Time to give "world peace" a try

In the days when we used to watch beauty pageants on TV, I couldn't help but roll my eyes at those contestants saying their ultimate wish was..."world peace".  Those ladies may have been wiser than I gave them credit for though because, all kidding aside, I say give us all peace and serenity, i.e., security and happiness, in 2013 and beyond.  While I might not be able to deliver this grand objective to you, I can make cookies (and so can you!).

If you're a baker, a lover of pastry, or follow food blogs, chances are you've heard of Dorie Greenspan's "World Peace Cookies", originally called "Korova cookies" which were created by French pastry master, Pierre Hermé (or if you're my 7-year old, you call him "Pierre-re Her-may").  We took a family trip to Paris last April and got a chance to sample his famous macarons as well as chocolates.  One of the reasons I'd like to go back is to taste Hermé's pastries, maybe even these very cookies, because it just so happened that none of his shops we went to stocked pastries and we didn't have time to make a special pilgrimage for them.

Unlike Hermé's ultra elaborate and intricate pastries, these cookies are something we can all make at home.  They are chocolate sablés, the French version of shortbread cookies with a signature sandy texture, although these are more complex than that.  Like American icebox cookies, this cookie dough gets rolled into a log and sliced before baking.  Sounds fairly straightforward but is this cookie worthy of its title - as though a cookie could be so good as to induce world peace?  Well, many people have raved about them (hence, the lofty title) and I finally had a chance to judge for myself.  What better time to try "world peace cookies" than at the start of a New Year...

My take: these really are some special cookies!  First off, I'm not sure what it is (there are no mystery ingredients) but this cookie dough smells amazing before, during, and after baking.  And the texture is what's outstanding.  My husband and I don't think we've ever eaten a cookie with quite this texture before.  There is the sandy element as you'd expect from a sablé (literally translated into "sand" in French) but it's also moist, soft and a bit chewy in a way that reminds me of a brownie (particularly when still slightly warm)!  The fleur de sel - that flakey, coarse French finishing sea salt - dances on your tongue and makes the whole thing all the more interesting.

I think a dark chocolate sablé is unusual in and of itself (there's even brown sugar in it) but this cookie really has a very attractive and unusual combination of textures and flavors.  It looks dark but it's not too dark; it's also not too sweet, the sweetness balanced by unsweetened cocoa and bittersweet chocolate bits.

So I've concluded that world peace, in any form, is a very good thing...