I like the world peace cookies. 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 dip a lot of Buckeyes every so often. This time, I put a heating pad in a large stainless steel bowl, put a towel over it (so it wouldn't get messy), then set my glass bowl of microwave-melted chocolate chips on top of the pad. The chocolate stayed a nice melty consistency - didn't start to "drag." (I actually can't take credit for this, though; I saw it on TV - America's Test Kitchen, maybe?) I never add extra fat to the chips and I also nuke them first. I used to put the Buckeyes in the fridge to set the chocolate, but have found that they're better if they "cure" at room temp.

I wouldn't use chips unless they are a fancy brand, say Ghiardellis ( say it because for sure I can't spell it!) I would toast the almonds first, put them on some of that quick release foil and melt some of that 60$ cacoa chocolate and drizzle over the warm almonds....then put the whole mess into a 200 oven and stir until all is coated....cool and break up. But....what do I know, I have never done that.... When a 3 year old has been bugging me, I usually cave and make decorated cutout cookies....and spend the next 3 days cleaning up! Linda c

Thanks, Carol, for the link. I know the method for tempering, but never temper baking chocolate when I use it to coat. I was trying to get opinions on whether a candy bar, such as TJ's Belgian dark chocolate would work to coat the truffles, without tempering, even if they didn't look professional. I just wanted to know if the chocolate would harden again. Since I couldn't find anything online that said it could work, I was hoping for experienced candy makers' opinions before I went to the trouble. I don't have a chocolate thermometer, nor had time to mess with tempering, so I just bought baking chocolate, melted it in the double boiler like I always do and it turned out fine. I'll use the candy bars for something else sometime. I appreciate you taking the time to try to help!