Chocolate-Vanilla Striped Christmas Cookies Recipe

Ingredients

For sugar cookie dough:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt

For chocolate cookie dough:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch of salt

Make Sugar Cookie Dough

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix butter and sugar together until just incorporated.
2. Add egg and vanilla extract. Mix again on low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl intermittently as needed.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Add to butter and egg mixture. Mix on low speed until a dough is formed and there are no longer any streaks of butter in the mixing bowl.
4. The dough will clump around the paddle attachment while being mixed. If your mixture does not come together and is crumbly, add ice-cold water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough clumps.
5. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of wax paper and top with a second sheet (Image 1). Roll dough into an oblong disc between the papers with a rolling pin (Image 2).
7. Transfer dough — wax paper and all — to a large cookie sheet. Wrap dough tightly onto cookie sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Make Chocolate Cookie Dough

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix butter and sugar together until just incorporated.
2. Add egg and vanilla extract. Mix again on low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl intermittently as needed.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and salt. Add to butter and egg mixture. Mix on low speed until a dough is formed and there are no longer any streaks of butter in the mixing bowl.
4. The dough will clump around the paddle attachment while being mixed. If your mixture does not come together and is crumbly, add ice-cold water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough clumps.
5. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of wax paper and top with a second sheet. Roll dough into an oblong disc between the papers with a rolling pin.
7. Transfer dough — wax paper and all — to a large cookie sheet. Wrap dough tightly onto cookie sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Form Chocolate-Vanilla Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cut each dough in half and stack one half vanilla dough on top of one-half chocolate dough so that the straight cut edges line up (Image 1).
3. Cut stacked dough into 3-inch widths (Image 2).
4. Stack strips on top of each other to form a stack 6 layers high, alternating vanilla and chocolate (Image 3).
5. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
6. Cut cross sections of dough to 1/4-inch thickness (Image 4).
7. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets for 12-15 minutes (Image 5).
8. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack.