World Peace Cookies
Happy Secret Recipe Club Day everyone! Once again, I was excited to find that I was paired with a blog I had never heard of! Sara from Cupcake Muffin mostly blogs about some of my favorite things – baked goods!
As I searched through her old posts, I was drawn in by these World Peace Cookies. As Sarah mentioned in her post, a LOT of bloggers made these a few years ago and I just never got around to it. She put it best when she said ” If you’re one of the two remaining folks out there who hasn’t made these cookies, you absolutely must try them!” I completely agree. If you haven’t made these yet, I highly recommend it. The cookies are chocolatey with a hint of saltiness that makes them quite addictive.
One of the great things about these cookies is that you can make the dough and freeze it for up to 2 months. I went ahead and made a double batch. I baked up one batch and left the other dough in the freezer. That way I’ll be able to bake up warm cookies on a moments notice.
World Peace Cookies
Yield: 24 cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 stick plus 3 Tbsp (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tsp vanilla
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips
Directions:
Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.
Working with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla 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. Shape each half of 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 or up to 3 days. The dough can also be frozen for up to 2 months. If you freeze it, just add 1 minute to the baking time.
When you are Ready to Bake:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325. 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.
Recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I love freezing dough but somehow most ends up in my tummy unbaked when I do that 🙂
What a great gift! I’m thinking that would be wonderful for all sorts of occasions. Thanks for the idea!
These are adorable and I love that idea! Two questions, though: 1) Were these as good as the cookies from the other recipes? and 2) When you freeze them, do you bake right from frozen?
Great questions Carly – As far as comparing them to the other cookies. I enjoyed the chocolate M&M cookies the best, but they were REALLY chocolatey. The other non-chocolate M&M cookies were a bit more chewy and they had nuts in them, so they had a different vibe. This recipe was more of a classic M&M cookie for sure.
As far as baking from frozen, you can def just go straight from freezer to oven. Bake them ~13 minutes instead of ~11 and take them out when they look done.
these were delicious!
they look so cute all frozen up 🙂
I love the pink and red M&Ms. Thanks for the idea of freezing the cookie dough.
I was going to ask you the same thing as Carly, well the first question. These cookies are cute. Your freezing method reminded me that I have a bunch of sugar cookies still in the freezer! Do you know how long cookies can stay in the freezer?
I don’t know how long they will last in the freezer. I have a tendency to forget about things in my freezer… I’d guess a couple months? Anyone have ideas?
What festive little cookies 🙂 I love them! I also like the fact that you froze them. I bet they were delicious. Make sure to enter the All Through the Year Cheer event for Valentine’s Day 🙂
I think that sounds like a great way to spend valentine’s day. It can be intimidating the way it’s so hyped up. The cookies look very festive, love ’em!
We don’t do “valentine’s day” either since my MIL was born on the 14th and daughter’s birthday is the 15th – besides, its more important to say you love someone everyday, not just one day out of the year. Love the idea about freezing the cookie dough in preshaped form and giving that away. Wonderful idea!
I am looking for cookies that travel well for my soldier adopted through Soldier’s Angels and these look like a winner!!
Mmm, these were so tasty! Happy Valentine’s Day!
These are just too cute!! I love M&M cookies too!!
http://www.singforyoursupperblog.com
Just had to add my two cents on the idea of giving cookie dough frozen and ready to be baked – genius! For some reason, I’ve never thought of that, even though I’ve given cookies frozen to people to be defrosted when they’re ready to eat. I love the dough idea!
YUM-these look absolutely delicious! I love the pink and red M&Ms!