This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe from Dorie’s Cookies is the perfect way to start the new year. World Peace Cookies. Of these deceptively simple-looking cookies, Dorie says:
There is no way to describe the World Peace Cookie without resorting to what would be considered hyperbole by anyone who hasn’t tasted one.
And she’s right. From the outside, they look like a really good chocolatey cookie. But when you taste them you will realise that they’re like nothing else. These are:
basic chocolate sablés of the slice-and-bake variety. The dough is made with cocoa — splurge on good cocoa, it’s worth it with these (I use Valrhona) — and has fleur de sel in it, enough to be truly present. And then there are pieces of chopped bittersweet chocolate. Again, splurge — this is a cookie that’s all about the chocolate, so the chocolate should be great. (You could use store-bought mini chips, but I hope you won’t.) I know it sounds simple and it might even sound like a cookie you’ve made before, but even top-of-the-pack veteran bakers shake their heads in wonder when they first encounter the WPC.
This recipe was given to Dorie by renowned French pastry chef, Pierre Hermé. Originally called the “Korova cookie” after the name of the restaurant they were created for, the recipe was first included in Dorie’s Paris Sweets book after Hermé baked them for Dorie sometime in the late 1990s. The name “World Peace” came after a neighbour told Dorie that this is what they were known as in their household and she immediately renamed them. The recipe was included in Dorie’s Baking: From My Home to Yours and was popular at her New York cookie store, Beurre & Sel.
Nowadays, there can’t be many people who haven’t heard of them – as Dorie says, if you Google the name “World Peace Cookies” you’ll get over 11 million results. Wow!
The original cookie recipe is a slice and bake cookie where you gather the dough into a log and freeze it then slice it into cookies. Dorie’s Cookies includes a “roll and bake” version for those people for whom slice and bake is challenging (it can be with this dough – it’s a little on the uneven side and sometimes crumbles as you are slicing). I made both versions with this batch – rolled and cut cookies and sliced cookies and I’d say that the log version worked better this time – simply because I didn’t have my trusty rolling pin to guide me in the thickness of the dough. The log version was a lot easier to slice into the correct thickness (though you do need a really sharp knife).
I made a batch of these and gave them to some of my neighbours here in France as a Christmas/ New Year’s gift (along with some of the truffles I made earlier in the week). Some of them I decorated with festive sprinkles for our holiday party here last week:
(they go well with mulled wine…. just saying…)
And the rest, well, we’re enjoying them….
I could go on and on about these but I won’t.
Just make them (you can find the recipe here).
You can thank me (and Dorie) later.
Want more cookie recipes? Order Dorie’s Cookies for yourself on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store in your country) or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Then join us over on Tuesdays with Dorie and bake your way through the book!
Please note: This post contains product links from Amazon and The Book Depository which are affiliate links, meaning if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you) which goes towards maintaining eat. live. travel. write. Thank you in advance!
Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “Dorie’s Cookies” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing do. All opinions 100% my own.
Yum! They look great. I love your glass of milk with bee’s on it!
Thanks – we love our little bee glass too!
These were so delicious. I have made them once several years ago but these were much better than I remembered! Your presentation is beautiful
Thanks! These are always better than I remember them being too!
Your cookies look delicious and your photos are just gorgeous!
Thanks so much!
Happy New Year Mardi! I love the pretty decorated cookies with the Christmas sprinkles. I have not made these this week as I am with family and we have food everywhere, but I made them years ago for the original TWD, and I know they are good.
Yeah, I really didn’t need another batch of goodies here but they went down a treat so….. 😉
Love reading your post and I won’t mind you going on and on about your absolute enthusiasm about the WPC. The sprinkles, the wine and the milk. So many ways to enjoy the cookies.
Right? They go with everything!
Oh, look at you with your blinged out cookies…they look very nice with the sprinkles!
Thanks! I had some here that needed using up and I thought “Why not?”
Happy New Year, Mardi! I hope your holidays were bright, even though you were under the weather. I hope you’re feeling well now and back in the swing of things.
Your WPC turned out so beautifully! I love these and am curious to try the rolling method. I’ve really enjoyed using Dorie’s muffin cup method with some of the other cookies in the book.
Thanks Teresa – and yes, I am curious to try the muffin tin method on these next time (they spread a lot!).
Happy New Year Mardi! Your cookies looks fabulous! These are good and did not last long in my house!
I think that we all had fast-disappearing WPCs this week!
Those cookies look perfect. Love that you dipped some in chocolate and sprinkles. I bet those were especially good.
They definitely were 🙂