Czech black and white cookies recipe

Czech Black and White Cookies recipe

This article was published by: Matthew

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♼ Recipe origin is unknown. Czech black and white cookies recipe, recipe Rating: 4.7
Number of votes:104 

Ingredients

250 g	unsalted butter, softened
160 g	caster sugar
1 large	egg, beaten
1 ½ tsp	vanilla essence
350 g	plain flour
2 tbsp	unsweetened cocoa powder
1	egg, white only, to use as ‘glue’ only where necessary

Instructions

Dough:
Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add the flour and work to smooth dough. Divide into two and mix the cocoa powder into one half until evenly coloured. Cover the bowls with cling film or a damp towel to prevent from drying out, when not in use.

Checkerboard cookies:
Roll out a portion of dough to a thickness of ½ inch or 12mm between layers of baking parchment. Repeat for the other portion. Trim to rectangles of equal size, and return surplus to respective bowls. Refrigerate the two sheets for about 30 minutes on a flat surface, a chopping board perhaps.

Cut each rectangle into strips ½ inch or 12mm wide. Assemble 5 strips side by side alternating the colours as you proceed. Create the second layer in the same fashion, but placing black where you previously had white and so on. Add a third layer as the first. If you wish you can add 2 extra layers: a fourth as the second and a fifth as the third and first. Wrap tightly in cling film and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4, 180°C, 350°F.

Slice into ¼ inch, 6mm thick cookies and bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 10-15 minutes. Do not allow the white segments to colour beyond pale cream. Allow to cool slightly before removing and allow to cool on a wire rack before serving. Ideally, several different patterns should be offered at any one time.

For pinwheel cookies:
Roll out dough between parchment to between 1/8 and ¼ inch, 3-6mm, and trim to equal rectangles. Lightly brush one layer with egg white and arrange the second layer on the first. Roll the dough tightly along the longer edge, if any, and tightly wrap in cling film.

Refrigerate, cut and bake as above.

For wheel cookies:
Roll out dough between parchment to about 1 inch or 25mm thick and roll into a cylinder. Roll out contrasting colour to ¼ inch or 6mm thick and wrap around the existing cylinder. Lightly brush the edge to hold ion place and trim excess. Roll lightly and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate, cut and bake as previously.

For square cookies:
Roll out between parchment to about ¾ inch or 18mm thick. Roll out second colour as the first and cut into ¾inch, 18mm strips. Arrange two strips side-by-side and touching. Arrange second layer on the first with the colours alternating. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate, cut and bake as before.

For flower cookies:
Roll as for square cookies. Refrigerate, cut and bake as above but pinch and stretch the corners into petals and indent the colour junctions. You may also wish to impress a small hole or indent into the centre slightly before baking.

For salami cookies:
Press small leftover scraps together in an arbitrary pattern of light and dark and roll into a 2-inch, 5cm cylinder. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate, cut and bake as previously.

Options:
The above patterns are those most often encountered. But using these principles, you may think of other ways to present these cookies, perhaps a 3- or 4-layer wheel for example. Adhere to the principles and keep the baking time as short as possible and you should not go wrong.

About this recipe:I first encountered these as a child of around 7 or 8 years of age.

A cousin was working as a courier for a company that ran the ’15 countries in 7 days’ tours of the 50’s and 60’s. He returned from one trip with several boxes of biscuits; one was of these in all sorts of shapes and arrangements, an assortment from Germany – probably Bahlsen, and another either from Belgium or The Netherlands – he could not quite remember where but it was a small town almost on the border between them.

I have eaten these since, but only rarely, and have only recently discovered the recipe.

The concept is simple: the two colours of dough are rolled out to a thickness and cut into narrow or wide strips. The strips are arranged in a pattern usually in blocks, sometimes rolled to a circle and cut into cookies. The cookies are lightly baked so as not to colour unduly.

Preparation time:
ca. 30 min
Resting time:
ca. 1 hr
Grade of difficulty:
medium
Calories per portion:
n/a