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.
And
I'm glad I did end up making these, because they turned out wonderful!
Crisp edges with a chewy center, these checkerboard cookies have an
indescribable, subtly sweet and buttery flavor that makes you reach for
more. They're addictive and they look impressive, but aren't actually as
difficult to make as I'd once thought. With a little bit of practice
and a several trips to and from the freezer, you'll get the gist of how
to shape the checkerboard logs, and slicing the cookies are a breeze.
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!
The next recipe I revisited was the chocolate crinkle cookie. I first
made these for my friend W for his birthday a few years back, but they
were flatter and much more crunchy than the crinkled cookies I baked
this time--crisp, chewy, and brownie-like. These cookies are a snap to
whip up and pop into the oven. My favorite part is making the dough. The
rich cocoa aroma is invigorating and inviting, makes my mouth water and
my heart pound in temptation to eat the cookie dough straight out of
the bowl. Of course I resisted with all my might. Just adding all that
sugar into the bowl made my stomach churn out of uneasiness, but I ended up *cough* taste-testing *cough* more than one of these indulgent little cookies anyway.
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 :)
