Recipe: Holladais, French Checkerboard Cookies

I always find Checkerboard cakes and cookies interesting. It must tough to have the layers neatly cut and layers to form the final product.

I jumped into the idea when my friend came up with a theme for our baking meet-up (#bakersarena). The theme for this meet-up is Cube. Hence, square shape items came right into my mind. What is more squarish than the Checkerboard Biscuits? Just look at the number of squares on one biscuits. I did brownie and cut them into cube since Checkerboard Cookies are not really 'cube' technically anyway.

I went online to browse through recipes and settle with a recipe from Eugenie Kitchen. The reason? She has a Youtube channel and a video (see below) showing me the whole process of getting it done. even if I have not perfect the skills, I will not be too far away. Right? haha. Anyway, her channel has lots of videos showing colourful and vibrant-looking recipes. Looking real good!


I must say that the baking steps and ingredients are not alien to me. But it sure take a lot of time to get it done. In fact, I made my 'Blackie' in between the waiting time for the checker dough to be ready in the fridge. Lots of waiting, really! I swear I can make a few more desserts if I have all the ingredients ready.

Despite all the waiting, I am glad that I give it a try. It is fun to make and accomplishment to see it completed. There might be some short cuts out there for me to explore! May try the recipe again and will share if I managed to cut short the time.

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Checkerboard Cookies

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Waiting time: 2 hours

Ingredients

• 150g unsalted butter, softened
• 150g confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• A pinch of salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 300g plain flour (or cake flour)
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, mixed with 4 teaspoons hot water

Method:

1. Whisk the butter till light and creamy.
2. Sift in sugar, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Whisk to combine.
3. Add in the egg yolks one by one, mixing them well together after each addition.
4. Sift in the flour. Fold the mixture until fine sands.
5. Transfer half of the mixture onto a clean working surface.
6. Mix, form a ball and make the mixture into a rectangular shape.
7. Cling wrapped the dough and left it refrigerated.
8. Mix the rest with the cocoa mixture evenly, repeat step 6 and 7.
9. Keep it refrigerated for at least one hour.
10. Remove from fridge and stack them in alternate coloured layers. Cut them into strips.
11. Arrange them in alternate colours to form the checkerboard. Cling wrapped them for hours before using them.
12. Sliced them into pieces of 2-3 cm thick.
13. Bake at 180 deg. (180degC) for 16 minutes, or until slightly swollen.
14. Preheat the oven at 180 deg C / Gas mark 4. Prepare a square baking tin.

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Note:
1. It might be more easy to visualize by seeing the pictures in Cook & Be Merry.

Recipe: Super Dark Brownies

It has been a long time since I blog and thought I should share some recipes that I found, amended and used over the weekend (yes, again). One of them is a super simple brownie recipes I found on allrecipes UK. In fact, I was amazed at how simple and quick it is for me to have the brownie ready.

The cracks are due to my inexperience handling.

Added the chocolate topping, for both aesthetic and flavouring reason

Cutting into squares for easier sharing =)

By looking at the ingredients, it is very easy to change the recipe base on personal preference and taste. If you have an hour to spare, just try it. You will have ample time to sit down and enjoy the piece of brownie.

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Super Dark Brownies

Prep time: 4 mins
Cook time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• 350g caster sugar
• 225g butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 225g plain flour
• 60g dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 100g chocolate chips (or 60g walnut halves)

Topping

• 75g chocolate chips
• 25g butter
• 1 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1 teaspoon mint flavouring (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 deg C / Gas mark 4. Prepare a square baking tin.
2. Whisk the butter till light and creamy.
3. Add in sugar, vanilla extract. Mix them evenly together.
4. Add in the eggs, one by one and mix them well.
5. Fold in the flour, dark cocoa powder, baking powder and salt together. Mix well.
6. Add the chocolate chips into the mixture.
7. Pour into the greased/or well-lined tin.
8. Baked for 20mins. Cool it when it is done.
9. Prepare the toppings. Melt the chocolate chips and butter over double boil.
10. Cool it a little and pour it into a pipping bag.
11. Start decorating your brownie.
12. Slice the brownies into equal square portions, and serve warm or cold.

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Notes:

• If you are using smaller oven, like me, do rotate the tray inside the oven after 10minutes.
• Feel free to replace ingredients like cocoa powder (dark or normal) and filling (walnuts or chocolate chips). 
• Chocolate chips is chosen as the dark chocolate powder reduce the chocolatey taste we often get from brownie.
• Sugar quantity was reduced from the original recipe I found as we often find brownie too sweet.
• Salt is added to the chocolate topping so as to reduce possible overdose of sweetness and give the brownie a little twist. =)