Beyond Bourke Street: Checkerboard cookies for Christmas

What's black and white, crumbly and buttery, and look so impressive as a gift for friends and family this Christmas?

Actually, these are brown and white. Or brown, and some sort of light beige. Oh, never mind.

Checkerboard cookies, of course!

I used to make cookies all the time - shortbread, choc chip, biscotti, gingerbread, oatmeal...you name it, I've probably tried my hand at making it. It was all thanks to this book I purchased a while back:

"More than 300 great cookie, biscuit, bar and brownie recipes". That's a lot of recipes to get through.

Recently though, cookies and bars have sort of taken the back-burner to more grandiose projects like swiss meringue buttercream-frosted triple-layer cakes, gingerbread houses, home-made ice creams, and traditional Chinese pastries. There are simply too many exciting, new things to try making, and the humble cookie, whilst delicious, just doesn't hold the same appeal.

But these checkerboard cookies aren't exactly humble, are they? In fact, there's something quite haute couture about these. Must be the chequered pattern.

Oh look, some pinwheels seem to have insinuated themselves into the lot.

I wish I could say these were a cinch to make, but in truth these were actually quite fiddly, and tested my patience and cool on more than one count. The key is to work fast. And mentally prep yourself beforehand. Read through the instructions multiple times, and plan how you're going to do things. If you're anything like me in the kitchen (disorganised, spontaneous, can't-find-the-essential-ingredient-when-you need it, etc.), these may take a bit of practice before you get them right. Not that mine are perfect by any means. If you want to see real nice ones, check out Elissa's at 17 and Baking and Vera's at Baking Obsession. Now those are some beautiful checkerboard cookies.