Marble cookies and the Best of Food Blogs Cookbook

The original name of these cookies was zebra cookies, but I don't like it. So I changed it to marble cookies. I don't marbleize them much though, they are more bicolor cookies... I love icebox cookies, they are easy and practical to make, you can keep them in your freezer and bake them whenever you have guests. And don't forget to keep the carton cylinder inside your plastic wrap or foil rolls, because you'll be needing it.


To change the subject, remember I told you one of my recipes had been published in the Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook? Well, I recently received my book... I feel siderally connected to all the home cooks in the Universe... I must admit I loved to see my story and my recipe on print. And in a book sold in Amazon... I can imagine what it will be like to have a whole book on sale... Beside I was so lucky to have my photo featured in king-size in the book's introduction. I guess I overdid the resolution. So I'm giving away a copy of the book, check it out here. You just have to shout "hey, I'm interested in the book" in the comments section and leave your e-mail, so that I can contact you should you be the lucky winner. And after this "tooting my own horn" moment, let's get to the recipe.



This is the only recipe I've ever tried from this book. But it's never too late to do something you never did before, right?

Marble cookies (adapted from The Art of the Cookie, Jann Johnson)

• 1 large egg
  
• 115g butter at ambient temperature
• 160g sugar
• 210g A-P flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 30g dark chocolate

1. Measure the flour and sieve it with the baking powder and the salt.
   
2. Measure the butter and the sugar, and whip with a hand or stand mixer till white and fluffy.
   
3. In the meantime, melt the chocolate in a bowl, on bain-marie or in the microwave (be careful not to overheat it if using the microwave).
   
4. Beat the egg and add to the butter and sugar mixture. Then add the flour little by little, until well mixed. Divide the dough in two portions and add the melted chocolate to one of the portions. Then knead for the chocolate to distribute evenly. It may be necessary to flour the counter top, but if the dough has right consistency it is so buttery that it hardly sticks to the surface.
   
5. Now you have two doughs of different color. Then you can do whatever you want to make both colors mingle; you can lay one beside the other like I do, make a ball with both and knead slightly for the doughs to mingle or you can even roll them, put one on top of the other and roll them together to get spiral cookies. Once you've made up your mind about what to do next, you should make rolls as long as the carton cylinders in the center of you foil or plastic wrap rolls, you'll need 2 or 3.
   
6. Make dough rolls that can fit into one of these cylinders, then wrap them in plastic and put them into the carton. This helps keep the round profile of the cookies, because if you let the dough rest on a flat surface it will flatten slightly on its base.
   

I think I learnt this trick at Martha Stewart's website. It's wonderful as it's so easy and at hand.



Once you have your dough cylinders ready, chill them overnight or a minimum of 2 or 3 hours. When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 185-190ºC, slice the rolls, place the cookies on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake for 8-10 minutes, watching closely so that they don't brown too much. Take them out to cool on a wire rack and you're all set. For Christmas I'm thinking of adding matcha tea for green dough and red food coloring for red dough... freaking awesome.