Checkerboard Cookies,Are You Up For A Game.

This is a brand new recipe that I just tried out from one of my baking books that's called "The Big Book Of Baking" that I bought from chapters.The title still amuses me because of how direct it is. My eyes were definitely drawn to it when I saw it and especially with all the great photographs.

I have actually wanted to make these cookies when I first saw them in the book because they were so neat looking and professional.

To describe the checkerboard cookie I would say that its appearance is very colorful and its texture is soft and a little crunchy.Its taste is mildly sweet with chocolate and the mild taste of orange and ginger.With my recipe I actually did not use any ginger or orange rind because I did not have any at the time, but I presume if I did I would of tasted both of them in the cookies.Instead I used lemon extract for the white dough for just a hint of lemony flavor and they tasted really good.

The cookies were tiny to me which made them look really cute and I can predict that there not going to last to long. Even the photographs made me think this may be difficult, stressing and time consuming.When I tired out this recipe it was actually very simple to follow,however it is a little time consuming with all the chilling that has to be done.The time didn't really bother me that much because I had the time to actually waste to make them.Overall it was a really fun cookie to make and they looked just great especially for photographs.


At first reading the recipe I felt a little overwhelmed, but when I took the time to re read and understand it more it became pretty simple to follow.For advice for people that want to use this recipe be sure to re read it more then once just to understand fully so there wont be any mistakes. I have made mistakes before with other recipes that seem a little complicated at first.If you can get pass that you will do fine and you will end up with really awesome looking cookies.

When I followed this recipe I did not use ground ginger, grated orange rind or superfine sugar because I did not have the ginger or orange rind so I just used lemon extract for the white dough.The superfine sugar I did not have either so I just used regular sugar which worked great to.

Checkerboard Cookies (Adapted from The Big Book Of Baking)

1 cup butter,softened

3/4 cup granulate sugar

1 egg yolk,lightly beaten 
1 egg white, lightly beaten

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cup all purpose flour

pinch of salt
1/2 tsp lemon extract

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa, sifted

Method:

1.Beat butter and sugar into large bowl.Beat in yolk and vanilla extract.
2.Add flour and salt, stir till well combined.
3.Divide dough in half.Add lemon extract (will be for the white part of the dough)

4.Shape dough in a log(6inch/15 cm long.)Flatten sides and top to square off the log to 2 inch/5cm high.
5.Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 30-60 minutes.
6.Add sifted cocoa to other half of dough,mix well.Shape dough into a log that 6inch/15 cm long.Flatten sides,top to square off the log to 2 inch/5cm high. Chill for 30 -60 minutes.
7.Unwrap dough, cut each flattened log lengthwise into three slices.Then cut each slice length wise into three strips.
8.Brush strips with egg white and stack into threes,alternating colors, same shape as the original logs.Wrap in plastic,chill for 30-60 minutes.
9.Oven 375F,two cookie sheets,parchment paper.

10.Unwrap logs,cut into slices with a serrated knife and put the cookies on the sheet, spaced well apart.
11.Bake 10-15 minutes,till firm and lightly golden brown, cool for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to wire racks.