Every year around Christmas, no matter how much homework I had or how many tests I had to study for, I would always bake treats to share with my family and friends. Usually it was only one recipe doubled or tripled, but I decided to go all out this year and revisited a few old recipes within the week! These recipes aren't necessarily healthy, but a little sugar over the holidays always livens things up :)
Checkerboard cookies and I go way back (specifically, 3 years). I've attempted making these cookies twice before but failed both trials miserably. The dough always softened immediately once taken out of the freezer, stuck to my fingers, mushed the chocolate and vanilla doughs together, and deformed the signature checkerboard appearance. It was even worse trying to slice the checkerboard logs: the edges rounded out and lost its square definition, the already deformed dough further melted in my hands no matter how quickly I sliced and worked...
My cookies were pretty disappointing and quite ugly; hard work to no avail, so I left the recipe alone--until now.
I was
hesitant about making these again but dared myself to accept the
challenge. I had to conquer this recipe somehow; I vowed that these
cookies must and will turn out well, and what better time of year to confront an old recipe than holiday baking season.
I'm in love with this recipe and I want to make these cookies over and over again because they're purely fun to make! I awed at the sight of how lovely my checkerboard cookies turned out that I couldn't wait to bake the rest of the dough, and eventually stayed up til 3 AM doing so.
I'm surprised myself; I actually succeeded, I conquered the recipe! The recipe did call for exact measurements when rolling out and stacking the dough, but I disregarded all of that and winged it. So my cookies aren't perfect, but I like the homemade feel of the slightly uneven checkerboard appearance, and they were very well received by my teachers and friends so this personal challenge was definitely worth it!
Sad to say I still haven't invested in a rolling pin, so I used my trusty giant thermos to roll out the vanilla and chocolate doughs; but my cookies turned out nice so I'm not going to complain!
As you probably know, I LOVE making any and everything meringue. The soft airiness and melt-in-your-mouth texture of meringue cookies are to die for, and you know how you can amp that up even more? Nutella. I don't know anyone who doesn't love nutella (except I personally got over the crave, need, and want for it) and though I was a bit skeptical at how it would taste with peppermint, the combination worked out really well (except for the nutella being a bit runny).
I made these meringues twice before a few years ago. The first time I didn't use the red food coloring because it was kind of a hassle, and for some reason the simple, straightforward direction of painting three stripes into the pastry bag really confused me. The second time I did use food coloring, but I painted the tip of the star piping tip I was using, so only a total of two meringue cookies had stripes, while the million rest of them were white. This time around I finally painted three red stripes on the inside of the pastry bag, and even though it took 3 to 4 meringues before the red hue finally caught on, all of my meringues had traces of the warm holiday stripes. As I kept piping, however, the white meringue and red food coloring gradually mingled together, so a plate of piped meringues were completely pink and had no defined stripes.
When you make these meringues, take your time. I was in a bit of a rush, so I rushed the baking process which you should NEVER do (I feel like such a hypocrite, how many times has it been when I do something I tell you guys not to do?). After I slightly burned one baking sheet full of meringues, I went slow and steady and the rest turned out A-Okay. Perhaps it's the weather or my oven or most likely me, my meringues turned out a bit sticky at room temperature, so I refrigerated them to let them set and for the Nutella to harden a little. The original recipe called for chocolate ganache, and I used chocolate ganache in my previous two trials, but the lack of heavy cream and dark chocolate this time pushed me towards Nutella.
I intended to add only the meringue cookies to the treat box, but Nutella really helped balance out the peppermint flavor. These cookies have a slight crunch that melt away to reveal the Nutella center, and their cute and pretty appearance is definitely a crowd-pleaser :) I'll post the original recipe with chocolate ganache, just in case you want the ganache recipe!
And here is the finished product! I packaged six checkerboard cookies in a small plastic bag, then filled the box with four (or five? I can't remember) chocolate crinkle cookies, two macarons, and two peppermint meringues (I added extra things in after taking this photo). I made cookie butter macarons which is just the basic macaron recipe filled with Speculoos Cookie Butter from Trader Joe's. I was aiming for gingerbread macarons, but the cookie butter came close enough :)
It was a long week of baking madness, but with Christmas only a week away, I'm pretty sure there will be more baking madness this week. Yes this is a completely unhealthy post, but it's alright to indulge a little bit here and there at times. Revisiting all of these recipes turned out to be very therapeutic rather than stressful, and it gave me a burst of new confidence and energy to keep baking and cooking a lot more! Plus it's always a delight to share my baked goods with the people I love and care about. Just seeing them smile or nod happily after their first bite of one of my cookies makes all of this mad baking well worth it :)
Checkerboard Cookies
adapted from Baking Obsession
yields about 8 dozen
Ingredients:
5 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tbs vanilla extract
2 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup cocoa powder
Directions:
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium or large bowl and set aside.
- In another large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then add the vanilla extract. Gradually add the flour mixture in with the wet ingredients and mix to combine. Finish mixing with your hands or a wooden spoon.
- Divide the dough in half as evenly as you can and knead the 1/2 cup of cocoa into one portion of the dough. Then divide the vanilla and chocolate dough each in half as evenly as you can to get a total of four portions. Form each of the four doughs into a rectangle, wrap them individually in plastic, and refrigerate (I froze them) for at least 2 hours or up to a day.
- Take one portion of the chocolate and one portion of the vanilla dough and let them sit on the counter for about 15-20 minutes to soften slightly. On parchment paper or a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin and roll one portion of the vanilla and one portion of the chocolate dough (separately) into 1/2-inch thick rectangles, with the sides about 12 x 5 inches long. Using a pizza wheel (I just used a knife) cut out total of nine 1/2-inch wide strips from the each dough.
- Handling the strips delicately, form two checkerboard logs alternating the chocolate and vanilla strips (see the photo of the finished cookies, there is also a diagram on her blog).
- Cover with plastic wrap or parchment paper and refrigerate (or freeze) until firm, at least for 2 hours.
- When ready to continue, roll the remaining chocolate (or vanilla) dough into a rectangle about 1/3-inch thick and measuring 12 x 6 inches. Place the firmed checkerboard log into the center, long sides parallel, and wrap the dough around the checkerboard log pressing firmly to adhere.
- Roll the finished log from side to side to define the corners. Wrap in the parchment and/or plastic wrap and refrigerate (or freeze) well. Repeat with the rest of the dough and the second chilled checkerboard log to form another, opposite in colors, cookie log. Wrap, place in the fridge (or freeze).
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350° F. Cover a large baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat. Using a very sharp knife, slice the cookie-dough log into 1/4-inch thick slices. Place on the prepared baking sheet leaving about 1 inch all way around them.
- Bake the cookies, in batches, for about 12 minutes until firm and golden brown on the bottom. Don’t let them bake for too long, or the color contrast between the chocolate and vanilla dough will be lost.
- Cool on the baking sheet on a rack for 15 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely, then enjoy!
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
adapted from 17 and Baking
yields about 7 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
Directions:
- In a medium bowl, mix together the cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in another bowl, then stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.
- Once ready to bake, preheat oven to 350° F and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Roll dough into one inch balls with lightly oiled palms. I used a tablespoon to portion out the dough into balls, but you can use whatever you want depending on what size of cookies you're trying to achieve.
- Coat each ball in confectioner's sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Then remove, let cool, and enjoy!
Striped Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Ganache
adapted from 17 and Baking
yields about 5 dozen
Ingredients:
Meringue:
3 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp pure peppermint extract
Red gel food coloring
Chocolate Ganache:
3/4 cup heavy cream
4 1/2 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 175° F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
-
Whisk the egg whites and sugar in the
heatproof bowl of an electric mixer (or just any heat proof bowl if you
don't own a stand mixer) over a pan of simmering water. Stir
until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm and smooth between
your finger tips, about 3-5 minutes.
- Then transfer the bowl to the stand mixer (or use a handheld electric mixer) and
whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form. Mix in the peppermint extract.
- With a small, clean paintbrush used for
food (I dipped a tiny wad of paper towel into the food color), paint three stripes of food coloring inside a pastry bag fitted
with an open star tip.
- Fill the pastry bag with 1-2
cups meringue and pipe small, 3/4-inch high stars onto the sheets (or really any size you want). If you
need to refill the pastry bag, repaint the food coloring. Clean the
brush every time you dip it into the food coloring, or use a new one.
- Bake the cookies until crisp but not brown,
about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks before
sandwiching with ganache.
To Make the Ganache:
- Bring cream to a simmer
in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Pour the cream over the chocolate in a
small bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.
-Stir until smooth and let cool to
room temperature, stirring occasionally. The ganache should be thick
enough to hold its shape.
-Fill it into a pastry bag fitted with a plain
round tip and pipe a small mound of ganache onto one meringue before
topping with another.
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