Kiddo’s summer vacation is starting on Wednesday. And I am going home on Thursday.

For the whole of two months. Now how many of you are jealous with that statement :-)?

I was checking with my parents whether they need something from here and my father goes: “Your mom is asking you to make some cookies and come. Cake is also fine, but she specifically wants cookies.”

Me:”Amma wants it or you want it?”

Appa: “Me??? Its amma who wants it. I will just taste a small piece, that’s all”

And I can hear amma protesting at being used for appa’s cookie requests!

So batch of cookies are going home. To celebrate the summer vacation and to celebrate going home :-).

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for recipes from more participants and more recipes.

Recipe Source: The Essential Baking Book

The dough is same as the spiral pin wheel cookies

Makes  :   4 dozen plus

Note: The step by step pictures is not of this batch, it has a slightly different pattern than the one featured in the pictures here.

Ingredients:

• Butter                         :              180g
• Sugar                          :              1 cup (granulated or soft brown, not demarara)
• All purpose flour     :               2 1/4
• Baking powder        :               1 tsp
• Cocoa                        :               1 tbsp
• Egg                            :               1 (replaced with 1/2 tsp baking powder + milk)
• Vanilla Extract        :               1 tsp

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar with a hand mixer till its light and fluffy. Add vanilla essence and egg, if using. Butter should be at room temp., if its not you can microwave it at 10 sec intervals @ 40 % power. If you do this at full power, the butter will melt.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Tip this dry ingredients into the butter mix and using a wooden spatula, mix until everything comes together and forms a soft dough.
4. Since I didn’t use the egg, I had to use 1-2 tbsp milk for moisture. You will have to add the milk in tablespoons till the dough comes together.
5. Knead and make a soft dough (don’t handle it too much, though).
6. Divide the dough into four equal parts. Add cocoa powder into two portions and knead it in. Keep the other two portions plain. At any point, if the dough seems to be soft, you can keep it in the fridge for it to become firm.

1. For making checkerboard pattern, shape one pair of chocolate and plain dough roughly into a square shape of same shape. Cut off a small portion for the border from both pieces.
2. Stack one on top of the other. Now, divide this into two pieces.
3. Divide each piece into two (or three pieces, I have gone for a two in here, but the main pictures show three check pattern).
4. Turn one piece over to show the opposite colour. It’s now, chocolate-vanilla – chocolate-vanilla now. If you are dividing into three pieces, turn only the middle piece upside down.
5. Press the two pieces together (or three, whichever the case may be). Repeat with the other pair too.
6. Stack them on top of each other. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. The dough can be frozen for later use also.
7. Repeat with the other remaining set of dough to get the logs.
8. If you want a border, check the pictures below. Else slice these and bake in a preheated oven for about 10-15 minutes, keeping an eye on it once its 8 minutes or so.

1. For border design, take the small portion that was kept aside from both cocoa and plain dough. Roll it in between two parchment papers, the rolled portion should be enough to cover the whole cookie log.
2. Keep the log in the middle and cover the sides and top with the rolled dough.
3. You now have a border around the checkerboard pattern. Mine was not sufficient, I had to roll out one more small piece to cover all sides.
4. Slice this log to get checker board pattern.
5. Don’t worry about the first piece that doesn’t look good, it’s for you to taste test :-)
6. Bake in a preheated oven, with enough space around each cookie, for about 10-15 minutes or till the edges start turning a bit brown.

This recipe is off to Vardhini’s Bake Fest, hosted this month by Sowmya of Nivedhanam