I’ve done it!

The article at least, now I’m just down to writing the conclusion and compressing it so it fits the 1200 word cut off. As a treat, here’s that cookie recipe:

World Peace cookies

Excerpted from Baking: From My House to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Copyright 2006 by Dorie Greenspan.
Makes about 36 cookies

I once said I thought these cookies, the brainchild of the Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, were as important a culinary breakthrough as Toll House cookies, and I’ve never thought better of the statement. These butter-rich, sandy-textured slice-and-bake cookies are members of the sablé family. But, unlike classic sablés, they are midnight dark — there’s cocoa in the dough — and packed with chunks of hand-chopped bittersweet chocolate. Perhaps most memorably, they’re salty. Not just a little salty, but remarkably and sensationally salty. It’s the salt — Pierre uses fleur de sel, a moist, off-white sea salt — that surprises, delights and makes the chocolate flavors in the cookies seem preternaturally profound.

When I included these in Paris Sweets, they were called Korova Cookies and they instantly won fans, among them my neighbor Richard Gold, who gave them their new name. Richard is convinced that a daily dose of Pierre’s cookies is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness.

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

3. 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.

4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape 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. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Getting Ready to Bake:

5. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

6. 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.

7. 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.

I started eating these in my balcony. Then it just got waaaay too HOT, so I had to seek refuge inside.

So it continued, with my glass of Farmhouse milk. I’ve been drinking lots and trying to remember to take my calcium supplements. While the baby will never be deprived, she’ll just take the calcium from your bones, nails and teeth, my nails started to chip lately so I’ve been trying to up the calcium intake. Of course, this is a great excuse to have some cookies! What would go better with a glass of cold milk than these.

The texture of these cookies were not as described though, they were not crunchy at all. I think that has something to do with the heat Singapore has been experiencing lately. I made these twice and both times my chocolate just melted into the dough and the end result was a cookie that tasted like small brownie bites. Which isn’t a bad thing. But it was just  a  little unexpected. I’m a crunchy cookie kind of person so my quest for the ultimate double chocolate chip crunchy little cookie continues. 

 

little note:  the linen napkin was from Barang Barang. I love the red thread border.

This weekend was spent:

At the Robinson’s sale, I had a birthday shopping spree treat (you know I love you H.. with or without the spree. But it did make the birthday sweeter!). Anyway the sale is really worth waiting for, we got some really great deals including the cutlery set we were eyeing for quite some time, it was down from a thousand dollars to a mere S$160 for a set of 60. We spent some time after coming home just looking at the set. We wanted a set for so long because our cheap set from Aussino actually started to rust (??!!). I hope I haven’t poisoned anyone yet. So far we are both very much alive.

Other things were a really really soft lilac bed set, kitchen towels, mugs, really cute mini quiche ramikins, soup bowls and a set of coffee mugs. Yup, things got pretty wild as you can guess.

I bought 2 gravy boats too, yes this whole roasting thing has been on my mind.

We had roast fillet of beef with a morel mushroom sauce for a dinner we were invited to.

I was to make the croutons, the Caeser’s salad dressing and the dessert. The dessert which almost made me tear my hair out! I’m so glad my mom came to the rescue. I really really wanted to weigh out the ingredients for the recipe for these homemade croutons but I was too harrassed. I really wanted to share it with you but well, perhaps another time. I make my croutons from stashed leftover french bread in the freezer. Because H loves bread as much as I love rice, we usually have a supply and sometimes can’t finish the bread, it doesn’t taste great after a day so I store odd nibs and ends in the freezer which then comes out during the weekend to be made into crunchy croutons. We store it in an airtight container and they’re good for soups and salads. They’re simply tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and dried herbs and then baked at 180C for 10 mins and left to cool then stored airtight so they keep their crunch. Homemade is always better, it just tastes of good olive oil.

There it is: chocolate pudding cake from Sherry Yard’s Desserts by The Yard. I’ll type the recipe soon, its really LONG..

Another salad, tomatoes waiting to be dressed.

 

Other things I did:

Played with a farm of cats, photos to come

Tried to write that roast chicken recipe, still to come (the method is too long!)

Took that Sunday nap, more tired after than before, so we skipped our Sunday swim

Watched my tummy move, much to H’s delight. He felt the first kick too!

Cleaned my kitchen, cooked some congee for breakfast for the weekdays in my thermal pot, messy kitchen photos to come

Outgrew more clothes

Welcomed June! I’ll be in a small dedicated stroke unit. Keeping my fingers crossed for more weekends..