World Peace Cookies

When I first saw this recipe making the rounds with the Tuesdays with Dorie folks, I wasn't sure I would really be interested in it.  Sure, it's got chocolate in it and it's a cookie, so it sounds good, but in the photos, it looked like a very sandy, shortbread-y kind of cookie. Not my cup of tea.  One night, though, I was truly craving a chocolate cookie, and I came across this recipe printout again.  I thought to myself, Dorie Greenspan has never let me down, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I'm darn glad I did.  These cookies were awesome.  I can see why she called them World Peace Cookies - they truly could cause world peace, they make you so happy.  Especially if you eat them when they're fresh and warm from the oven, oh yum.  I got in the habit of just baking up a couple at a time so that I could have them nice and warm.  They are still tasty when they're not fresh out of the oven, and I'm sure I would still be raving about them if I hadn't eaten any of them all warm and gooey.  Really, though, if you bake these, do yourself a favor and eat one hot out of the oven!

World Peace Cookies

by Dorie Greenspan

Printer-friendly recipe

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 stick plus 3 tbsp (total of 11 tbsp) unsalted butter at room temperature

2/3 cup packed light brown sguar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp fleur de sel of 1/4 tsp fine sea salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup chocolate chips (or chopped Valrhona feves)

1. Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking soda and set aside.

2. Cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add the salt and vanilla and mix to combine.  Add the flour mixture to the batter and pulse a few times to combine, covering the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel to prevent flyaway.  Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Gather the dough and divide into two.  Roll each half out into a smooth log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 3 days (you can shorten the cooling time by stickign it into the freezer for 20 minutes immediately after wrapping and then moving it to the fridge for 30-40 minutes).

4. Preheat the oven to 325.  Slice the cookies into 1/2 inch slices and bake for 12 minutes.  Dough will still be soft.  Serve warm or at room temperature with milk.

Oreo Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I love Oreos.  So much so that I've even baked my own home-baked version of Oreos, which are mighty good. These cookies, though, are a good marriage of a chocolate shortbread kind of cookie with creamy white chocolate chunks throughout, heralding back to the creamy white center of an Oreo.  Yum.  My mouth practically waters at the thought of them, they're so good.  There is very little that a good chocolate cookie can't make better.  Like when your husband is going away for a week, and you feel like your To Do list grows exponentially every day.  Like now.  So I'm going to curl up with some nice warm cookies and a nice big glass of milk and it will all be better in the morning.  Phew. 

Oreo Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Printer-friendly recipe

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup dutch-processed cocoa
1/2 cup room temperature butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chunks or chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325 and prepare a cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment or Silpat.
2. Whisk flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa together, and set aside.
3. Beat butter on medium-high speed until light, then add sugars, creaming well.  Add the vanilla and beat until smooth.
4. Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternately with the milk, mixing well.  Chill the dough for at least 15 minutes.
5. I used a smaller cookie scoop with these cookies, about a heaping tablespoon per cookie.  Scoop the dough your prepared cookie sheet and bake.  For smaller cookies like what I made, bake for approximately 10-14 minutes.  If you prefer a larger, bakery-style cookie, go for about 3 tbsp per scoop, and bake for 16-18 minutes, or until just set.  Cookies will look underdone - don't be alarmed!  Allow cookies to cool fully on the cookie sheet.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Warning: Before you read any further, make sure you've got a gallon of milk on hand.

I love chocolate.  This is no secret.  I would wager to guess that at least 75% of the dessert recipes I've posted here have chocolate as a key ingredient.  These cookies are the perfect thing to have after a long day, especially with a glass of ice cold milk.  These cookies are wonderfully chewy, bursting with chocolate flavor, but very different from the brownie cookies I've seen floating around on the web lately.  Those are mostly brownie, just shaped like a cookie.  These are mostly cookie, with the flavors of a brownie.

These cookies are the kind of recipe my dad would have made - he was always the cookie baker when I was growing up, thanks to his arm of steel.  His beating arm made a stand mixer totally unnecessary.  This recipe is really just a good chocolate chip cookie recipe with some cocoa powder thrown in and the quantity of flour reduced as a result.  The only challenge with this recipe is letting the cookies cool - because they will be somewhat fragile until you have let them sit on the cookie sheet for at least five minutes after baking.  Just go do something else, preferably in another room of your home, where the lovely smell of the cookies doesn't force you to eat a cookie before it's fully set.  It will crumble all over you.  I promise.  It will taste wonderful, but it will make a huge mess.  Trust me.  I speak from experience.

Triple Chocolate Cookies
Printer-friendly recipe

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 3/4 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (or dark chocolate cocoa powder)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (I recommend Hershey's Special Dark!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.