createGo-Board Cookies
If you’re looking for something to bake for Father’s Day this Sunday…these cookies present really well. Happy Father’s Day, everbody.
“Go” is a traditional board game played in a lot of East Asian countries. Players place their pieces (black and white, round stones) in strategic locations on a wooden grid. Our dad used to play “go” when we were little. These cookies remind me of him.
Note: As long as the colors are alternating, you can create any pattern/shape(eg, squares, pinwheels, rectangle w/ multiple lines, etc). Mine turned out oblong because I didn’t use a ruler - see photo above).
Ready
- 8 oz unsalted butter, softened
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2½ cups sifted A.P. flour
- 3 T Dutch Process cocoa powder
- 1 egg
Set
- Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer
- Mixing Bowls
- Measuring Cups/Spoons
- Spatula
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie or Sheet Pan
- Parchment Paper
- 6-8” Chef’s Knife
- Ruler
Go
- Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
- Cream softened butter and sugar until well-blended~ 2 minutes. Add vanilla extract, lemon extract, and salt, and mix. Gradually add the flour, and mix.
- Put dough on work surface and knead by pushing little chunks away from you with the heel of your hand. Knead for 2 minutes.
- Divide the dough in half. Sprinkle cocoa powder over one of the halves and knead this half until the cocoa is fully incorporated. You don’t want to see any marble effect.
- Place each half between 2 sheets of plastic. Roll dough into two 12” rectangular logs, 2” wide and 1” high.
- Remove from plastic. Slice each rectangle down the middle (length-wise) so that you end up with 4 strips in all (2 white strips and 2 chocolate strips). Place the strips on plastic.
- Whisk the egg with 1 T of water. Brush top/bottom and sides of each strip. The egg wash is what makes the strips stick together. Assemble a checkerboard log by gently pressing the strips together such that a white strip is never adjacent or on top of the other white strip. Same goes for the chocolate strips.
- Wrap assembled log in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes. You can also freeze the dough for several weeks (I think).
- Remove from refrigerator. Slice the log into ¼ inch slices. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes and then cool.
- Serve and enjoy.
What you should know
Adapted from checkerboard cookie recipe from baking class at Tante Marie’s Cooking School.
Oh, right, right! Thanks for the correction note, Peter. I know (at the back of mind) what the go-board looks like (no variegation in color). But the cookies make me think of checkers, and I kind of loosely associate checkers with “go”, etc, etc. Anyhow, the blurb has been edited ensure accuracy of content.
Oh Charlotte! This look delighful and easy. After my mixed success with your Pate a Choux (tasted great but didn’t look as nice as yours) I am really looking forward to trying these go-cookies.
The cookies might appear kind of uncooked/not done yet, after only 10 minutes in the oven. But in terms of texture, they’re supposed to resemble shortbread. So even if they look like they need more time in the oven after 10 minutes, it’s okay to take them out. If you leave them in longer, they’ll lose that shortbread-like “semi-soft” quality. I overbaked mine (12 minutes until the bottoms turned slightly light brown), and they tasted overbaked. Thanks for the feedback, Slowhand.
Charlotte, whilst it is completely irrelevant to the cookies, I have to point out that a Go board is not chequered! As you describe, players alternately place black and white stones strategically on a board, but the board is wooden with a black ink grid. See this picture for example.