This cookie recipe mocks me, I think. For I am a cookie-person: above anything else, I know and love cookies. Whether it's peanut butter, oatmeal, sugar or chocolate I am craving, I will make it happen with a little butter and a stand mixer. Just yesterday, a friend asked me if there was anything in that exact moment that would make me a happier person, and I said, "if I had a chocolate chip cookie, fresh baked out of the oven, in my hand, I would be happier." Not, "if my research was doing better", or "if I didn't worry about my family", or "if my husband and I could stop arguing about hanging shirts on the back of the bathroom door", or better yet, "if there was world peace" - no, all I wanted was a cookie.
Seriously. This is serious stuff. Especially because I knew that two days hence (tonight) cookies would be required for the cookie exchange that I had organized.
Tonight's loot
So this cookie, this cookie that I chose to make for my cookie exchange, for my craving of happiness, it mocks me. It will not slice right. It will not bake right. It will not keep its shape. It will foil my multiple attempts to make it. It will crumble into tiny pebbles of chocolatey goodness.
They're called "World Peace Cookies" because if everyone had one of these we might just all stop fighting. I'm renaming them World Piece Cookies, because they fall to so many pieces that everybody could have a bite if we just learned to share - and the making of these cookies surely didn't put me at peace. I don't have a solution to the crumble problem - which not everyone encountered (according to the others who made the recipe) - except to say that if the dough looks too dry, it probably is. Either bake it, and enjoy the flavor completely, or do what I plan to do next time, and reduce the flour by two tablespoons and stir in an extra two teaspoons of whole milk or heavy cream until things look "about right".
As for the problem of world peace? Well, I don't have a solution for that either, except to say happy holidays, and remember, for the people reading this blog at least, that small everyday joy is always within our reach - especially when you keep a supply of cocoa powder in your pantry door.
Recipe for World Piece Cookies
3 comments:
I'm sorry that they didn't work out. The thing that helped me is that I froze the dough and think that added the much needed moisture.
the first time i made them, i had that problem (but not to that extent), especially when i was trying to roll them up in the plastic wrap. the second time i made them, i melted an extra couple tablespoons of butter and minused a tsp of flour, sugar, and cocoa. turned out fine except i'd keep the cocoa intact next time.
I wish I knew what was causing this problem for a few people but not others! I hate it when people have a hard time with a recipe I have provided. I have made them twice with no trouble, and when a couple crumbled, I simply squeezed the discs back together. My suggestions would be, if you try it again, to perhaps remove one tablespoon of flour to keep it a little stickier, and if they are still crumbly, keep them out a little longer at room temperature, so hopefully the softening butter will help them stay together better. Oh, and though I am sure everyone knows this, a very sharp knife and gentle, careful cutting. Good luck! And hope you had a wonderful holiday.
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