TWD - World Peace Cookies

Can a cookie, a mere baked good, help achieve world peace? Before tasting these lovelies, I didn't think so. Now I'm not so sure.

I'm thinking we should ask Sam Kass, personal chef to the Obama family both in Illinois and now at the White House, to start slipping these weapons of mass consumption to the Commander in Chief, and see what happens. We may be on the verge of peace in the Middle East, the end of terrorism, beating swords into plowshares... who knows where this cookie could take us?

Let me just say that I felt a lot more peaceful after eating more than a few one of these. These cookies are lovely, dark, chocolaty, with a hint of salt that makes your tongue say, "oh YEAH baby!" (Probably not out loud, but, no guarantees. Be careful the company you keep when you are eating them, just in case.)

The secret is fleur de sel, which is French for "hoity-toity sea salt". I didn't really have my hoity-toity on, though, as all I had in the house was lowly, pas-Francais, coarse sea salt. It's supposedly from some sea that's relatively near France, though, does that count?



The recipe calls for fine sea salt, so I dumped some in my coffee grinder and whinged it around for a bit until it was fine. Resourceful is my middle name.

I had some bittersweet chocolate wafers (see: King Arthur Flour Chocolate Sale), so I chopped them up for inclusion. I had chunks of all sizes, some big, some leetle, and I think that might be part of the reason that my cookies look a little, ahem, drunken, relative to some other pictures I've seen. Or not, I dunno, but it didn't really matter because they tasted That Good. And even though the cookies may be a bit on the ugly duckling side, I loved biting into several one and getting a rush of gooey bittersweet chocolate along with the saltiness. Nirvana.

So: the conclusion is that you need to go make these cookies Right Now, and see for yourself what happens. They may not immediately bring about world peace, but it's entirely possible that they'll chill you out just enough to keep you from yelling at the jerk who just cut you off in traffic. And that would be a good start towards the pursuit of happiness, no?

Thanks to Jess of cookbookhabit for this week's pick; you can get the full recipe at her site or in Dorie's book (which I highly recommend), Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Now go check out the TWD blogroll to pick up some serious internet peace, love and cookie vibes. I mean it. World peace is important, and you're expected to do your part.