Pierre Hermé & Dorie Greenspan's World Peace Cookies
Author Notes: Of all the cookies you will bake and eat during the holidays (and beyond), this is the one people will remember. They're fine and sandy like a sablé, but with a friendly, soft chew, a bit like American chocolate chip. They're made up of well-salted, well-buttered cocoa dough, with generous pockets and wisps of chocolate feeding through. "I've seen World Peace Cookies made with peanut-butter chips, with cinnamon, with icing, and with gluten-free flours. I've seen them huge and small," Greenspan said. "I don't think you can do much to make them better and happily, there's little you can do to ruin them. Except overbake them." If in doubt, pull them out early -- they'll firm up as they cool. Adapted slightly from Baking: From My Home to Yours (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). —Genius Recipes
Makes about 36 cookies
- 1 1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour (see note)
- 1/3 cup (30 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (see note)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (150 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2/3 cup (120 grams) packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fleur del sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 5 ounces (150 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips (no pieces larger than 1/3 inch), or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
- Note: 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.
- Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.
- Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
- Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, 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.)
- Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 °F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
- Using 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 1 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.
- This recipe is a Community Pick!
More Great Recipes:
Desserts|Cookies|Chocolate
Topics: Cookies!
Showing out of comments
7 months ago Sheila Lins
I have to say that I've tried this recipe two times unsuccessfully. They melted in the oven and turned into a crepe.
I'm crazy about cookies and I knew something was missing in the recipe and that I could fix it. Comparing with other perfect recipe that I use for years, I added 1/4 more of flour and 1 medium egg. Voila!! They came out perfectly after 13 min at 325 F in the oven. Soft and chewy in the middle and the borders crunchy! And the best: you don't need to freeze the dough for 24, 48 hours or a week... Just 1 hour in your fridge and they will be perfect.
7 months ago Sheila Lins
1/4 cup more.
9 months ago karencooks
After having this cookie on my "to bake list" for years, I finally made them this Christmas. Why did I wait so long? They are easy, very delicious and freeze well! They are now one of my husband's favorites (and mine).
9 months ago Catherine
How are these "World Peace " cookies. They don't even call for fair trade chocolate.
9 months ago allison969
This has become my "go to" cookie for almost every occasion. My initial attempt, the dough was like sand -- barely held together, as I see others also experienced. I made the following slight tweaks and they've come out great every time since. Also, weighing, rather than measuring ingredients has given me much more consistent results.
170 grams flour, 30 grams cocoa (I use dutch processed), 155 grams of butter, 130 grams brown sugar, 1-1/4 tsp vanilla extract
9 months ago Anny99
Allison, thanks for the measurements. I have also had some mixed results, although these cookies are definitely a favorite. Did I miss the tweaks you've figured out? I don't see them in your note. Thanks!
10 months ago Therese
Absolutely delicious but my dough was crumbly when I cut it. I was able to pinch the dough together but the cookies were lop sided. However, they were fantastic!
10 months ago k
I am making 6 dozen of these for a cookie exchange in a few weeks. I have a question: I have a new gas range with convection; has anyone used convection to bake these cookies, and if so, what was your experience?
10 months ago Raquel
Good god, these cookies are perfect.
11 months ago Anny99
I've been making these cookies for years -- ever since getting Dorie's amazing cookbook, Baking. Absolute family favorite.
11 months ago Terri Simon
Delicious cookies. I followed exactly, except the part about putting a towel over the mixer...I just mixed by hand until dry ingredients were just incorporated. No problem with being too sticky, etc. I rolled them into logs after dropping the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and using the plastic wrap to help roll the logs. No problem there either. Sliced perfectly, no crumbling. 12 minutes was perfect. I am going to try these GF and possibly slice a tad bit thicker next time. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
12 months ago suziqcu
Measured by weight, sifted dry ingredients just because, and had to use about one fourth vegan "butter" as I was low on Irish butter I had. The cookies were fantastic! I am freezing some of the dough for later.
over 1 year ago Idalu
Lovely cookies though just a bit too buttery. I didn't have any problems with the dough crumbling. I used a good Danish brand butter (Lurpak) and some good quality latin american dark chocolate (70%) that I chopped. Instead of draping the bowl in a towel after adding the dry ingredient, i mixed slowly with a spatula and then pulsed a few times on low speed. Freezed the dough for 24 hrs and baked for 12 mins. They are good and I'll make them again.
over 1 year ago JOEY
Measured all ingredients by weight; baked on parchment-lined cookie sheets for exactly 12 minutes; let cool as directed. These are the best chocolate cookies ever!!
over 1 year ago DAVID
These were great. Everybody loved them. Thank you for sharing.
over 1 year ago Michelle
This is great, not too sweet! And someone even called it "the best chocolate cookie I've ever had". For anyone who had trouble with this recipe, make sure to carefully measure all ingredients. Including the butter, according to the package each stick of my butter should have weighed 113.4g but it actually weighed 126g. You won't regret making this!
almost 2 years ago Lindsay Frucci
I'm a pretty experienced cook and I carefully weighed all the dry ingredients using my old, but trusty food scale, but my "dough" was beyond dry and crumbly - in fact it was impossible to form it into anything! I finally added a bunch of melted butter, rolled the logs and they're in the fridge now to be baked tomorrow. I mean chocolate and butter - how bad can they be, but I'd like to try these again - following the recipe. The ratio of dry ingredients to the butter seems to err heavily on the dry side? Anyone else run into the same issue??
almost 2 years ago CarlaCooks
I just made this using the weighted ingredients and I had no problem with them. Did you weight out your butter as well as the dry ingredients? Sorry to hear they didn't work... these really are tasty cookies.
almost 2 years ago Lindsay Frucci
I didn't weigh the butter but according to the weight on each stick, 11 tablespoons should have weighed exactly 150 grams. Clearly I messed up the dry ingredient weights somehow.
almost 2 years ago Janet
I weighed everything and had the same experience. I thought the dough was dry but went ahead anyway. What a disaster. Too sweet, and the density of the chocolate was overpowering. I have half the logs in the freezer and I guess they can't be salvaged at this point. An expensive disappointment.
about 1 year ago Tracy
I had the same problem and I weighed all of the ingredients. I will bake them later today.
almost 2 years ago Sheila Lins
This recipe has no eggs or I missed something? Just to be sure.
almost 2 years ago Emily Love
you're not missing anything, no eggs is correct!
about 2 years ago Courtney C
These are delicious and easy. Perfect when you need a chocolatey-salty treat.
over 2 years ago Kara
I've made these a few times now and frankly, they are AMAZING. The first time i followed the recipe exactly as described and they turned out perfect. Second time i unfortunately ran out of plain flour (only had about 100grams!) and substituted the final 20grams with self-raising. They still turned out fantastic; fantastic enough to have a friend declare her praise very loudly. A+ totally one of my go to recipes now!
over 2 years ago liz okamura
I made these "exactly" as the recipe states "except" when I didn't. Holy moly is right!
over 2 years ago Alaina Cillis
I made these according to recipe, except substituting coconut sugar in for both sugars and using tapioca flour instead of all-purpose to make them gluten-free. They turned out exceptionally good, having a thin, delicate, crackly crust on top. All this despite accidentally adding 40% extra butter and having to do some math to bring the other ingredients into proportion. It's a winnah!
almost 2 years ago Steven Williamson
why bother commenting? you didn't even make these cookies.
almost 2 years ago Gift
I love what you did. We need to be creative and allow recipes to suit our lifestyles.
about 1 year ago Tracy
Sounds delicious!! I must try this gf version .
Showing 30 out of 110 comments