Spaghetti with Chocolate Sauce

When the fridge is bare and the pantry raid results in an odd assortment of ingredients, this is what's for dinner! Sometimes, one starts making a meal by saying, "there's no food in the home" and ends up with a dinner that is something special. I love when this happens.

I usually plan my weeknight dinners a day ahead of time or at least the morning of. That way, any soaking, thawing and assorted prep can be set into motion ahead of time and I can usually beat one Ms. Ray at her own game by putting dinner on the table in 20 minutes flat.

This morning, I thought about dinner as the morning chai was brewing, and had to think extra hard. The crisper was bare but the pantry was stocked with the usual staples- dried beans, pasta, cans of tomato, soy chunks. A trip to Food Blog Land (typing kidney beans, tomato, spaghetti in the search box) provided me with a dose of inspiration in the form of this recipe for something called Cincinnati Chili- a sauce of meat and tomatoes with warm spices, drenched with the rich flavor of cocoa. I made a vegan version of this sauce.

Chili with Chocolate

Adapted from Cincinnati chili from The Kitchn, makes about 6 servings.

1. Soak 1 cup kidney beans for 12-24 hours, then pressure-cook them. I did a quicker soak by putting the beans in boiling water, turning off the heat and covering them for 6-8 hours.

2. Re-hydrate 1 cup soy/TVP/Nutrela chunks and chop them up (or simply use soy granules or veggie ground).

3. In a large pot, heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the following and saute until browned:
1 large onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 bay leaves

4. To the browned onion mixture, add the following and stir until fragrant, about 20-30 seconds:
1-2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. cumin powder
1 tsp. cayenne pepper (or to taste)
½ tsp. chipotle flakes (or to taste)
1 tsp. cinnamon powder
½ tsp. allspice powder
salt to taste

5. Add the following:
½ large can tomato puree (14 oz.) (*see note)
cooked kidney beans
soy chunks/granules
mushroom stock (quantity depending on how thick you want the chili to be)
hot sauce (to taste)

6. Simmer for 20 minutes, then let it rest for an hour or two before eating to let the flavors develop. Taste for a balance of flavors and adjust them if necessary.

*Note: On a previous post, someone commented that I use tomato puree in a lot of recipes here, and asked what brand I use. I buy whole canned tomatoes (canned in tomato juice) from Trader Joe's and I puree the tomatoes myself using an immersion blender before using them in the recipe. I do find that different brands vary widely, so I would suggest trying different brands that are available to you to see which one you like the best.

I served the chili over whole wheat spaghetti, with some shredded cheese and sour cream on the side. If you want to keep this completely vegan, use vegan versions of cheese and sour cream or skip them altogether. This quick and easy recipe was such a success! We enjoyed the rich, deep flavors of this wholesome meal and I enjoyed seeing V stumped at what the "secret ingredient" was. I have a feeling I'll be using this recipe often in the coming months as chilly/chili weather gets here.

*** *** ***

Want to see some pics from my Boston trip this weekend?

Blue, blue skies....


Blue, blue water near Boston Harbor...


Following this guy all along the Freedom Trail...


Lunch at My Thai Vegan restaurant in Chinatown (foreground is mango curry with vegetables, background is taro root bird's nest)...


Torrone (Italian nougat) at Modern Pastry Shop in the North End...


Dessert sampler at Finale in Harvard Square...


We stayed in the historic Beacon Hill neighborhood (which felt to me like stepping back in time), met friends whom we have not seen for years, attended a birthday-party-picnic in Cochituate State Park, gorged on pizza, giggled at the Bostonian accent (on a walking tour, the guide wanted to segue into the Boston Tea Party bit and asked a little girl who was with our group, "So you want to go to a paahty?" and she innocently replied- no, thanks, she did not need to go potty just then), and in general need another vacation now to recover from this one.

My sincere thanks to everyone who offered great suggestions for my Boston trip- I'll have to go there again soon to cross off more things from the list.

Tea-Tinged Truffles

I'm still in the midst of "eating down the pantry", as Lydia put it, although I did go shopping for some perishables like eggs and milk last night. Meanwhile, let me tell you about these chocolate truffles that I made as a contribution to the New Years Eve feast that our neighbor had invited us to.

Now that I have discovered how easy and fun it is to make confections at home, I can't seem to stop myself. But these truffles were a joy to put together, with a short ingredient list, and no fiddly techniques involved, but results that looked quite impressive. The only thing is to pay attention to the proportion of cream to chocolate: too much cream, and the truffles won't hold their shape; too little cream and the mixture will harden too much and be difficult to roll. A mixture of milk chocolate and bittersweet chocolate works well because it has a good balance of sweetness and pure chocolate taste. I buy chocolate in 3.5 oz bars, and it was convenient for me to use a bar of each type of chocolate to make these truffles.

The recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs- The Perfect Pantry. While Lydia flavored hers with coffee, I was loyal to my tea-loving self and flavored these truffles with tea and tea masala. I had half a mind to call them chai truffles or maybe even chai tea truffles but I wisely refrained! So here they are...

Tea-Tinged Truffles

(Adapted from Lydia's recipe; makes about 18 truffles)
Ingredients:
1 3.5 oz bar fair-trade bittersweet chocolate
1 3.5 oz bar fair-trade milk chocolate
1/2 C heavy cream
2 t extra-strong black tea decoction (I used orange pekoe)
3-4 drops tea masala extract
1/3 C chopped toasted pistachios
Method:
1. Finely chop the chocolate bars and place together in a bowl.
2. Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan until it is almost boiling.
3. Pour onto the chocolate and let it stand for a couple of minutes to allow the chocolate to melt. Whisk well to blend the chocolate and the cream into a smooth glistening mixture. Stir in the tea and the tea masala (I dissolved the masala in the tea first).
4. Cover and chill the mixture for 1.5-2 hours.
5. Wash hands well before shaping the truffles (or wear gloves). Scrape up a small portion of the chilled chocolate mixture with a teaspoon and roll it gently in your palms to form a truffle. Roll truffles in pistachio bits to coat them.

All done!


Chocolate truffles are a blank canvas that can be filled, coated and flavored with an assortment of goodies that is only limited by the imagination of the cook. Take a look at these truffles laced with cardamom, balsamic vinegar, orange zest , cayenne pepper and green tea. There was a whole Sugar High Friday devoted to truffles; here is the incredible round-up of that event.

I'm sending these tasty morsels to Mansi Desai for her Game Night Event that showcases simple and tasty party recipes. The term Game Night evokes very conflicting emotions within me :D On one hand, sporting events make me weep with boredom, and those infernal game nights where people gather around a big screen TV and lustily cheer on a bunch of people running after some ball...they make want to run screaming into the woods. But I do enjoy those Game Nights that involve sedate board games like Pictionary and Taboo. Well, these bite-size portion-controlled treats are the perfect dessert for *any* gathering. They would also make a magical gift when packed into a pretty box.

What are you planning to do this weekend? Have a wonderful, relaxing time!

Chocolate Birthday Cake

Birthday cake was the very first thing I learnt to make, and the very first recipe I knew by heart. My parents were big on homemade birthday cakes for their kids. At least two times a year (on the birthdays of my sister and myself), the big oven would get pulled out from the little storage room beneath the stairs and dusted off. Equal weights of eggs, butter (usually home-churned), sugar (powdered in the mixie) and flour (sifted with baking powder) were set out. Ritually, butter and sugar were creamed together with some vanilla essence. Beaten eggs and flour were added in tandem, a little at a time, until a thick and creamy batter emerged. The batter would get divided into two parts. One part got tutti frutti and chopped walnuts stirred into it, and the other got a few spoonfuls of cocoa powder. The two batters were dropped in random clumps into a cake pan lined with newspaper, and after a hour of baking, a random marbled cake emerged, with swirls of pale yellow and dark brown. Ocassionally, the birthday girl would request a more colorful cake, and then the batter would get divided into four, and two portions would get pink or green food coloring to result in a beautifully ribboned cake with swirls of pastel colors. This pound cake was an all-round favorite, and when I was in high school, my friends and I would bake the cake without supervision. Which is to say that I would bake, and everyone else would sit around and tell me to hurry up so that they could lick the spoons and bowls.

And this is why, to me, birthdays = birthday cake. There may be a party, or not. There may be presents, or not. But a homemade birthday cake made just for the birthday boy or girl is the stuff that is worth turning a year older for. Today, for V's birthday, here is what I made him: a layered chocolate cake with a raspberry filling and a ganache frosting.

The basic chocolate cake recipe came from The Art of Simple Food. In her book, Alice Waters gives several tips for turning out light and airy cakes, including-
1. Using cake flour for a more delicate result. Of course, if you live someplace where cake flour is not available, regular all-purpose flour (maida) can be used.
2. All ingredients should be at room temperature.
3. The first 5 minutes of baking are crucial, so it is important to have an oven that has been pre-heated for 10-15 minutes so that it is is properly warmed up.
4. Beating the sugar and butter together well to make an fluffy aerated mass.

Apart from the usual suspects- flour, butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla extract- this recipe calls for a double dose of chocolate- both cocoa powder and some melted chocolate in the batter. It also calls for some buttermilk. In Indian cuisine, buttermilk refers to either the liquid left over from churning butter, or to simple diluted yogurt. In the US, it refers to tangy thick cultured milk. One can buy liquid buttermilk in quart sizes but I recently took Lydia's advice and bought myself a tub of buttermilk powder. Now I can quickly make buttermilk as required. The most unusual (for me) "ingredient" in this cake is boiling water! Once the main ingredients have been mixed together, more than a cup of boiling water is added to make the batter. It feels downright bizarre to pour water into a cake batter. Unusual or not, it works.

This cake is moist, soft and absolutely chocolatey. I have been trying different recipes for chocolate cakes for several years, trying to find the one recipe that I really like and that I can use as my go-to chocolate cake recipe for making cupcakes, layer cakes and sheet cakes for all ocassions. I have found it!!!

Chocolate Cake

(Adapted from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters)
Ingredients (all at room temperature)
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/2 C (1 stick) butter
1 1/2 C sugar
2 t vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1/2 C buttermilk
1 1/4 C boiling water
To be sifted together
2 C cake flour (or all-purpose flour)
6 T cocoa powder
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
Method
0. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter two round 8-inch cake pans, cover the bottom with a circle of parchment paper, butter it lightly, and coat the pans lightly with cocoa or flour.
1. Melt the chocolate: chop it coarsely, then microwave for 30 second bursts, stirring after each burst. It took me only a minute, or less to get this amount of chocolate melted. This can also be done in a double boiler.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add sugar and vanilla, and beat very well for 5-10 minutes until very light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
4. Stir in the melted chocolate.
5. Stir in half the dry mixture.
6. Stir in the buttermilk.
7. Stir in the rest of the dry mixture. At this point, the batter was so thick that it was more like a dough. Hang on.
8. Slowly, stir in the boiling water until it is just incorporated. Now you will have a smooth and glossy batter.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting: The cake tastes wonderful just as it is, but adding some frosting is, well, the icing on the cake (apparently we need more metaphors for this phenomenon). Buttercream frosting does look beautiful on cakes, especially if you do some fancy piping. I can't stand to eat it, however, and decided to frost the cake with some ganache- cream and chocolate whisked together to a thick dreamy paste. One could also use plain sweetened whipped cream for this cake- it is chocolatey enough to stand up to that. For the ganache, chop 4 oz chocolate (bittersweet or milk chocolate or any combination of those). Heat 1/2 C heavy cream in a small saucepan nearly to boiling point, then pour it over the chocolate. Let it stand for 5 minutes, then whisk together. The 1:1 proportion of chocolate to cream is important because if you add too much cream, the result will be runny and not a frosting at all (been there, done that, won't be making that mistake again).

Filling: I love the combination of fruit and chocolate and decided on a classic raspberry filling for this cake. I used this raspberry filling recipe from Smitten Kitchen (halved the recipe, but in the end I needed only half of the halved recipe). Except that I was too lazy to strain the seeds out of the pureed raspberries and just left them in (apologizing mentally to the people who are going to eat this cake and will just have to deal with a mouthful of raspberry seeds). Next time, I will definitely strain the puree. Or just buy some raspberry preserves and use them instead.

Assembling the cake: First, I turned out the cooled cakes from the cake pans and gently used a knife to remove the "dome" of the cakes to make even layers. This is going to take me some practice but is not that difficult. An assembled layer cake is difficult to move around, and I found it easy to assemble the cake right on the surface where I was planning to serve it. To keep the surface clean, tear some paper towels/parchment paper into four strips and place them in a square on the surface, then place the cake on these strips. Place one layer on the surface, spread with a layer of filling; not to thick or it will ooze out and make a mess. Then the second layer, then slather with the ganache. I did my best to do a neat job but it was still ...umm...let's call it shabby chic. Garnish with fresh raspberries if desired. The extra ganache/crumbs will drop on these strips. Once the cake is frosted, the strips can be gently pulled out, leaving a clean surface behind.

Happy Birthday, my love!


Have a sweet weekend, everyone!

Of Brown Rice and Brownies

A few weeks ago, I realized with a start that in two-and-a-half years of blogging, brown rice has been a rare commodity on this blog. How did that happen? It has something to do with my complicated relationship with brown rice: On one hand, I love the nutty and chewy texture of brown rice, and want to embrace its healthful properties. Brown rice has been a presence in my kitchen for several years and I do serve it now and then. But I still can't wrap my head around eating brown rice on a regular basis, relegating white rice to the status of an occasional treat. I can't fathom eating amti or pithale or sambar with brown rice, and I am not too thrilled with the idea of making lemon rice or tamarind rice with brown rice.

So, for some ideas and inspiration, I turned to my culinary gurus: the food bloggers. Here are some of my favorite experiments with brown rice, all truly delicious!

Idea 1: Adding brown rice to dosa batter. I got this idea from Manjula's recipe for Brown Rice and Barley Dosa. I started making dosas on a regular basis only this year, using the standard proportions of 1 C urad dal: 2 C white rice. For this first experiment, I took a cue from Manjula and used 1 C urad dal: 1 C white rice: 1 C brown rice. The result was very delicious, and definitely a small yet significant improvement, nutritionally speaking.

To go with the dosa, I made a Konkani version of sambar, using Shilpa's authentic recipe for Kolmbo. My variation: I halved the amount of spices in the masala mixture to account for our rather wimpy taste buds. Even so, this was the spiciest sambar I have ever tasted- very flavorful and delicious.

Idea 2: Brown rice khichdi. I had all kinds of pre-conceived notions that khichdi, my favorite food, should not be messed around with. Then I saw Musical's recipe for Mothaan di Khichdi and it called for my beloved matki/ moth beans and, surprise, brown rice! I made it the very day she posted it, and followed the recipe directions religiously. With a dollop of tangy mango pickle, this meal was nothing short of *divine*.

Last night, I made a variation of it: Using 2 C of mixed sprouts (matki, moong, masoor) instead of the half C of matki. I cooked the rice together with the sprouts...sprouts cook very quickly and do not require the pre-cooking. This version was as delicious as the original. What a simple and fantastic recipe! Serve it with any stir-fried vegetable (subzi/ bhaaji) for a complete and utterly satisfying meal.

Idea 3: Pairing brown rice with a spicy curry or stew. You need something robust and full-bodied to match the nutty flavor of brown rice, and rajma (a traditional Punjabi kidney bean stew) is the perfect example! I am happy to inform you that I have found THE rajma recipe that I have been seeking for years (the essay on the post is such a fantastic read; the author of the blog is a well-known writer in Bombay). The combination of rajma with plain boiled brown rice was such a treat. I cook my brown rice on the stove-top [1 C rice (soaked 15 minutes, then drained) : 2 C water]. For more tips on cooking plain brown rice, see this DH post.

The rajma recipe calls for all of 6 ingredients and turns out something soooo delicious. I think this is a wonderful recipe for anyone who is new to Indian cooking and intimidated by long ingredient lists. This recipe calls for kidney beans, onion, tomato, salt, oil/ghee (butter could be substituted) and red chili powder (cayenne pepper). These are very common ingredients in most pantries. Dare I say it...one could make a version of this with canned beans in a pinch. My variation: I did soak the rajma for a few hours and rinsed it thoroughly before pressure-cooking it. Otherwise, I stuck to the recipe religiously. I did not even "speak while eating"!

Finally, while we are on the subject of "brown", here is some dessert! I wanted to bake something sweet for my parents when they were visiting, and what could be more American than brownies? Via Trupti's MBP post, I found this recipe for Low-Fat Brownies that I liked at first sight. Applesauce is used to add moisture while cutting down on the fat and it calls for a great deal of cocoa powder, making the resulting brownies very chocolate-y indeed. With only half a cup of sugar, these brownies are not very sweet at all- just the way I like my "sweets"! My variations: (a) I used only 1 tsp vanilla extract (b) added 1 tsp instant coffee to the dry ingredients (c) added half cup toasted chopped walnuts to the batter. We loved the taste of these low-fat treats just by themselves, but on that day, I served them with vanilla ice cream, garnished with some apple roses.

I've made these brownies a couple of times since then, and everyone likes them. This recipe goes straight into my folder of "keeper recipes".

Idea 4: Oven-Baked Brown Rice For anyone struggling to make brown rice on the stove-top, Alanna shares a fool-proof method from Cook's Illustrated Magazine. Her Oven-Baked Brown Rice was very easy to make, and turned out just perfect: every grain of rice fluffy and perfectly cooked! It is nice to make a big batch of brown rice and use it over 2-3 days (it re-heats perfectly in the microwave).


Idea 5: Fried Rice Any left-over cooked brown rice can be easily used to make a "fried" rice with vegetables like onions, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, green onions (any combination of these). See an example here.

WBB: Chocolate Cherry Bread

This is my entry for the monthly Weekend Breakfast Blogging, an event show-casing my favorite meal of the day! WBB is the brainchild of Nandita from Saffron Trail. This month, WBB is being hosted by Padmaja of Spicyandhra, and the theme is: SUMMER FRUITS!

Some day I will be a perfect baker: the cakes I bake will rise to the skies, the bread will have the perfect balance of crust and crumb, and every muffin will be picture perfect. That day appears to be far, far into the future. For now, my baked goods have a "rustic" look that only their own baker could love, and I regularly forget to do essential steps like adding the vanilla or sifting the flour. Here is my latest attempt at baking...using one of my favorite summer fruits- cherries- in a decadent breakfast roll. My favorite way of eating cherries is straight out of hand. This time last year, I was in Seattle, eating my way through huge bags of plump, sweet cherries bought from local farmer's markets. However, I also love the pairing of cherry with chocolate and was excited to try this recipe. For warm, fresh rolls in the morning, start the dough the night before.

Chocolate Cherry Bread

(adapted from this recipe from Vegetarian Times, makes about 16 small rolls)
1. Mix 1 cup warm water, 1 tbsp sugar and 1 packet instant yeast. Set aside for 5 minutes or until yeast gets activated and foamy.
2. In a large bowl, sift together 2 and 1/3 cup AP flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp salt.
3. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the dough blade, add the flour mixture. Pour the yeast mixture on this. Add 1 tablespoons melted butter. Process the whole thing into a smooth and elastic dough (takes 2-3 minutes).
4. Take the dough onto a well-floured surface, knead briefly and pat down to a square.
Until this point, everything was picture perfect, the dough had a wonderful texture and I was rather pleased with myself.
5. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used bittersweet) and 1 and 1/2 cups chopped pitted fresh cherries or frozen thawed cherries (could also use 1 cup dried cherries). Knead to distribute them within the dough.
Now this is where things got interesting. I had some frozen cherries in the freezer and decided to use those. I did thaw them out and set them in a strainer to drain the extra juices, but apparently, the thawing time was not enough. When I added the cherries to the dough, in the matter of a few seconds, my beautiful dough became a squelchy wet mess, thanks to the excess liquid from the cherries. I was horrified to say the least, but unwilling to toss it out, I carried on with the recipe.
6. Set the dough in a large bowl for a 1 and 1/2 hour rise. Then, punch it down and set it, covered, in the fridge overnight.
7. Next morning, shape the dough into a log and make 16 equal pieces (divide the log into fourths, then each quarter into fours). Shape each piece into a ball and set on a non-stick baking sheet. Let it rise for 45 minutes.
All of these steps were very difficult with the ultra-wet dough, and I only managed to shape the dough into rough lumps, not the perfect rolls of my dreams!
8. Pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes. Because of the chocolate, it is difficult to see if the rolls have been browned, so I inserted a toothpick to see if the rolls were done. Serve warm, with a cup of your favorite beverage!

Verdict: At the end of this rather stressful process, I was rewarded with a tasty treat, to my immense relief. The dough might have been very wet, but during the baking, it dried off and the resulting rolls had a dry exterior. I am really glad that I did not give up half-way and end up throwing good food away. The roll was tender and delicious, and extremely chocolate-y! The roll was studded with melted pockets of chocolates (from the chocolate chips) and little cherry bites. Very delicious!

I will definitely be making this again, BUT with an important difference: I will use either fresh cherries (only if they are NOT over-ripe and too juicy) or stick to good old dried cherries. I would like to try this bread with white whole-wheat flour next time. As I was writing this post, I discovered that fellow blogger Pavani has a much more successful version of this bread on her blog. If you like the combination of fruit and chocolate, this bread is for you: the perfect special brunch treat!

See you on Sunday, with the R of Indian Vegetables. Entries are due on Saturday for anyone who wishes to participate!

SHF 27: World Peace Cookies

For me, Sugar High Friday (SHF) is the sweetest event on the food-blogging calendar. Over the last couple of years, it has pushed me to try my hand at making some delicious desserts instead of taking the coward's way out and doing what I would normally do: buying a cheesecake at the local bakery or a tin of gulab-jamuns at the Indian store in Queens.

This month, SHF is being hosted by celebrated pastry chef and cookbook author (not to mention celebrated food blogger), David Lebovitz. The theme of the month, an appropriately crowd-pleasing one for the beginning of the year, is Chocolate, by brand. So, you make a dessert with chocolate, but discuss the brand of chocolate that you bought, and the reason you chose it.

And as luck would have, I was already dying to try out a chocolate cookie that calls for both bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder, and would be just perfect for this event. I first saw World Peace Cookies on the blog I love Milk and Cookies. Even to my sweet-tooth-less self, these cookies looked decadent and delicious. They are from the book Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan, probably the most popular baking book that was published in 2006. I myself bought a copy of the book for the most enthusiastic and competent baker in my life, my friend Laureen.

The premise of world peace cookies is that they are so delicious that a daily dose would go a long way in ensuring a happy disposition and maintaining world peace. Not a bad thing these days!

I heaved a sigh of relief when I read the theme of this SHF. Buying chocolate is all an entirely confusing business to me and I can finally expect some help. For instance, this is what happened when I went to the local gourmet food store. I found the baking aisle, and came face-to-face with a towering wall of chocolate bars and cocoa tins. I could see 4-5 different brands of bittersweet chocolate, and the most expensive one was almost three times as expensive as the cheapest. I am completely willing to pay the price for good quality chocolate, but is price really a good indication of quality in case of chocolate? I don't like the taste of Hershey's chocolate (to my palate, it has an unpleasant fatty after-taste), so that was out. After much hemming and hawing, I tossed a coin between two regular supermarket brands, Ghiradelli and Nestle, and opted for the Nestle bittersweet chocolate bar. So I have no reason for choosing this brand except that I could not stand there all day staring at chocolate bars.

Where cocoa powder was concerned, the major decision was whether to use natural cocoa powder, which is distinctly acidic and bitter-tasting, or Dutch-processed (alkali-processed) cocoa powder, which is darker and milder. In my own highly unscientific scans of blogs and web-pages, bakers seem to prefer Dutch-processed cocoa. However, all the various tins in the store contained natural cocoa. I suspect that this has to do with people wanting to buy anything that proclaims "natural" on its label. In the end, I bought the brand Valrhona which is certainly a very high-end cocoa powder if nothing else. It said nothing about the processing at all on the box, so I doubt if it is dutch-processed.

The recipe for World Peace Cookies can be found on several websites, including those of public radio stations and national newspapers and on various food blogs. I used this very detailed recipe provided by Anita of the beautiful pastry blog Dessert First.

The cookie calls for a very short list of ingredients, and is relatively simple to make. It does not call for eggs at all, resulting in a buttery shortbread-like cookie.

• I started by setting out the butter to come to room temperature (took a few hours in this season). 
• Then I used the food processor to chop the chocolate bar into little pieces. This is way easier than chopping the chocolate by hand, although the food processor made a frightful noise as it chopped the chocolate, and quite a bit of the chocolate ended up as chocolate dust rather than the small bits I was aspiring towards. It's all good (I think :)). 
• Then I sifted the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together and set it aside.
• The subsequent steps called for an electric mixer but I don't own one, so I just did it all by hand, first creaming the butter, then mixing in white sugar, brown sugar, some sea salt and vanilla extract. 
• Then the flour mixture was gently mixed in. Boy, was the dough sandy and crumbly.
• I formed two logs and put them in the refrigerator overnight.
• Once the logs are ready, baking the cookies only takes minutes. The hard part was slicing the dough...it really started to fall apart, but I just patched together the pieces and moved right along. 
•  The cookies are baked for only 12 minutes, and they emerge from the oven looking completely wet and under-done. But as they cooled, they did firm up and were just perfect in the end. 

World peace cookies are more chocolatey than almost anything I have ever tasted. I sent them off with V to share with his colleagues (it is unwise to keep these cookies around the house unless you are trying to put on a few pounds fast) and everyone seemed to enjoy them.

Next time, I will use these cookies to make a grown-up ice cream sandwich by sandwiching some very good-quality vanilla ice cream between them. I think the slightly salty, rich chocolate taste of the cookies would pair well with the cold creamy vanilla.

See the wonderful round-up here.