Pastel Checkerboards
These are adorable for baby showers, with the dough tinted pink and white or blue and white. They make striking sandwich cookies as well, with a tinted buttercream in the center.
INGREDIENTS | YIELDS 60 COOKIES
- 1 cup shortening
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 3½ cups cake flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Pastel food coloring (2 colors)
Cream shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. Whisk dry ingredients together; add to creamed mixture.
Divide dough into 2 parts. Add food coloring to 1 part until desired color is reached. Make 4 ropes, 2 of each color.
Lay a rope of color A on counter with a rope of color B next to it. Lay a rope of color B on top of color A, and a rope of Color A on color B. If you look at it from the end, you should be able to see the checkerboard.
Press ropes gently together; wrap in wax paper. Chill overnight, or freeze for longer storage.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease baking sheet.
Slice cookies in 1/8" slices; place 2" apart on baking sheets. Cookies will be square rather than round in shape.
Bake 10 minutes, until just starting to color. Cool.
Keeping It Round
Often, when you take icebox cookies from the refrigerator after the chilling time is over they will be flat on the side that they were laying on. This is because the dough is soft when you put it in the refrigerator and the weight flattens the one side. You can get around that completely and have perfect, round cookies if you will set the log of dough upright in a drinking glass. Only the very bottom will be flattened; the sides will be perfectly round. Do this for the first hour when freezing cookie dough as well.
