Poker Chip Cookies - Part 1

Every year, our neighborhood has a poker tournament to raise money for our summer block party.  About three years ago, I had the idea to make some cookies that looked like poker chips for the event.  I did a little brainstorming and designing, found a sugar cookie recipe online that looked like it would work and baked up three different colors of poker chips.  They looked like this:

So they were cute, but spread too much so they didn’t actually look like poker chips and worst of all they tasted terrible.  I learned two lessons: 1, never bake a ton of cookies with a recipe you’ve never actually baked up and 2, I needed some better food colors – part of why the cookies tasted off was the large quantity of food coloring in the dough.

This year, I found a better recipe – one I made at Christmas – and decided to try again.  I picked this recipe for its minimal ingredients, its versatility, and the fact that the spread of the dough during baking is almost undetectable.  I also decided to do a different flavor with each color chip this time.  Below are the recipes for the flavors I made, but you can try different varieties.  I made two recipes of the white dough and one recipe of each colored dough.

French Butter Cookies – Plain Dough (for the white dough) *

Ingredients

1              large egg

10 T        (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

 1/3 c      plus 1 T granulated sugar (2 ¾ oz)
¼ t          salt
1 t           vanilla extract
1 ½ c      unbleached all-purpose flour (7 ½ oz)

Instructions

1.       Place egg in small saucepan, cover with 1 inch water, and bring to a boil over high heat.  Turn heat to low, cover, and let sit 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, fill a small bowl with ice water.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer egg to ice water and let stand 5 minutes.  Crack the egg and peel off the shell.  Separate the yolk from the white; discard (or eat) white.  Press yolk through a fine mesh strainer into small bowl.

 

2.       In bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, salt, and cooked egg yolk on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl and beater as needed.  Turn the mixer down to low, add vanilla, and mix until incorporated.  Stop mixer, add flour, and mix on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.  Using a rubber spatula, press dough into a cohesive mass.

 

French Butter Cookies – Vanilla Dough (for the blue dough)  Same as plain, but increase vanilla to 1 T and add blue gel food coloring with the vanilla.

French Butter Cookies – Mint Dough (for the green dough)  Same as plain, but add 1 T peppermint extract and green gel food coloring with the vanilla.

French Butter Cookies – Chocolate Hazelnut Dough (for the black dough)

Ingredients
1              large egg
10 T        (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 c      plus 1 T granulated sugar (2 ¾ oz)
¼ t          salt
1 t           vanilla extract
2 t           hazelnut extract
2-3          drops black gel food color (optional)
1 1/3 c   unbleached all-purpose flour (6 2/3 oz)
¼ c          Dutch-processed cocoa (1 oz)
1/3 c      finely ground toasted hazelnuts

Instructions

1.       Place egg in small saucepan, cover with 1 inch water, and bring to a boil over high heat.  Turn heat to low, cover, and let sit 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, fill a small bowl with ice water.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer egg to ice water and let stand 5 minutes.  Crack the egg and peel off the shell.  Separate the yolk from the white; discard (or eat) white.  Press yolk through a fine mesh strainer into small bowl.

2.       Whisk flour, cocoa, and hazelnuts together in a small bowl and set aside.  In the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, salt, and cooked egg yolk on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl and beater as needed.  Turn the mixer down to low, add vanilla and food coloring, and mix until incorporated.  Stop mixer, add flour mixture, and mix on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.  Using a rubber spatula, press dough into a cohesive mass.

For Assembly Instructions, Click Here

*Original Recipe Source: Cook’s Illustrated November 2008