Checkerboard biscuits

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 20 shortbreads biscuits, you will need:

• 1 250 g flour
• 2 125 g butter
• 3 125 g caster sugar
• 4 1 Egg
• 5 15 g powdered cocoa
• 6 30 g ground almonds
• Total weight: 595 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 25 min.	2 hours 45 min.	15 min.	4 hours 25 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Put 250 g flour, 125 g butter, 125 g caster sugar and 1 Egg into a food-processor bowl. Knead until evenly mixed.
2	Take out half the dough and set aside. Add 30 g ground almonds to the remaining dough and knead for a further 1 or 2 minutes until evenly mixed. Gather the almond dough into a flattened cake, wrap in stretch plastic film and refrigerate for 2 hours (or overnight).
3	Put the other half of the dough back in the bowl, add 15 g powdered cocoa and knead for a further 1 or 2 minutes until evenly mixed.
4	Gather the chocolate dough into a flattened cake, wrap in stretch plastic film and refrigerate for 2 hours (or overnight).
5	After this time, roll out the chocolate dough into a long rectangle about 1 cm (0.4 inch) thick. It is best to use guide rules to help you do this (I'm using 2 iron bars here).
6	Then cut the dough lengthways into long strips 1cm wide. Do the same with the almond dough.
7	Use a deep cake tin or mould and lay a first layer in the bottom, alternating stripes of chocolate and almond.
8	Moisten the top of this layer with a brush dipped in water.
9	Arrange a second layer of alternate stripes, but the other way round. So, if the first layer began with a chocolate stripe, the second layer should begin with an almond one. Continue alternating the strips in layers like this until you have used them all, moistening between the layers. Put in the freezer for 45 minutes to firm up the dough a little and make it easier to cut. Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F).
10	After this time, remove the block of dough from the mould and cut into slices about 1cm thick.
11	Place the slices on a baking sheet.
12	Bake for around 15 minutes 200°C (390°F), but do not let the almond part brown.

Remarks

As always with shortbread-style biscuits, it is important not to overcook them. They should still be slightly yielding and not completely hard and dry.
You can vary this recipe however you wish, using flavours other than chocolate and almonds, so use your imagination.

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