it all worked out.
Hey Deb, have the gotten the chance to fix the weight measurements for these cookies?
I don’t have fleur de sel…can I use Maldon sea salt flakes instead?
If yes, should I crush them a bit for smaller pieces?
Glad you mentioned you used Dutch processes cocoa..I will copy that.
What brand bittersweet chocolate did you use…just curious.
I skipped the choc chips… these cookies made great ice cream cookie sandwiches. Thank you!
Belated congratulations on the birth of your daughter! I’d like to make these for friends who had a baby a few days ago. Any chance you have weight measurements for the recipe? Thanks.
Thank you for this recipe, these are AMAZING! I used a hand mixer briefly but did more of it by hand and it was fine. Chilled overnight in the fridge for convenience. I had no problem with the dough, it was crumbly as you said but I trusted your descriptions and they came out as described. I will definitely be making them again!
I made these today after picking them from one of your special lists.
They are fantastic! Thank you! I will definitely make this my regular chocolate cookie to make a few times a year! With the precaution that it is extremely difficult to stop eating them after only 2 or 3! 6 must be the normal, don’t feel too guilty, it’s the cookie’s fault, minimum!
I found pouring/spooning half of the crumbly dough mixture right onto a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and using the mat or paper to form the roll worked very well. Spread the pile a little along the middle of the widest length of the mat, then roll over the side nearest you and work to pack and spread the mixture, squeezing and spreading with your fingers, until you have a 1.5 inch diameter roll that will be about 12 inches long when you pack in the ends until they’re firm. Bonus: when you cut this roll every 1/2 inch, you get about 48 cookies instead of Deb’s 36! And they look just like the photos in the recipe!
Hello everyone. I made these with the metric measurements as posted on Food52 and Dorie’s website. Although they don’t convert back “correctly” they came out well. I used mini chocolate chips and Hershey’s special dark cocoa. It will be interesting to try these with the converted weights or just my good old measuring cups. I have no clue how anyone is getting 36 or more cookies out of the recipe though. Mine came out with 27 counting the little end bits
So I made these! And oohhhh wow! So good.
Sooo so good.
I had only one egg, so I was super excited to see that I could still make cookies! Which is something I wanted to do because I have an office party tomorrow, and wanted to bring cookies.
My roommate and I have, however, eaten nearly all of them.
I did throw the egg in. Using a hand mixer, it didn’t quite get together. But after switching to the stand mixer’s high setting, it turned into a good batter!
I wanted a solid version of mexican hot chocolate, so I used this along with a touch of ground red pepper powder, a ton of nutmeg, cinnamon, and extra vanilla.
So. Good.
Sadly, not many left for the co-workers! I’ll know to make a larger batch next time.
I adore these cookies.I’ve made them many times. My issue is with the crumbliness (my word) of the dough. It is very hard for it to form a log. I have to pinch and squeeze and when I cut the dough it falls apart. I don’t over-beat. I do exactly as the recipe calls for. Nothing different. The crumbly texture drives me nuts but the cookies are totally excellent once baked.
Made these for Christmas- they may be the best cookie I have ever eaten. I made a double batch with Ghiridelli mini-chips, and also a gluten free version with King Arthur gluten free flour. I had no problem with crumbly dough, my butter was super soft and thoroughly creamed. Used my Kitchenaid stand mixer. Dough sliced and baked 12 mins, came out without any spreading and were delicious. A few days after Christmas I made a second batch. The dough looked and tasted identical but the cookies did not turn out- the dough spread and I had a flat unappealing crispy mess. I tried baking less time, the 4th tray I only baked 6 mins and it turned out a little better but still spreading on the edge. I think I may have used dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar the second time, it is the only think I can think of that may have been different.
How would you say that these compare to your chocolate sables? https://smittenkitchen.com/2013/01/intensely-chocolate-sables/
I haven’t put them next to each other. I don’t think you’ll be unhappy with either. These have a cooler name. :)
I’ve made the sables several times (I roll and slice instead of the added step of cookie cutter). Now having made the World Peace cookies I can say that they are easier to make than the sables, have a slight chew and are less chocolaty. But as you said, I’m happy with both! :-)
Love these cookies!!! Started making them “back in the day” where bloggers made Dorie’s recipes & then posted their results. THE best!!!! My most requested recipe ever. One of my freezer favorites!!!
How much butter is 1 STICK of butter.
I live in Canada and I want to make sure of the measurement!
THANK YOU
One stick of butter is a 1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons.
Thanks for working on the grams! I’m living in Australia for two years, and have to weigh out my butter for recipes from the States. I brought along my US teaspoon and tablespoon measures, so those aren’t problems, but I struggle with butter every time.
Perfect timing! Dorie Greenspan was on Ed Kimber’s podcast ‘Stir the Pot’ which I listened to this morning talking about these beauties. I think its a sign I must make them this weekend or world peace will never be achieved!
Ruth
alwaysaddcinnamon.wordpress.com
I had the issue that others have mentioned, too dry and crumbly. I was able to smash them into a roll to chill. When I offered to my main tester, he hated them. Said they tasted like gritty sugar. I would have to agree. Quite a disappointment. I followed the recipe exactly. Oh well. Plenty of other great cookies out there!
To give an update, I tried making them again. Not sure what happened the first time, but the second batch came out incredible. The only thing that was different is that butter was super soft (left it out for >24 hrs). The consistency of the initial dough was markedly different. I guess you have a point about being patient. With other recipes, I have been able to push through with moderately softened butter. Learned my lesson!
These cookies are chcolately addictive adult cookies. I followed the recipe and everything worked perfectly. The log I put in the fridge for three hours cut beautifully, no crumbling. The log I put in the freezer crumbled a lot more, so that is the issue for people who are complaining about crumbling. Put it in the fridge Patience! The cookies are worth it!
For anybody who wants metric measurements (or if Deb can update above), Mr Hermé gives these quantities in France:
175g flour
30g cocoa powder (alkalized/dutched)
5g bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
150g butter, softened
120g light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
3g flaky sea salt
2g vanilla extract
150g chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
…just to confirm, direct from the horse’s mouth in English:
Pierre Hermé’s Sablé Infiniment Chocolat
Hi! Wondering if you had weight updates – I’m buying her new cookbook and was inspired by a friend to make these… Thanks!
Hey, has anyone tried to do these rolled and cut out as opposed to sliced from log form? I would love to match them in size to other cookies I’m packaging up as gifts. I’ve made these before and they are amazing, but for some reason I am terrible with slicing consistently and end up with a bunch of differently shaped cookies!
Ah, never mind. I’ll work on my technique. I’m reading the comments and recalling what the dough was like!
I just made these cookies and I think they were not good. There are lots of great chocolate cookies out these, plain brownies would be better. This is the first thing you ever posted that I haven’t liked. They aren’t that pretty for one thing, and they are simply not anything special. Mine did not actually harden – stayed ‘floppy’. My son even checked my recipe, my process, the ingredients. Nothing wrong on my end. Do these need a missing egg or something? They have a very rich chocolate intensity, so much so that they need an antidote to the richness – salt on top? Something else to also make them look good?
I’ve made these, and agree that they’re not pretty; rather rustic-looking. I enjoy them very much, but they suit my taste – I like intense chocolate flavor and the sweet/salty combo. I’ve got the book they were published in, and the recipe does not call for an egg. I’m sorry these didn’t work out for you!
I have had my eye on these since the smitten kitchen days of yore when Deb first posted them, but I didn’t make them until now and they served as my ice breaker into Dorie’s new cookie cookbook. Within, she has a couple of paragraphs about how patience is key with this dough. Even after chilling it might be crumbly. But no matter, just call on your inner peace, take a breath and smoosh the pieces back together. I ran into this too and they still turned out great. Hope that helps anyone who has had trouble. For me, they are perfect – intensely chocolate that you really only need one or two at a time with a big mug of coffee.
I’m just curious why you need to refrigerate the dough for 3 hours before baking the cookies? Also, are these cookies chewy? I love to cook, but am not much of a baker, so am trying to learn all I can. Thanks!
Helps the dough firm up. You can probably get away with less time. When the dough is soft, it’s hard to work with and the shape won’t hold.
They are not chewy at all. They are crumbly.
Made these last night after a several year hiatus. They are the perfect cookie. I doubled recipe and they came together and rolled like magic. As VD (Valentine’s Day) is around the corner, added some pink sprinkles. But I can’t bring about world peace on my own, so get baking people! Love to Dorie Greenspan for getting these to us.
I made these using Bob’s Red Mill GF all-purpose flour (used exact amount) and they turned out GREAT! Delicious flavor. Will definitely make them again.
I found the dough wonderfully easy to work with, not crumbly or difficult, and the cookies baked up chocolatey and firm. I just found the combination of super-sandy texture and chocolate flavor dissonant and un-pleasing. Other people liked them, and it’s a great recipe, but there’s a definite personal-taste issue here. Sandy texture works for me with butter, vanilla, nut, or citrus flavor, but not chocolate.
That said, I plan to try them with confectioner’s sugar in the hope of getting a tender, short, crumbly texture without that grainy/sandy quality. The potential to have a deeply chocolate cookie without eggs is too good to give up on.
Update: I made them with confectioner’s sugar and liked the texture of the finished cookie much more. However, and equal weight of powdered sugar to the weight of sugar in the original recipe made cookies that were decidedly too sweet (I know, duh– brown sugar contains all that moisture which inflates the weight per volume, so an equal weight of bone-dry confectioner’s sugar is going to provide way more sweetness to the recipe). So I will use 25% less (by weight) next time and see where it gets me. But if you found these cookies too sandy, I heartily recommend the powdered sugar substitution.
Ok how do you keep your chilled dough from crumbling when you slice it? Every time I make these my dough crumbles when I slice so I just give up and make them drop cookies.
This was an easy recipe and I feel bad for those who didn’t achieve success the first time around. I only refrigerated for an hour and really feel that’s plenty time. I followed the recipe to a T and yes they crumbled while slicing the rolls, but barely. It was no big deal. I just patted the crumbles back and they went together just fine. The end results look exactly like the photos. I did sprinkle some rose de sel on top before baking and feel that any kind of salt is a good counterpoint to these cookies. My family raved about them and I thought they were good but world peace is stretching. All this said I’d rather have a really delicious scone!
What are your thoughts about adding sea salt caramel chips instead of chocolate?
I think that you should swap half with it and it would be amazing but wouldn’t want you to entirely miss out on the chocolate pockets.
These were fantastic! I couldn’t wait so I put the in the freezer for 30 minutes (as you previously commented) and they were so dangerous. Rich and delicious. Thank you for sharing!
The whole time I was making these I was skeptic. It’s more a crumble than a dough. Even after sitting in the fridge they exploded when I cut them with my knife (I used full sized chocolate chips and I know that didn’t help). As revenge for all my frustrations, I was determined to hate them once they came out of the oven.
I ate 6 in one sitting. They’re delicious.
I just made these. I love them & will make them again soon!! I did not get 36 cookies out of the recipe, more like 24
Found them to be very very crumblely. Unable to slice them effectively after 2 days in the refrigerator.
Dropped one tray on the floor ugh!!!!! My husband and I get to eat the crumbs
Tastes but wouldn’t make again….
This is slightly random, but my grandmother loves the flavor rocky road and I was hoping to make her a “rocky road” cookie. Do you think that this cookie could be a good base to play with (e.g., adding in nuts and marshmallows) or is it a little more finicky?
I feel closer to you than ever (not in a creepy way) after reading this post. Your relationship with chocolate is very familiar. I relate to every word.
These cookies are magical – the family (all grown ups at least in age) ran through the first batch in a couple of days, plus we are sharers, and in the interest of world peace didn’t exactly hoard them. This lead to a 2nd batch a few days later that I have to say I’m not as generous with or at least I cringe when I see others eating them this time around.
I used Scharffen Berger 70% chocolate bits in the first batch and Guittard 68% chips in the 2nd. I’m leaning toward the Scharffen Berger as the favorite.
So thank you. thank you for it all.
Made these and the salted chocolate chip shortbread for tonight. Prepped the dough for each, froze half, and baked the other half today. These were excellent. My husband preferred them to the Browniest Cookies. I had no issues with the dough. I’ll be making these again! Winner!
I made these during yesterday’s spring snowstorm. They are absolutely, knock-your-socks-off, great. Some notes:
1) i got distracted during the week and the dough sat in my fridge for 4 days instead of 3. They were fine.
2) i could not believe how crumbly and dry the dough was. But it was fine.
3) i thought they were a tiiiiny bit too sweet and next time i’ll cut the white sugar down by a third.
4) i ran out of chocolate chunks so i used a bit of unsweetened bakers chocolate and a handful of m&m’s, which worked out beautifully.
5) DO NOT SKIP THE FLEUR DE SEL, IT IS THE BEST PART.
I made these for a party and tested one from the first batch. Yum! On the second batch I sprinkled a tiny bit of Kosher salt on top of each cookie still warm from the oven. These were so much better and that’s saying something because the first batch was delicious. I’ll be sprinkling Kosher salt on all future batches.
Are the gram measures coming sometime soon? (it’s 2018!)
I needed cookies for a peace offering for our neighbor after my 5yo son threw pebbles (ok driveway gravel) at his car when I wasn’t looking. I’m counting on these World Peace Cookies to help!
I’ve been super nervous to add weights because Dorie has a version with weights but her ingredients have different weights than I get so …. I’d rather retest it both ways. Hence the delay. Sorry about that.
I know it’s been five years, but did the cookies work? Did your neighbor accept the peace offering? What is your son up to now? Hope all is well!
I made these cookies for the first time today and I have to say that I wasn’t at all impressed (the name probably helped set them up for failure). I found that they were dry, powdery, not particularly pretty to look at and were overly, cloyingly chocolate; I would have preferred some relief with the use of white chocolate or something other that the bittersweet chips. Think I’ll stick with your brownie recipes when I want something chocolatey.
I love, love, love these cookies. But I find the dough incredibly difficult to work with: in order to have a dough that will even attempt to cohere to itself, I have to reduce the flour by at least 2 TB. I triple-checked the recipe the first two times I made it (I was literally coming up with a dough like mildly wet sand – it hardly stuck to itself at all, and after refrigeration a knife just made it fall apart again).
Tips? Hints? Anyone else had this issue? I didn’t see anyone else complaining about this in the comments section… I’m wondering if it’s a question of place. I live somewhere quite dry and relatively high altitude (~4500 ft).
Helllp. They taste sooo good and they are sooo not pretty because they just instantly fall apart.
Same problem and have tried different fixes: adding heavy cream, more butter, less flour etc. I also wandered if it could be dryness and elevation. I am at 5000 ft. Hoping to find the perfect fix so it won’t mess up the texture. Open to anyone’s ideas. I love these cookies so much but they are a hot mess to work with for me.
Have you checked these high-altitude baking tips?
(Okay, sorry, just kidding. I read through the first several comments and didn’t see the same issue, but when I did Ctrl+F for “crumbl-” I immediately saw other people’s comments.
Gonna give this another go, with some of the troubleshooting from the comments section. :)
Deb!
It’s been seven years, and my scale is running low on batteries… how about those gram weights!?
Hugs,
gbc
Seconded. Or could you at least tell your European readers how much a “stick” of butter is? I can work with cups if I have to, but here butter comes in 250g packs, and since the USA apparently don’t do metric I’m guessing your packs don’t have the same weight.
Weights now added! Sorry for making you… wait. (I didn’t pun. Where is my reward?) (Sorry.)
Hooray!
I just made these. Let the dough rest for 4 hours in the frig. When sliced then baked at 325 F they melted and ran into each other. Didn’t hold their shape at all. Any ideas why?
I had the same problem. They spread out into flat lace cookies. I would have been embarrassed to serve them.
Just checking comments after getting my ingredients together. I feel so uncomfortable that there is no EGG in here! The crumbling, the spreading . . . wouldn’t an egg help?
I’m sure there could be other reasons, but the first time I made these a few years ago I accidentally used double the butter (lol) and my cookies spread terribly. Haven’t made that mistake since and these cookies come out reliably for me now.
I just finished what’s probably my 9th or 10th batch of these and had them run like this for the first time. But! I think these are the variables that mattered, to be summed up as “I was in a hurry.”
1. My oven runs 25*F hot. I know this. My brain usually automatically adjusts down. This time I did not and thought “They’ll be fine at what is effectively 350*F. I don’t have time to cool it down 25*F before I put them in.” They were not fine.
2. I put in two pans at once. The bottom pan ran way more than the top pan. The top pan is the one I will use to give as a hostess gift. The bottom pan I’m giving to my family. The bottom pan gets more heat in my oven and it made the butter run out more and created almost a crispy, greasy bottom to the too-hot cookies.
3. I didn’t let them cool for the full 3 hours. I tried to expedite things by freezer-ing them for 1 hour. They were plenty cold, I thought. It’s possible there is more happening in the 3+ hours of rest time than just chilling.
4. I don’t know if it was relevant, but this is the first time I’ve made this recipe in a stand mixer instead of a hand mixer. I will definitely go back to the hand mixer next time, as it’s frustrating to have this little butter effectively mix in a stand.
I made these and they melted entirely into crispy thin sheets of chocolate. Anyone else have this outcome? I followed the ingredients to the letter. Perhaps the recipe is lacking egg? Final version tastes good enough but looks like brownie brittle
Re crumbly dough/cookies: another factor to consider is the chocolate cocoa content. I usually make these with a 60% dark chocolate. With that and soft butter, the dough comes together and the cookie structure is that of a sablé. Today I made them with a 70% cocoa chocolate and though the dough came together, the resulting cookies are very fragile. The difference in cocoa and cocoa butter seems to matter here.
OMG! These are the best chocolate cookies I’ve ever made and I’ve been making cookies for 40 years! Recipe is perfect as written. Thank you Smitten!
Just wanted to say that after many years and many makings, these remain my go-to gift cookies for people. They always turn out, and are always warmly received. Thanks Deb!
There seem to be two camps of people when it comes to this cookie: people who absolutely love it and those who really don’t! I’m in the first group. I followed this recipe to a T and I think the cookies are delicious!!! Definitely not too sweet considering all the bitter cocoa powder and chocolate in it. I was already on alert for some unpleasant texture cause I had read comments, but I couldn’t find anything to complain about. Just delicious, super chocolatey cookies! I refrigerated the dough for the full 3 hrs and most of my cookies cut very easily without crumbling. My butter was very soft, so maybe that helped, cause when I turned out the dough to form logs, it had little trouble staying together. Of course the chocolate pieces made it a little harder to deal with the dough but overall, my experience was much easier than I expected. And the outcome is divine.
I’ve made these every year at Christmas since 2007 and I don’t think my neighbors or family will ever let me stop. Tip: use the Andes Creme de Menthe chips instead of bittersweet- usually pretty easy to find around the holidays. The mint chips are great here- these cookies are really something special.
Hi Deb! Was looking through the sight for something to bake and well I think I’m going to make these! On the cocoa powder regular or Dutch processed? I am never quite sure when and why one is used over the other. I would assume it matters?
Thanks in advance!
It only matters where I say it matters. :) What I mean is that I’d never put a gotcha in a recipe; if the recipe needs one kind or another, I specify because I’m not interested in ruining your baked goods, heh. If I don’t, either work. Here, either works. But, for the deep dark color you see here, I get that from Dutched cocoa powder.
😄 oh Deb! I never doubt you!! Your recipes are the only ones I try without pre-testing for guests. Cocoa powder always baffles me but glad to know the darker color is Dutch processed.
Thank you for the quick response!!!
Has anyone ever used either peppermint extract or Andre Mints instead of the chips to get a peppermint chocolate cookie. Or, I guess I could sprinkle with crushed candy canes instead of the salt.
I love this idea! I haven’t tried it but I bet it would work.
Tried making these today and when I tried to slice the logs the dough crumbled into crumbs!! I’m an experienced baker and no clue what went wrong. I put all the crumbles on a jelly roll pan to bake. Waiting to see how they turn out.
The crumbles in a pan didn’t turn out either! Still a crumbly mess and a dry texture (almost like used a gluten free flour, which I didn’t). Such a bummer. Mostly because I waisted time making a mess and the cookie jar is empty. Still love smitten kitchen! Just wish I knew went wrong.
It’s a very finicky cookie. My first time making it they were a hot mess. Took two years before I tried again and they were amazing. Google Dorie Greenspan World Peace cookies video. There is a video of her making them and I followed this recipe and her technique. When they come together they are worth it!
My daughter and I made these cookies last night. It is an awfully finicky recipe. I went to Dorie Greenspan’s website to deal with the fact that our dough was extremely crummy and non-binding. She suggested in the comments to add a splash of milk. We did, and the dough did not come together into the curds. We added one more splash and the dough turned out too heavy.
The good news is that the cookies are indeed delicious, but ours have the texture of a custard rather than a cookie, even after baking them for 3 minutes longer than recommended in the recipe.
Fabulous reminder. These are like baking chocolate butter. I am making these and will drop them on the doorsteps of my neighbors. I added 1 tsp. sugar-free hazelnut syrup on the top of one roll and will see if they taste like nutella. May you be well, may you be healthy, may you be peaceful.
My cookies melted into a flat mess in the oven. Any tips or things I could do differently?
When cookies go flat, it can be due to an ingredient swap, too much butter, or too little flour. Even a little off can change the shape.
Ack! I put too much butter in the recipe! What do you think about softening the remaining dough and adding more dry ingredients? It’s dumb, l know, but I hate waste!
I originally made the dough without softening the butter enough and it crumbled and was impossible to work with. But I just added a tablespoon and a half of melted butter which fixed the dough right up and these came out amazing.
Yup. Totally amazing as described. I might make the logs a little fatter so that the cookies turn out bigger since they are SO YUMMY. But then maybe they would crack too much in slicing.
I made these yesterday & baked today. Everything was fine except that I added Reese’s peanut butter chips along with the mini chocolate chips and it changed the structure of the cookie. Lesson learned: Reese’s peanut butter chips have additional oil, which makes the cookie spread. Still delicious though!
Have made these many times exactly according to Deb’s recipe and never had a problem. The unanimous consensus among family and friends is that they are the best home-made cookies they’ve ever had. Mother-in-law will not let me visit without bringing a tin.
What type of cocoa powder do you use?
You can use any kind of cocoa powder here. My favorite is definitely one of the more expensive (I save it for recipes where it will really lift them), Valrhona cocoa (I buy this 3kg pack and split it with friends), but Droste and Ghradelli are also excellent.
I love love love these cookies. They are perfect for that 2:30 pm “I need something sweet to go with my late coffee” moment. Intense chocolate flavor without a heavy delivery. I rough chopped 3/4c of large Guittard dark chocolate chips. I had no problems with the method, the dough or slicing. I realized I used 1/2 tsp of fine sea salt instead of 1/4 tsp, but do not regret it.
I’m so sorry for doubting what I’m reading, but are there supposed to be any eggs in this recipe? Thanks a lot for all your great recipes!
No eggs. It’s a shortbread/sable-style cookie.
Made these several times last month. Delectable. The flaky sea salt feels essential to making these unique in how the flavor melts in your mouth. Thank you so much!!!
I think one of my top favorite cookies ever. Love that they are pretty easy to do–just weigh and chill–slice and bake and have the most wonderful different texture-dry and rich at the same time.
Mine came out horrible-what did I do wrong? Followed the measurements by weight and left in oven for 12 minutes per timer. They were all dry and crunchy. I adjusted for my fan oven (150C instead of 160) and had fresh ingredients. Nice shape and looked just like the pictures, and sweet and chocolatey, but without any chew or bite. Any ideas?
These are shortbread or sable-style cookies so they’re actually supposed to be crisp. However, you can try baking them a couple minutes less for slightly more tenderness in. the center.
So, the first baking sheet is in the oven. The little pieces that broke off during slicing? They were not squished back into the cookie, but rather were crammed into my mouth. Made the mistake of sampling a crumb! So delicious! If they are even half as good baked, wow!!!
After reading the new Dorie Greenspan cookbook with revised World Peace Cookie recipe, I wanted to try the original. Excellent! Dough was easy to work with, crumbled a little bit around the bigger chocolate chunks when slicing. I just mashed them back together. The thicker cookies baked up like the photo, and the thinner ones melted more and turned it bit lacy and crisp. So good!
I made these and they are “to die for” good! I made slice and bake logs but also tried some as cookie dough balls and the latter was my preference. They were easy to handle from the freezer (the logs, when slicing, crumbled and had to be put back together, had to be warmed to slice) and were (I thought) better than the logs when baked.
Hi Deb
I am a long time fan, love your blog! A couple questions- on the weight measurements, if my weight is different from yours, for example KA flour per the package should be 150 grams for 1 1/4 cups vs your recipe which is 165 grams for 1 1/4 cups, which should I go with? Also, could you give some alternatives to plastic wrap for those of us trying to avoid plastic? I wrapped mine in foil, hoping it doesn’t make a difference.
My cups of flour clock in at 130 to 135 grams, but I believe I was using Dorie’s weights here from an earlier book — I know not every publisher agrees, making it more of a headache for readers but it should work regardless. Foil should work, parchment too.
I’ve always intended to make this recipe and was happy I did today. I know my coworkers will enjoy them tomorrow. Measuring by weight is efficient and the dough came together fine ( I did stir in the dry ingredients by hand).
I’m so surprised there aren’t any eggs in there. How does it stay together?
These are a shortbread cookie and shortbread never contains egg. They hold together just fine!
Just pulled a test dozen out of the oven. They look just like Deb’s, are tender, slightly sandy, and intensely chocolatey. These are going to a latke party, and our host (who does all the latkes), loves chocolate. Perfect!
That said, I mixed the dough more than Deb directs, until it held together in clumps. I make a lot of shortbread, and consistently do this, with great results. All I ever have on hand is dark brown sugar, and used Kerrygold butter, which is lower in water content than American style butter. I used Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chips, and they’re big, so I gave them a rough chop. These needed 13” in my oven. I’m thinking the shards of chopped chocolate may help hold the cookies together? I’m just wondering about folks here who have had trouble with them falling apart. Do make these, whether they mean world peace or not!
The question is, are they better than your Belgian? chocolate cakelets ? I often make them in a mini cupcake pan for 18 minutes. They sort of look like fat cookies. I get 24.They are always a big hit even after I tell them about the 14 tbs of butter!
Thank you for your blog today on Cookie Season + Hannukah. I love your unfussy cookies and especially this World Peace recipe! Today I’m baking a double batch for an upcoming event but feel we need to send these to the entire world! I have been following you for years now and even though I know I’m allowed to jump to the recipe, always, ALWAYS read through the entire entry, even when I’ve just stopped by to look up a certain recipe. Praying for a beautiful cookie season and blessed, peaceful Hannukah, for you and the world.
Just made these. I’d made Dorie’s recipe years ago and enjoyed the taste but not the fall-apart nature of the huge thin cookies I ended up with. Deb’s thicker, compact cookies were much easier to bake and eat, and the taste was heaven – distinct notes of chocolate, salt, sugar and butter in each bite. I used Valrhona cocoa powder and Valrhona 60% chocolate chips. Fam approves. So grateful to have the second log in the freezer to bake at Christmas.
I made these for Valentine’s day but they were very dry and crumbly. They had a great flavour, but 11 TBSP of butter isn’t enough. They definitely needed more butter to bind them together. When I cut into the logs, the cookies fell apart. I had to smoosh them into balls and they broke apart while baking. I followed the recipe exactly and even spooned the flour into the measuring cups.