Zebra Butter Cookies

I wanted to make a new kind of cookie the other night.

I wanted one that would be 1) eye catching, 2) one I have never made before and 3) familiar enough that people wouldn't be afraid to eat it!

I decided I wanted something rich and easy, Butter Cookies!

But with a twist, or should I say a stripe :)

These cookies looked great, although I messed up a lot making them! The stripes should have been straight etc...anyways! They taste so delicious I had to put them in the freezer so I would stop eating them!

If your willing to put in the work, they are so worth it :)

Striped Butter Cookies

1 1/4 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar
2/3 c powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c cocoa

Can you see where I marked my paper?

1. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add in flour and salt until combined.
2. Divide dough in half, roll one half between 2 pieces of wax paper, approx 1/4"x10"x10" and refrigerate. Add cocoa to other half and mix well. Roll between wax paper and refrigerate. Let dough chill overnight or at least half an hour. 
3. Take both doughs out and stack on top of one another (I doubled the recipe in this pic, you should have just two doughs). Keep your wax paper!



stacked dough

4. I started with one cookie cutter, but changed my mind later so ignore the imprint. Cut your dough in half so you have two "halfs" 3 inches long. Then measure your dough, 1/2-1 inch at a time and cut so have many stripes 3"x1"

Cut dough and measured at 1/2 inch

Should look something like this

5. Lay out your wax paper again. Pick up stripes and turn onto their sides to see the stripes to be: cocoa, vanilla, cocoa, vanilla etc.., slightly press together. Cover with wax paper again and chill for another half hour. This give the dough time to firm up before cutting.

Side-by-side stripes

6. Pre-heat the oven to 375F. Remove the top portion of the wax paper and scoop out a 1/4 c of flour for dipping cutters into. Dip and cut, shapes. This would be really cute cookie if I had a horse cookie cutter to make zebras! Make the most of your space cause you can't rework the dough and have it be the same again. Get out small and large cutters, I used medium stars and small circles.

7. Left over scraps I piled up gently and placed a wax sheet on top. I rolled out the dough again with minimal movements as possible. The more you work the dough, the less vanilla color you'll have, the cocoa incorporates it. This step makes a cool marble effect, so you still get a beautiful cookie!

Don't you just love those stripes? Very cool.

7. Bake 375F for 7-9 minutes, or just until edges are lightly golden. These cookies can easily over bake so watch them carefully, you want them to be chewy yet firm. Let stand on cookie sheet for 2 minutes then cool completely on a wire rack.

I doubled this recipe and made A LOT, so I cut it down for you. This recipe (depending on your cookie cutters) will make approximately 1 1/2 dozen medium cookies, and 1 dozen tiny cookies on top of that!

Over cooked cookies top left, perfect cookies bottom right

So there you have it, zebra striped cookies that are buttery delicious and beautiful to look at.