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Checkerboard Biscuits | Shortbread | Recipe

  • Writer: Gig House Kitchen
    Gig House Kitchen
  • Jan 10
  • 5 min read

With a delicious snap, buttery vanilla meets cocoa in this fun baking activity…


Checkerboard shortbread
Photo courtesy of Gig House Kitchen on YouTube

These “checkerboard” biscuits are a fun variation on one of the easiest biscuit recipes you could ever find, which is a 3-2-1 shortbread. Not only is this a recipe you can make using things you’ll easily find in your cupboards at home (flour, butter and sugar), but its also easy to adapt because of how the recipe works.


You might wonder – what’s 3-2-1 about? Well, this refers to the ratio of ingredients in the recipe. No matter what weight of ingredients you use, your measures will always be 3-parts flour, 2-parts butter and 1-part sugar. That makes your basic recipe, which you can then make changes to based on what kind of biscuit you want.


In this recipe, we will be making a mixture that is both chocolate and vanilla.  This means we’ll be taking our regular 3-2-1 mixture, but we’ll be splitting it into two. One half will be vanilla and the other half will be chocolate, which when combined will give us our checkerboard look (as you’ll see in the photo).


This is a great activity to do with kids, because it’s simple, but has great results. If you want to know how we made these lovely little biscuits, keep reading!



What you need for this recipe

  • Mixing bowl

  • Wooden spoon

  • Pallet knife (optional)

  • Large cookie sheet

  • Digital scale

  • Baking parchment


You will also need a variety of plates, small bowls, and cutlery on hand for this recipe to weigh ingredients into, portion spices, etc.


Watch the video
Video courtesy of Gig House Kitchen on YouTube

Ingredients

Vanilla shortbread:

  • 75g Plain / All-purpose flour

  • 50g Soft tub margarine

  • 25g Caster sugar

  • 1tsp vanilla extract

  • A pinch of salt


Chocolate shortbread

  • 75g Plain / All-purpose flour (minus 1 tbsp)

  • 50g Soft tub margarine

  • 25g Caster sugar

  • 1 tbsp of cocoa

  • A pinch of salt



Method

Vanilla shortbread

  1. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together in a mixing bowl until it is fully combined

  2. Add in the flour and pinch of salt into the mix it until it forms a shaggy dough

  3. Then, using the heat from your hand, knead the dough in the bowl until it comes together

  4. Pour the dough out onto a clean work surface and knead the dough for around 30 seconds until it’s completely smooth.

  5. Don’t overwork the dough as it may become oily, which will make it hard to use later.


Chocolate shortbread

  1. First, take your 75g of flour and remove 1tbsp, which you will replace with 1 tbsp of cocoa powder

  2. Once again, cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until it is fully combined

  3. Add in the flour, cocoa powder and pinch of salt into the bowl and mix until it forms a shaggy dough

  4. Then, using the heat from your hand, knead the dough in the bowl until it comes together

  5. Pour the dough out onto a clean work surface and knead the dough for around 30 seconds until it’s completely smooth.

  6. Don’t overwork the dough as it may become oily, which will make it hard to use later.


Putting it together

  1. Now you have your two doughs, you can begin making the checkerboard biscuits

  2. Take your vanilla dough and your chocolate dough and cut them both into two equal parts

  3. Starting with the vanilla side (so they don’t get covered in chocolate), begin rolling your dough into long sausage shapes, that are around 1/2 inch thickness.

    1. Be careful to keep them an even width the whole way along otherwise you’ll have wonky biscuits!

  4. Do the same with your chocolate dough until you have four roughly 1/2 inch sausages that are the as close to the same length as possible.

  5. Now take one vanilla strand and place it parallel to one of the chocolate strands so the longest sides are touching, making sure to line them but so they look like a mirror image.

  6. Next, place the second vanilla strand and place it on top of the first chocolate strand.

  7. Finally, place the second chocolate strand on top of the first vanilla strand, so that all four strands create a long tube with four individual squares when you look at the end (two vanilla, two chocolate).

  8. Gently press the shortbread strands together so that they meld together, but be careful not to squash the shortbread together, or you might ruin its shape.


Cutting & Baking

  1. First, grease your cookie sheet with butter or a small amount of oil and line it with baking parchment

  2. Then, using your pallet knife (or a butter knife) you can cut your biscuits into your desired size (1/2 inch is usually a good thickness).

  3.  Place your cookies onto the baking sheet, evenly spaced so they have enough room in case the biscuits spread.

  4. If you’re ready to bake them, heat your oven to 180°C / 360°F (fan-assisted oven) or to Gas Mark - 4

    1. If you don’t want to bake them now, you can leave them in the fridge for up to 24-hours

  5. Bake the biscuits for around 5–10 minutes or until the vanilla shortbread has become golden and when you lift the biscuits you should see that they are baked all the way through.

  6. Once baked, remove the biscuits to a wire rack to cool and then they’re ready to serve.

  7. You can put the biscuits into a sealed container and store them in a cool dry place, they should last 1–2 weeks, if stored properly (provided you don’t eat them first!)


Final comments

When baking biscuits, you’re always better underbaking them than over-baking them, because as my mum says “baked goods go bitter” if you leave them in the oven too long. If your worried about the baking time, take the biscuits out when they’ve gone slightly golden and then you can bake them in 1–2 minute increments until they’re golden all over.


Here at the Gig House Kitchen we want to help new or inexperienced home cooks to learn basic food prep skills and recipes in a comfy and fun environment.


With over 40 years combined experience, the GHK team can take you from a novice who burns water to an experienced, natural cook.


Join us weekly for new recipes and learn to cook from scratch.


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