Hugs & kisses cookies

I'm having one of those times, you know... bloggers' block. I've literally been twiddling my thumbs for days now to come up with something interesting to say, and I've got nothing. Nada. Niente.

*sigh*

Good thing the pictures speak for themselves, *PHEW!*

 XOXO or Tic-tac-toe, they all taste delightful!!!

I've seen these checkerboard cookies for years, and have meant to make them for a while, but well, pretty much procrastinated til now. They're the type of cookies that you make for people you really REALLY love (Yes, keep reminding yourself of the love when you're kneading, rolling and cutting the dough, it will all be worth it in the end, LOL!!! )

Lemon sugar cookies:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon oil (omit if you don't have any)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter and add sugar. Blend in egg, lemon juice, lemon oil, salt and flour. Roll dough into a block or ball and chill until firm.

Chocolate sugar cookies:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tsp vanilla
  
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter and add sugar. Blend in egg, vanilla, salt, cocoa powder and flour. Roll dough into a block or ball and chill until firm.

When you're ready, roll the two dough out to your desired thickness (I went with an approximate of 1/2 inch thick) Baking Obsession made a really great diagram of how to stack the dough strips to make the cookies, so I'm not gonna sketch the same one because hers is already too awesome.

I will though, make one to show you another method if you want the quick checkerboard version instead :) (without the wrapping on the outside) The red lines are cut lines. After step two, refrigerate the block again until firm before moving onto step three.

Of course, if you lose patience with all the rolling, measuring, cutting, re-refrigerate, etc, just bring out your favorite cookie cutters and skip all the steps...

Once the cookies are all cut, put them back in the fridge, on a lined baking tray until firm again. Heat oven to 375*F and bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. They shouldn't brown :) (Well, I'm talking about the lemon part obviously!)

Pour yourself a glass of milk, sit back and enjoy the goodies. I really like the contrast of the lemon against the chocolate and I hope you will too. Happy baking and share these hugs and kisses ;)