chocolate and sea salt cookies

In last week’s giveaway, these were the most requested cookies. I guess I’m not the only one in love with bittersweet chocolate and salt. The intense flavors of dark chocolate and fleur de sel come together for a party in your mouth. If you have not yet tried this combo, don’t walk, run to the store and pick up the ingredients to make these now. I’m pretty sure that if every human being could eat just one of these every day, there would indeed be peace in the world!

The following recipe has been adapted from one published in The Oregonian and shared with me by my friend Theresa.

Chocolat Paix Mondiale et Cookies au sel de mer
World Peace Chocolate and Sea Salt Cookies
PRINTABLE RECIPE


Makes about 4 dozen 


Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup plus 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature)
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips

Directions

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together. Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and pale yellow. Add the sugars, salt and vanilla and mix another 2 minutes.

Turn off the mixer. Pour in the sifted dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the mixer to protect anything around it from flying flour. Mix at low speed about 5 times for a second or two each time. Then mix about 30 seconds more. Mix just until the flour disappears into the dough. Work the dough as little as possible. It may look a little crumbly... no worries. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix just until incorporated.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and gather it together and divide it in half. Shape into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Using a sharp knife, slice the logs into rounds that are about 1/2 inch thick. (They may crack a bit as you’re cutting them. No worries. Just squeeze the chocolatey bits back onto the cookie). Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

Bake each batch, one sheet at a time, for 12 minutes. They won’t look done, they won’t be firm at this point. They’ll firm up and become sandy/crumbly as they cool. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack.

Here are a couple key ingredients that make these amazingly delicious:

Fleur de Sel

My Mother-in-law brought this back from Paris. You can see another creation I made with it here. Once you go French, you’ll never go back!

Guittard chocolate

In the mid 1800’s, Etienne Guittard traveled to San Francisco searching for gold that he never found. He brought with him delicious chocolate from his uncle’s factory in France. Understandably, this chocolate made him very popular, which inspired Etienne to establish the Guittard Chocolate Company in San Francisco, in 1868. I’m so glad he did!

You can order boxes of Guittard chocolate from Amazon.com or if you have a Williams-Sonoma store in your area, they carry it as well.