Easy checkerboard cookie recipe for holidays. Learn how to make checkerboard cookies, French hollandais, for your family and Christmas tree.
Checkerboard Cookies I – vanilla and chocolate flavor
Checkerboard Cookies II – red and green Christmas checkerboard cookies
Hollandais, French checkerboard cookies. I make these only once a year for Christmas. I really love these exquisite checkerboard cookies. They perfectly go with Christmas tree, too.
First, make ribbons with cookie dough.
Then assemble the ribbons to form checkerboards. I use egg wash as glue.
Then wrap the checkerboard with remaining dough. It’s important to let set the dough when form this shape since it’s basically butter cookie, meaning the dough can get too soft to work with when it’s at room temperature for long.
Now slice & bake!
- ⅔ cup butter, softened ( 150g)
- 1¼ cups confectioners’ sugar (156g)
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- A pinch of salt
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 ½ cups cake flour (312g)
- 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder melted in 4 teaspoons hot water
- Brown sugar to decorate the cookie, optional
- Food colors or green tea powder, for coloring
- Roll out the dough about ⅓ inch thick. I am using the vanilla and chocolate cookie dough which I made in the last video. To do this, I use a silicone rolling mat and rectangular steel pieces under my rolling pin.
- Cut the edges to make rectangular shape. (10cm x 13cm: 3.9 inch x 5.1 inch) Make sure both sheets are same in size. Wrap the left-over dough and store it in the refrigerator. Don’t forget to store the dough in the refrigerator for at least half an hour to make it set whenever it gets soft.
- Make simple egg wash with an egg. Then brush on one side and place the other sheet on top.
- Cut in 1 inch wide ribbons. Now assemble four ribbons together using egg wash as glue. Make sure the colors of neighboring dough are different: you are making checkerboard. And store in the refrigerator.
- Roll out the left-over dough thinly and brush the egg wash on top. Then place the checkerboard bar on top. Trim the cover sheet and roll all the way up. And cut out the surplus. Wrap and store the cookie dough in the refrigerator for one hour.
- I made cookie dough (bar) with green and red dough as well. I made colorful dough with artificial and natural food colors.
- This time the width and depth are the same for square checkerboard.
- Slice the cookie bar and place on a cookie pan. And bake at 360 degrees F. (180C.) for about 16 minutes, or until slightly swollen.
- Out of oven let cool on the pan for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes the cookies will get hard enough to be transferred with a spatula. And completely cool on a wire rack. If you cool the cookies on the pan, they will get too dry.
