A few months ago, I came across The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. Since I love cookies, I eagerly signed up. I would have to bake 3 dozen cookies and in exchange, I would receive 3 dozen cookies in the mail from other food bloggers selected at random. Awesome, right?
Of course, when I signed up, I had no idea that I would be in the middle of moving during the critical baking/shipping/receiving dates. This created some logistical stress for me. I won’t bore you with the details, it all worked out in the end. The real drama happened in the kitchen.
I had originally intended to make Thomas Haas famous Sparkle Cookies. I bought the ingredients to make a double batch and went merrily on my way. I should have known better than to push my luck and cut corners. Doubling the batch did not work. I’ve made these cookies half a dozen times before in single batches; never had a problem. This time, cookies spread out like pancakes. They tasted great, but they were far too fragile to ship. *sigh*
I get sad and mad when my baking doesn’t turn out. I was mad at the Sparkle Cookies for ruining my day, so I decided to try a different recipe. I searched the interweb for special cookies, inspiring cookies, cookies with a cult following equal to the Sparkle Cookies. That is when I found the Pierre Hermé/Dorie Greenspan World Peace Cookies.
These cookies are famous in food blogger circles. I read a lot of comments that mentioned that the dough was a bit challenging to work with. I can confirm this. I was worried as I was cutting up the chilled dough, it was so crumbly. If you are prone to kitchen freak-outs, you have been warned. I spent a lot of time sticking little crumbled bits of dough together to form a cookie shaped mass.
As I was forming the cookies, I sampled the dough. Oh my! It tasted like a gourmet Oreo. I love Oreos.
The baked World Peace Cookies are some of the finest tasting cookies I’ve ever made, if I do say so myself. They had a lovely, shortbread-like crumb and the touch of salt played nicely with the chocolate. I was so sad that I had to give them all away!
These are very traditional cookies, so they are made with regular wheat flour and butter. If someone tries making them with a gluten-free flour, let me know. I’d love to hear the results. Vegans will be happy to hear these don’t include eggs, so you can try using Earth Balance baking sticks in place of the butter. I have not tried that variation, but I would also love to hear if anyone gives it a go so I can pass on the results to my vegan readers.
Here is the recipe (with step-by-step photos) on Food52.com.
I would like to take a moment to thank the lovely ladies who sent me cookies…
If you took part in a cookie swap this year, I’d love to hear your experiences. Did you try a new recipe or receive something particularly amazing? Let’s here it!
