Checkerboard Cookies {Secret Recipe Club}

Ingredients

• 5 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 lb (2 cups or 4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Instructions

1. Sift 5 cups of the flour with the baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add the vanilla extract.
4. Add the flour mixture and mix to combine.
5. Divide the dough in half.
6. Knead the cocoa powder into one of the two halfs.
7. If the white half of the dough is a little on the soft side, add the remaining 1/3 cup of flour.
8. Form the dough into somewhat rectangular shape.
9. Roll out each of the chocolate and the vanilla dough into a rectangle with about 1 cm thickness.(make sure you do this on a floured surface using a floured rolling-pin)
10. Cut the each rectangle in half. (Wrap one half of the vanilla dough and one half of the chocolate dough with plastic wrap and put them back in the fridge)
11. Brush the top of the remaining chocolate dough with water or egg white.
12. Place the remaining half of the vanilla dough on top of the chocolate dough.
13. Wrap the dough in a plastic wrapper then put in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
14. Cut the black and white rectangle in half-length wise (you get two rectangles the same length as the one in the picture above with only half its width)
15. Brush the top of one of the two rectangles with egg white then place the other rectangle on top of it making sure you reverse the colors. The order of the layers should be chocolate then vanilla then chocolate then vanilla.
16. Wrap the 4 layered dough rectangle in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes up to a day.
17. Using a very sharp knife or a pizza wheel cut your 4 layered rectangle into strips 1 cm wide.
18. Handling the strips delicately, brush one strip with egg-white then place another strip on top of it making sure you reverse the order of the colors. Then brush the top strip with egg white and place another strip on top of it.
19. Stop at 4 layers.
20. On the parchment paper or plastic wrap roll the remaining chocolate (or vanilla) dough (the one that was in the fridge) into a rectangle about 1/3-inch thick. (it would help to let it stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling)
21. Place the checkerboard log into the center, long sides parallel, and with the aid of parchment, wrap the dough around the checkerboard log pressing firmly to adhere.
22. Roll the finished log from side to side to form sharp corners. Wrap in the parchment and/or plastic and refrigerate well. The best would be to leave the formed cookie log in the refrigerator overnight.
23. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
24. Using a very sharp knife, slice the cookie-dough log into thick slices.
25. Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes. Do not over bake!
26. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.
27. Enjoy!