A lot of people love marble cakes because it’s a great way to enjoy the flavor of vanilla and chocolate in one bite! I wanted to share with you a way to enjoy the very same taste in a small cookie, so here is a great recipe.

These marble cookies are going to be crispy and will be great with a cup of coffee or tea. I personally like crispy cookies but you could make them moist by adding extra butter. (Experiment at your own risk.) =]

Although you will have to make two separate batches of dough, (one with almond and one with chocolate), it’s basically the same process for each. Everything will be the same except that the almond dough gets sliced almond added to it and the chocolate dough will have cocoa powder.

It might be easier if you make one batch of dough and divide it in half before adding the sliced almonds and cocoa powder to each individual half. I decided just to start with two separate batches of dough because I wanted to mix each half in the mixer separately. You can choose whatever method you like, you’ll just want to make sure that everything is thoroughly mixed. If the cookie dough and cocoa powder aren’t mixed really well, you might not get a good contrast in your swirls.

EQUIPMENT & INGREDIENTS

Equipment

Stand mixer (or hand mixer)
Rolling pin
Pastry brush

Ingredients – Makes about 2 dozens cookies

Almond Dough

1/2 cup and 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp corn syrup
1 egg yolk
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup almond meal (grounded almond)
3/4 cup sliced almonds

Chocolate Dough

1/2 cup and 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp corn syrup
1 egg yolk
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup almond meal (grounded almond)
1/2 cup cocoa powder

HOW TO MAKE

Making Almond Dough

1. Beat the unsalted butter in a stand mixer and add the milk.
2. Add sifted powdered sugar and salt along with corn syrup and beat until you no longer see any powder.

3. Add egg yolk and beat well. (I added a drop of red food coloring to make it pink, but it didn’t work.)
4. Add sifted cake flour and almond meal and fold in by using a rubber spatula.
5. Add sliced almonds and lightly fold in.
6. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Making Chocolate Dough

1. Beat the unsalted butter in a stand mixer and add the milk.
2. Add sifted powdered sugar and salt along with corn syrup and beat until you no longer see any powder.

3. Sift cake flour, cocoa powder, salt and set aside.
4. Add egg yolk and beat well.
5. Add sifted dry ingredients and almond meal and fold in by using a rubber spatula.
6. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Rolling Dough

7. Lightly dust a rolling pin and surface with cake flour and roll out each slab in rectangle shape until the dough is 1/4″ thick. Place the chocolate dough on the top of almond dough and roll together.
8. Cut the rolled dough in a half and roll the dough again, pressing outward until the diameter of the roll is about 1.5 to 2 inches. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and freeze them for at least 2 hours. (Freezing dough makes it easy to cut and keep it’s shape.)

Sugar Coating & Cutting: Preheat the oven to 325F.

9. Brush the whisked egg white all over the hardened dough from the freezer.
10-11. Line the bottom of a pan with sugar and immediately roll the dough on the sugar.
12. Cut the dough in 1/2″ slices and place the cookies 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Bake about 15 minutes and cool down.

ALEXA’S TIPS

1. You can always substitute sliced almonds to your favorite nuts or dried fruits.
2. While you are making dough, if it is crumbling apart, add 1 teaspoon of milk at a time until it stays together.
3. When you cut the dough in 1/2″ slices, try to work fast because the dough might get sticky as it gets warm.
4. If the dough becomes too soft to work with, you can chill it for approximately 30 minutes.

They are great with coffee or tea!

Are you planning on giving these marble cookies to someone? Check out Individual Cookie Wrapping.

Valentine’s Day is coming soon.
I think one of the best ways to express your love is baking these sugar cookies and decorating them with royal icing. Royal icing is good for decorating cookies with because it has good hardness to it. However, personally, I’m not a big fan of royal icing because I don’t like raw egg whites in my icing. =]

I’m trying to find an alternative icing which is easy to work with and tastes good, but for now, I use royal icing to decorate my sugar cookies. I made my icing by combining meringue powder + lemon juice + powdered sugar until I got the consistency that I needed, which is stiff but soft. So, you’ll need to play with the ratios until you’re happy with the icing.

INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENT

Equipment

Rolling pin
Cookie cutters
Piping bag & Decorating tips

Ingredients for Sugar Cookie Dough – Makes 3 dozen (2 1/2 inch) cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Ingredients for Royal Icing

1 tablespoon meringue powder
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice, plus extra

HOW TO MAKE

Making Sugar Cookie Dough: Sorry, I forgot to take pictures! =(

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color.
3. Add egg and milk and beat to combine.
4. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl.
5. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Rolling & Cutting Dough: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

1. Sprinkle surface (I usually use a wooden cutting board.) with powdered sugar and top of the dough, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick.
2. Cut into desired shape (Of course, heart for Valentine’s Day) by using cookie cutters.
3. Grease your baking sheet with butter or place parchment paper on a baking sheet, and
place cookies. Bake about 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn light brown around the edges.
4. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes and then move to a cooling rack.

Decorating Cookies

5. Mix all the ingredients for royal icing by using a small whisk. Then, pipe a outer line with thick royal icing.
6. Then, add more water or lemon juice to royal icing to adjust its consistency and fill out the line.

ALEXA’S TIPS

1. If you are using butter to grease baking sheet, make sure that you really grease it well. There were parts that was not greased well, and cookies got ugly when I tried to take them off.
2. I have found three different royal icing recipes that use water, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Which one is the best? I think it just depends on your preference!
3. When you decorate cookies, use the smallest tip (usually #1 or #2). This might seem too small, but it is the right size to write letters and draw as you want.

You can either fill out the top of cookies with royal icing, draw lines and heart, or write a note.

TASTE REVIEW

I didn’t like the icing – I think it’s just me, don’t like royal icing.
However, everyone loved these cookies!
My friends loved the lemon taste of icing although I thought there was too much lemon juice in it.

Sprinkling decorating sugar before the icing gets hard gives another look.

Show your love with your homemade cookies!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Macaroons are made with either almond paste or shredded coconut.
They require less flour than regular cookies (You only need 2 Tbsp of all-purpose flour to make 32 cookies.) as the main ingredient – egg whites hold all other ingredients together.

INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENTS

Equipments

Double boiler
Cookie scooper

Ingredients – Makes about 16 cookies

3 1/2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
(I replaced to sweetened coconut since that’s what I had at home.)
1 cup sugar (divided use)
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tsp grated orange zest
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 large egg whites

HOW TO MAKE

Making Coconut Macaroon Dough

1-2. Mix 1/3 cup of the sugar with the flour.

3. Place 2/3 cup sugar, the coconut, and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. (I did not have unsweetened coconut, so I used sweetened coconut and 1 cup sugar as the recipe said-I wanted to adjust the amount of sugar, but I forgot. The truth is that everybody loved extra sugar coconut macaroons!)
4. Heat over simmering water about 3 minutes.
5. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens and hold together.
6. Remove from the heat and add orange zest and vanilla extract.

7-8. Add and fold the flour mixture (flour and sugar) in to the egg mixture.

Scooping Cookies: Preheat the oven to 350 F.

9-10. Drop tablespoonfuls of batter onto the prepared cookie sheets by using a spoon or a cookie scoop.
(I like to use a cookie scoop because it lets me drop the same size of cookie batter.)

Baking

11. Bake about 20-25 minutes until the macaroons turn in light golden brown on the outside, but still soft inside. (Transfer the macaroons to a wire rack with the parchment paper on the bottom.)

Chewy & Gooey Coconut Macaroons!

Alexa’s Tips

1. My batter was a little bit liquid. I didn’t do anything to it, but I think adding a little bit of flour could help.
2. Macaroons are very soft when they just come out of the oven and that is why you should move then with the parchment paper to a wire rack to cool.
3. You can use sweetened coconut instead of unsweetened coconut. If you think that will be too sweet, cut down the amount of sugar to 2/3 cup.
4. If you don’t have orange zest, don’t worry and just skip it.
5. You can dip them in ganache, if you desire.

Coconut Macaroons with a hint of orange zest!

Is there something in between shortbread cookies and Christmas? I don’t know why, but I must have shortbread cookies for Christmas.
I made these cookies for this Christmas and everyone who tried loved them!
If you love shortbread and citruses, you’ve got to try this recipe.

INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENTS

Equipments

Stand Mixer
Rolling Pin
Sifter

Ingredients – Makes about 30 cookies

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour plus extra for dusting
1 cup cornstarch
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp grated orange zest
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest

HOW TO MAKE

1. Sift the flour, cornstarch, and salt into a bowl and set aside.
2. Cream the butter on medium speed until light in texture and smooth about 2 minutes.
3. Add the orange and lemon zests.

4-5. Add the confectioners’ sugar (shift it if you can). Cream until the mixture is light and smooth about 2 minutes. (Scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed)
6-7. Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix on low speed. (I forgot to sift ahead, so I was sifting directly into the bowl.)

8-9. The dough is doen when it is just blended well. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface (I used a wooden cutting board.).
10-11. Shape the dough in a square and roll the dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into
3 x 2-inch (for wide shortbread) 1 x 2-inch (for narrow shortbread) rectangle

12. Grease the cookie sheets with butter or flourless cooking spray and place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Cover and chill for 30 minutes before baking.
13. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 F. Then, bake for 20-25 minutes.(Rotating the pans as necessary to bake evenly.)

14. When the edges of the shortbread are a very light gold, they are done. (They feel very soft and breakable, but they will harden while they are cooling down.) Transfer to wire racks and let cool completely before serving.

15. If you desire, dip the shortbreads into a soft ganache and let them harden and serve.

Alexa’s Tips

1. Chill the dough for 30 minutes before rolling, if it is too sticky.
2. Shortbread tend to spread out while it is baking, so make sure you cut them smaller than
the size that you want when they are baked.

I came up with the idea of making tuxedo shortbread cookies while I was dipping them into the ganache!