Dorie Greenspan once remarked that World Peace Cookies, created by Parisian pastry chef Pierre Herme, were as important a culinary breakthrough as Toll House cookies. Her neighbor, after tasting these dark chocolate marvels, was convinced ‘a daily dose of Pierre’s cookies is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness.’ Thus, the name. Dorie included these ultra-rich cookies in her Baking, From my home to yours cookbook. I thought them totally appropriate for my first 2015 post, a delicious recipe to wish you Happy New Year.
Remembering that miracles can happen, bake some World Peace Cookies, my French Fridays recipe from Dorie Greenspan.
These are shortbread, slice-and-bake cookies, crumbly and rustic in appearance. (If you prefer a perfectly round, smooth result, my Tip is in the recipe below.) WPC’s are special-occasion treats. Served with champagne? Be still my heart. Tea and coffee? Okay. Cold milk? The perfect nonalcoholic alternative. I made these for the New Year’s Eve crew on duty at The Gant. While these cookies couldn’t compare with seeing Huey Lewis & The News at Aspen’s Belly Up nightclub, (where they’d rather have been), they were appreciated.
World Peace Cookies
Appreciation. Let’s talk about that. 2014 was a banner year for me. I appreciate that more than anyone realizes. Thank you for being part of that. However, I recently celebrated my birthday. Readers, it was a big number. Truthfully, as we enter this New Year, I am still struggling with it. Not whining. Not complaining. Not grumbling. Just resolved to make peace and getting my arms around my aging.
New Year’s Eve was a long night. Aspen being Aspen, we not only had fireworks at 8pm, but also at Midnight. Since I live at the base of the mountain where the display is launched, I was in for a loud albeit spectacular evening. After baking and delivering the World Peace Cookies and taking a moment of silence to remember Dick Clark, I decided to spend the evening settling this whole 70’s-problem.
Fireworks in Aspen as seen from the Roaring Fork River, New Years Eve, 2014. Photograph by Jeremy Swanson
I resolved to see my limitations as possibilities. Admittedly, I physically cannot do as much nor mentally learn as quickly nor emotionally be as strong as I have been in the past. While I’ve not adjusted to that reality, I think my family, friends and, even The Gant employees, see it all too clearly. Luckily I am surrounded by people who value and respect me enough to understand, be kind but still nudge, challenge and encourage me to keep trying (as if I wouldn’t) and do better.
A challenge for the upcoming decade —
In thinking about who I Appreciate, the List is long. To my lifelong friends who remembered, welcomed and embraced me when I returned to Aspen, I Appreciate. Here at The Gant, where no one really l-i-v-e-s, I’ve been treated like a Queen. I Appreciate. To my nature study group, the Valley Vixens, who are truly my support system, I Appreciate. To my virtual colleagues, such a lifeline, I Appreciate. To my friends in France, who encourage me to travel again, I hear you. To my friends in Nevada, saviors during a difficult decade, I’ll see you soon. To my childhood friends, for steadfast loyalty always, I Appreciate. And, to my family, who, in every way and with great effort, embrace me. I Appreciate.
I Appreciate that for the past three years Klara, Gretchen, Freya and Imken, who live in Germany, have asked their Mother who blogs at The Kitchen Lioness, to send me their Christmas artwork. If one can have a Virtual Family, they are mine.
Maybe, in this new year, you wish to take a few moments to think about those You Appreciate. As for that age problem of mine, it’s a work-in-progress but I’ve just reminded myself why I need to be more grown-up about it. Happy New Year, Everyone. Enjoy the World Peace Cookies.
WORLD PEACE COOKIES adapted by Dorie Greenspan from Pierre Hermé
Makes 36
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
11 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
5 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
PREPARATION
1. Sift flour, cocoa, and baking soda into medium bowl.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter on mediukm speed until smooth and creamy. Add both sugars, vanilla, and sea salt; beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
3. Add flour mixture and pulse the mixer at slow speed for 5 to 7 times, a second or two each time. Beat just until blended. Mixture may be crumbly. Add chopped chocolate and mix just to distribute.
4. Divide dough in half. Place each half on sheet of plastic wrap. Form each into 1 1/2-inch-diameter log. Wrap each in plastic. Chill until firm, about 3 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 days ahead. Keep chilled.
5. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using thin sharp knife, cut logs crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on prepared sheets. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies appear dry (cookies will not be firm or golden at edges), 11 to 12 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool.
DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.
TIP: According to Dorie, the easiest way to keep the log of dough round while stowing it in the fridge or freezer is to chill it inside a cardboard tube left from a roll of paper toweling. Slit the tube so it’s easy to wrap it around the dough. When you’re slicing the log, the easiest way to prevent losing that nice roundness is to give the log a quarter turn each time you slice off a circle of dough.
French Fridays with Dorie is an international group of bloggers cooking their way through Around my French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yours, by Dorie Greenspan. To see the Simplest Breton Fish Soup which my colleagues made this week while I was baking World Peace Cookies, go here.
Great cookies and a terrific post. Happy New Year Mary!
Happy New Year and Happy Birthday, Mary. Welcome to the club!! It’s not so bad. After 3 years I think I’ve finally come to accept the inevitable and revel in it! PS The cookies look yummy.
Loved your post Mary! Before long I will be joining your club! I have a problem even saying the number, but then I remember my brother who passed away in his 50’s, and will never get to know his grandchildren, he never got to enjoy the blessings of retirement, and will never turn 70. I feel totally blessed to get to my late sixties and I hope to follow your lead!. I love how you grab onto life and totally enjoy it! Happy New Year my friend!
And by the way 70 never looked so good!! I think it’s true that 70 is the new 60 🙂
Love your cookies…I need to make some!
Mary – you are the picture that I hold in my head of what I want life to look like when I hit a certain decade (although, I probably will have a much smaller social web 🙂 )
Here’s to 2015 – good and bad; up and down; but making the best of it all.
XOXO
Mary…a very Happy New Year….its always a joy to receive your postings…and of course the yummy recipes! may the good times continue to roll…xxx
Happy New Year Mary! I truly enjoy visiting you, always a great read in store for me! As my hubby would say (who is in his early seventies) – age is just a number! Live life the best you can!
Dear Mary,what a wonderful tribute in every sense of the word – a tribute to you, your incredible personality, your strength and your life. You are a true inspiration to me and the girls. And the biggest of thank yous for your wonderful support, your kind words and your ever present thoughtfulness. I so wish we lived closer to you and could drop for coffee and those amazing World Peace cookies – I made them a few times, I love their texture, their taste and, of course, their name! How “so you” to bake them for the staff at The Gant!!! I was thinking of writing a New year´s post as well, I have more than I can count that I am grateful for but I just could not find the right words, I could not find a beginning – I am a bit strange that way, but you know that already…but one thing is for sure, you were with me in my heart and my thoughts twelve months ago and I am forever grateful for that, I cannot even begin to tell you what that still means to me…I am still at a loss for words! And I still cannot really comprehend how all that could happen and what an incredibly close call that was…So as I am reading your post, I am thinking of all your strength and your willpower and I am indescribably grateful for our friendship!
Feel yourself hugged and loved and appreciated and so much more, dear friend!
Andrea & Co.
P.S.: “Vielen Dank” from Klara, Gretchen, Freya and Imken!!!
Mary rest a sure you are doing everything right. Your’e my role model. I just need to muster more energy to stay in touch with friends the way you. The Peace cookies are perfect for the New Year. I look forward to meeting you when you come to New York. Let me know when you have dates!
Love this. “I APPRECIATE”–a good way to end one year and start the next. In fact, a great way to start and end each day.
I don’t believe that you’re slipping in any way, shape or form Mary. You may be getting older as we all are but you are, to me, one of those people that keep re-creating themselves – in a wonderful way! Happy New Year! Wish I had a few of those cookies to nibble.
What a wonderful post, Mary! I think you are a dynamo, on par with Alice. My Dad turned 70 and my mother 75 in 2014 and they’re still incredibly busy, too (though there is more napping than there used to be). If I can be half as connected to my social circles as you are, I’ll be thrilled. You’re an inspiration to all of the Doristas. Happy New Year!
Mary, you really are an inspiration and a role model. I hope I’m half as active, involved, and connected as you are when I reach your age. This was really a beautiful post, and thanks for sharing the artwork from Andrea’s kids. It’s beautiful.
Happy New Year, Mary! I appreciate you too and feel blessed to have so many great female role models in my life. I hope your 70s prove to be your best decade yet.
Mary I would have never guessed your age started with a 7, I mean you were on skis this winter. I hope you realize that age is just a state of mind. You are so active! I hope you have recovered from your illness. I have this cookbook and I have made these cookies. I do think they would bring world peace. Happy New Year. Welcome back to California.
Mary, I’ve yet to make those cookies and I think you definitely convinced me. I loved this post and I just want to say that even the limited time I’ve been interacting with you on the internet, you have a vitality and kindness that are really special. I also love how your post is a reminder to be appreciative of all the people in our lives, from whatever stage we met them. thanks again for a beautiful post. Happy New Year and I’ll second Diane’s welcome back to CA.
Mary, Happy New Year!!! I read your post when it was first published, but just couldn’t find the words (still can’t). What a lovely post. And yes, those cookies are terrific, and I need to make them again. Isn’t it wonderful that you are so filled with the connection with, and concern for, so many? It’s always a treat to read about what you are up to, or what bird caught your eye – and of course the latest recipe you’ve made. I’m with Cher – you remind me of a how to be a better person. So also Happy Birthday – well done! And so much more to come!
Wonderful post! I have many things I am thankful for…thanks for the reminder to step back and appreciate each and every one. Happy New Year (and birthday!).