Saturday, November 16, 2013

Recipe: Chocolate & Vanilla Checkerboard Cookies!


For a very very long time I've always wanted to bake checkerboard cookies, because I'm a massive nerd I see them a lot in anime and Japanese drama and always have wanted to try baking them myself, finally I have and I love them, they are quite easy to make and taste a little bit like short bread.

Treat yourself to some and a cup of tea! (I'm going to make them again to add more pictures for the step by step process. But maybe not for a while.

Ingredients

  • 250g of butter at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup of caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
  • 2 1/2 cups of plain flour
  • 1/4 cup of dark cocoa powder
  • 1 egg

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to your desired temperature. 
  2. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set aside.
  3. With your favourite electric mixer or mix master beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl until its pale and creamy. (I suggest using a mix master since it takes a bit and your hand will be sore - this happened to me in the past when I didn't own a mix master - but whatever works!) 
  4. Add the flour and combine. 
  5. Divide the dough into two equal portions.
  6. Add cocoa powder to one portion and if your lazy like me you'll get out the dough hook on your mix master to do the kneading for you but you can use your hands. don't over do it cause we don't want them to be too tough. I did it with the dough hook for a little while before using my hands to get it combined. 
  7. Get your rolling pin out and time to make a 20x8cm rectangle, try to make it 2cm thick. (I used mostly my hands since its really easy to spread and stretch but to get the edges nice and smooth and flat into a rectangle shape I used my cake scraper. (You could use anything on hand to make the sharp edges, a plastic ruler would definitely come in handy) After you're done cover in plastic wrap and set to the side so you can still use it as a reference for your next rectangle. 
  8. After you are finished with both and are happy with their shape and are covered in plastic wrap place them in the freezer for 15 minutes or until they are firm, but not frozen. (this is important because you have to cut and then shape them. 
  9. Before you take them out of the freezer whisk your egg. You don't need to use all of the egg so I suggest separating the amount you want to use so you can do something with the leftover egg, but that's just me!
  10. Cut both your rectangles down the middle lengthwise to make 2 squares.
  11. Now time to put them together! Get a brush and apply the egg to one side of the chocolate rectangle then place the vanilla rectangle on top. Combine all sides together with the egg mixture then if you get an odd shape in some areas of your new rectangle you should be able to shape it to your liking. You can soften the edges or make them really sharp. 
  12. Time to cut them into cookies! Get out a sharp knife and cut about 2cm apart, you don't want to make them too thick or too thin. (I made some a bit too thick so trust me on this!) 
  13. Cook for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them, you don't want to overcook them, you can wait until some are just golden around the edges or try to get them out just before so they are perfect! Wait for them to cool down and harden before enjoying!
I think this is one recipe that some people may have to see pictures of the steps to do it correctly, at least for the first time. So I'll add some more step by step pictures when I next make them!

-Kate xo

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