– Submitted by Mary Rose (inspired by Pierre Hermé and Dorie Greenspan)
Last holiday season we were isolated like everyone else, but also thousands of miles from all our loved ones. Baking heals my heart so I made dozens and dozens and dozens of “World Peace” cookies into little parcels of love for friends back home. It’s been said “If everyone had [these cookies], peace would reign o’er the planet.” No one expected these and everyone was delighted.
I have adapted last year’s cookie to represent the intention, ingredients, and spirit of the Community Loaves bakers. Of all the cookies you will bake during the holidays (and beyond), these “Pacific Northwest Peace” cookies are the ones people will remember.They are made with local organic flours including our beloved T85.
They are fine and sandy like a French Butter Cookie, but with a familiar, soft chew like a chocolate chip cookie. This is a well-salted, well-buttered cocoa dough, with generous bits of chocolate and dried cranberries woven throughout with an unexpected faint warmth of cinnamon.
May peace reign o’er all who create and enjoy Community Loaves in the Pacific Northwest.
Recipe
Cookie – Makes about 30 1.5″x2″ cookies:
70g High Extractions Flour (Trailblazer, T85 – Cairnspring)
125g All Purpose Flour (Artisan Baker’s Craft, “ABC” – Central Milling
30g Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
½ teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
150g Unsalted Butter, room temp
120g Brown Sugar (Dark preferred)
50g Granulated Sugar
¼ teaspoon Fine Sea Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
150g Bittersweet chocolate chips
65g Dried Cranberries (50% less sugar, if available)
Confectioners Sugar for dusting
Method
1. Sift Dry Ingredients:
Sift the flours, baking soda, and cinnamon together
2. Cream Butter:
Use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat room temperature butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla extract, and beat for 2 minutes more.
3. Mix:
Turn off the mixer. Scrape creamed mixture from sides. Pour in sifted dry ingredients. Place a kitchen towel over the mixer to catch flying dry ingredients. Pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times to incorporate flour into dough. Remove towel and continue at low speed for 30 seconds or until all flour disappears into the dough. Dough will look crumbly. For the best texture, don’t work the dough too much. Add chocolate chips and dried cranberries and mix just to incorporate.
4. Shape & Chill:
Line two baking sheet pans with parchment paper or silicon mat and set aside.
Turn dough out onto a work surface. Press together ~730 G of dough (1 full batch) and roll into a 9″ x 10″ rectangle about ½” thick. Use a dough scraper to tidy the edges and a ruler to ensure you have the measurements correct for the next step. Use a sharp thin knife to cut large shape into 1½” x 2″ cookie shapes. The sides of the cookies may crack or crumble as you cut. That’s likely. Use your dough scraper to press the dough back together into the desired 1½” x 2″ shape. (See drawing.)
Use a thin spatula to transfer 15 cut cookies to each parchment lined pan with cookies spaced an inch or so apart. Refrigerate cookie dough on the pan for at least 3 hours.
Note: Dough may be refrigerated for up to 3 days. You can also freeze the dough, place frozen rectangles separated by parchment in a bag, and keep frozen for about 2 months. No need to defrost dough to bake; just add 1 extra minute to the bake time.
5. Bake:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 325°F. Remove cookies from refrigerator a few minutes before you bake to take chill of the pan. Bake one sheet of chilled cookies at a time for 12 minutes. That’s it. 12 minutes. They won’t look done and they won’t be firm. That’s OK. Remove baking sheet from oven and place baking sheet with cookies on cooling rack.
6. Decorate:
Leave cookies on the baking sheet to rest. While still warm, use parchment paper to shield ½ of each cookie (see drawing) and generously sift confectioners sugar over exposed portion of cookies. Cookies will firm up as they cool. Package or serve when fully cooled.
