Checkerboard Cookies are buttery, whimsical butter cookies that are perfect for when you can’t decide if you want a chocolate or vanilla cookie! This is an easy cookie recipe that looks impressive, but is simple and fun to make!
I’m thrilled to announce I’m a 2019 Reynolds Kitchens Ambassador and will be partnering this year with them on some fun new recipes! Thank you for supporting the brands that make this website possible!
I am so excited to share today’s cookie recipe with you! Checkerboard Cookies are festive, fun to make, delicious, and PRETTY! Pretty much everything I look for in a cookie.
You might think this is complicated, or time consuming, but I am here to tell you it’s neither! It’s essentially a slice and bake cookie recipe that is pretty foolproof if you follow my steps. The dough is simple and the step by step process is very straightforward and actually fun to do. I even think this is a cookie recipe that is great to get your kids involved in making!
Like I said, the process is easy, very easy to understand. Let me break down the steps for you!
- Make the dough for the cookies…just one dough for both flavors! That’s one thing I love about my recipe! Just divide the vanilla dough in half, removing the vanilla portion from the stand mixer. Add in some cocoa powder to the remaining dough and mix until the other half of dough is chocolate. It’s THAT easy!
- Shape both portions of dough with your hands into square logs 2- inches in diameter and 6- inches in length and chill the dough for at least 30 minutes, so it’s easy to slice. IMPORTANT TIP: Be sure both logs are the same size. You will need them to be uniform in size for the next step.
- Once your dough is chilled, slice each log into 9 equal strips. Do this by slicing it into 3 long strips, then turn the dough 1/4- turn and slice it into 3 more even strips.
- To form the checkerboard pattern you lay 3 strips of dough in alternating flavors onto a cutting board. Top the 3 strips with 3 more alternating flavors. Repeat this one more time until you have a square with 9 strips (see photo below). Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Squeeze the logs together, careful to keep the square shape, but making sure the logs hold together. You don’t want gaps in between the strips.
- Place the logs back in the refrigerator to chill to make them easy to slice into cookies.
- Finally slice the dough logs into cookies and bake!
I always bake my cookies on parchment paper lined baking sheets. I find that it makes for easy clean up, no sticking, and evenly baked cookies. But I really love Reynolds Kitchens® Parchment Paper with Smart Grid® and here’s why:
- It comes with a built-in gridline pattern that enables you to easily cut the paper to perfectly fit any size pan. I love this feature because it takes the guess work out of making sure it fits the pan!
- The gridline is also fantastic because it makes it visually easy to spacing cookies out evenly for better results.
- And like I said above, parchment offers a non-stick cooking surface, easy clean-up AND Reynolds Kitchens® Parchment Paper is reusable up to 3 times and is compostable!
How Do Get The Perfect Tear With Parchment Paper?
Here’s a tip that I love and learned from my friends at Reynolds Kitchens:
Measure out your amount of parchment paper and then tuck the flap of the box back inside the box, holding the piece in place. NOW tear the paper along the serrated box on an angle. You will never get a jagged tear if you follow this trick!
Looking For Slice and Bake Cookie Recipes?
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- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes + chill time
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Dessert
Description
These extra cute cookies are easy to make and you get to enjoy a chocolate and vanilla cookie in one!
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix together the butter and sugar for 2 minutes.
- Add in the egg, the yolk, vanilla, baking powder, and salt and mix for 1 minute until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour, mixing until just combined.
- Divide the dough in half, removing half from the mixing bowl.
- Add in the cocoa powder to the remaining dough in the mixing bowl and mix until incorporated.
- Form each dough into a squared off log, 2- inches tall and 6- inches long. Make sure both are the same size.
- Place dough on a baking sheet and cover with cling wrap. Place dough into the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour.
- Using a sharp knife slice the dough into thirds, longwise. Then turn the dough one turn and cut into thirds again. You will have 9 strips. Repeat the process with the other dough. You will have 18 strips total.
- Lay 1 piece of vanilla dough, one piece of chocolate, and another piece of vanilla on a flat surface next to each other. Top the 3 strips with alternating colors. Repeat this once more, so you have a square log. Press the dough strips together tightly, keeping the square shape. Repeat this with the remaining dough.
- Refrigerate again for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with Reynolds Kitchens® Parchment Paper.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and slice into 1/4- inch pieces.
- Place the pieces on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes, or until set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Store airtight for up to 5 days. Freeze airtight for up to 30 days
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 167
- Sugar: 8.4 g
- Sodium: 56.6 mg
- Fat: 8.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 21.3 g
- Protein: 2.4 g
- Cholesterol: 35.8 mg
The instructions were way too difficult to follow and understand.
How? Maybe if you don’t understand English…
I love checkerboard cookies. I always bought them from a store because I’m not the best baker/cook 🙂 But these were SO easy to make. I make these for fun, holidays, my kids birthdays. I DEFINITELY recommend these. There SOOOO good!!! Delicioso! until next time its checkerboard cookies. ps. i use all organic ingredients and sneak a few veggies in there. Its the only way to get my buggers to eat them!
Super easy and love that the two colours come from one dough. Have used this dough recipe to make other slice and bake cookie designs and it’s perfect! Thank you so much for sharing this
My absolute favorite cookies! They aren’t super sweet, which makes it a little too easy to eat several without realizing it though. I love these with a cup of coffee. I gave them out to friends and family at Christmas and I got rave reviews!
Hello! I made these in 2021 and they came out great. I am adding these back to my cookie list this year. Am I able to freeze the dough and slice? Or should I keep it in the fridge for a few days. I am planning on baking them this weekend
The frozen dough will be tough to slice, so refrigerating them would be my recommendation! But you can absolutely freeze the dough, just allow it to thaw a bit before slicing!
Such a hit! I cannot stop snacking on these and they look beautiful.
So glad you love them!
These were shockingly easy and were honestly really fun to bake! I made these for a project at my school and my classmates and teachers loved them
They tasted incredible as well! I’ll definitely make this recipie again and maybe try to incorporate this type of cookie dough into another recipie!
Thank you 🙂
I made these based on the 5 star reviews. I followed the recipe, but the dough was too soft despite refrigerating 1.5 hours (my fridge is set at 1 degrees, I made them in December in Canada. Dough not easy to work with. I needed to get these done for Christmas plans that next day, so had to slice them as thick as seen in the photos. Cookies were distorted, had to be reshaped. Once baked, I tasted them and was surprised they were not sweet… hard to believe since these are nearly 20% sugar. Considered icing the cookies (to salvage), but ended up just throwing them out! Disappointing (as I value my time). I will also add that I bake weekly, so it’s not inexperience.
Turned out great! I added pink sprinkles on the edges of the log before slicing and they look so pretty. One question, mine cracked a lot while baking but your pictures don’t have any cracks, any ideas why?