Black and white cookies with butter and cocoa

Black and white cookies made with buttery shortcrust, spelt flour, honey and vanilla, with cocoa powder in one half. A family-friendly dessert in a chequerboard pattern, 155 kcal per serving (3 cookies).

At a glance

• Serves 16
• Prep time: 60 min
• Cooking time: 22 min
• Total time: 82 min
• Calories: 155 kcal per serving
• Protein: 3 g
• Fat: 9 g
• Carbs: 15 g

Ingredients

• 260g spelt flour
• 160g butter
• 80g honey
• 1 egg
• 15g cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 1 pinch of salt

Method

You’ll need: oven · chopping board · knife

1. Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod. Knead the spelt flour, pieces of cold butter, honey, egg, vanilla seeds and salt into a smooth dough.
2. Divide the dough into two halves and knead the cocoa powder and milk into one half. Wrap both and chill them for 30 minutes.
3. Roll out both doughs 1 cm thick and cut them into 1 cm wide strips. Put two light and two dark strips together, alternating, to make a chequerboard log, and press them together with a little water.
4. Chill the logs for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (160 °C fan) and cut the logs into 5 mm thick slices.
5. Bake the cookies on two baking trays lined with baking paper, one tray at a time, at 180 °C for 10 to 11 minutes each, until the light dough is lightly browned at the edges, then let them cool.

Good to know

Black and white cookies look like hard work, but it's just stacking and slicing. You turn one butter dough into two colours, then a chequerboard. Sweetened with honey, the light dough stays paler than it would with coconut sugar.

Swaps

Honey → maple syrup. Spelt flour → plain flour. Chequerboard → swirls: stack both slabs and roll them up. Cocoa powder → carob powder.

Cooking tips

Brush the surfaces that touch with only the thinnest film of water, otherwise the strips slip. A long, sharp knife cuts clean slices.

Storage

Keeps for 3 weeks in a cookie tin; the raw logs keep for 3 months in the freezer.

Allergens

Contains gluten (spelt), milk (butter, milk) and egg; no nuts. Because of the honey, not suitable for children under 1 year old.

Frequently asked questions

Can you freeze black and white cookies?

Keeps for 3 weeks in a cookie tin; the raw logs keep for 3 months in the freezer.