Making cookies is always fun and any unique inventions you can bring to the table at baking time will always be appreciated by the kids! Some yummy cookies which are also fun to make are poker chip cookies. These are also ideal if you are organising a poker tournament and if you can resist the temptation of demolishing them all, you could even play for the ‘chips’!
What You Need
Poker chip cookies are not as difficult to make as it may seem and you can spice them up to create any flavours you like. You won’t need too many ingredients and some of these you may already have in your cupboards gathering dust. Grab some all-purpose flour (you will need 4 cups of this), light brown sugar (1 ½ cups), baking powder (1 ½ tsp), salt (3/4 tsp), vanilla extract (1 ½ tsp), 1 egg and egg yolk, unsalted butter (12 oz), Dutch cocoa powder (1/2 cup) and matcha powder (3 tbsp.) You will need quite a lot of preparation for these, so make up the mixture the day before to make life easier.
What To Do
The first thing you need to do is sift your flour, baking powder and salt together and leave them to the side for now. If you have an electric mixer, you can mix the butter and sugar together, then add the egg and egg yolk, with vanilla extract. It’s now time to add the flour mixture. If you don’t have an electric mixer, you will have to do all of this by hand, so it is well worth investing.
Grab your dough and divide it, 1/3 and 2/3 sizes, knead your cocoa into the 2/3 size and matcha powder into 1/3. You can then divide the matcha dough you have and the chocolate into two. You should now have four portions which you can make into a rectangle. Place these in plastic individually and stick in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.
Take one of your dough portions and roll it into a cylinder form. It should be slightly soft at this stage. You should then wrap it in plastic and slip it into a cardboard cylinder and put it into the fridge until it becomes firm.
Remove the chocolate portion and the other dough portion and put them on the kitchen worktop until they feel slightly soft.
Use a floured surface or some parchment paper to roll your dough into two portions of ½” rectangles. If you have a pizza wheel this is ideal to cut out ½ inch wide and 11 inch long strips (6) from each of your dough portions. You should have 12 in total. You can use your parchment now to combine your chocolate and matcha dough strips to make a striped rectangle.
It is now time to take out your cylinder and place it on the striped dough along the stripes. The striped dough should be moved around the matcha cylinder so it is completely enclosed. Make sure you roll it gently without any spaces. You will now have a large cylinder which you can put in plastic and place in fridge.
The rest of the chocolate dough should be made into a 1/3” thick rectangle, which will be about 12” in length. It should now be nice and firm so you can place it into the centre and wrap the dough around your cylinder. Roll the rest of your chocolate dough and wrap in plastic, stick in the fridge. If you have time, leave it overnight in the fridge.
Now it’s time to bake! Preheat oven to 350F and use your parchment to cover the baking sheet. Slice your log into thick slices of about ¼” and place on the baking sheet, with enough room between each to allow them space to breathe. You should bake cookies in batches, 12 minutes each until they look like proper cookies, nice and golden. They should also be quite firm, especially if you are going to use them for your poker game. Cool on a rack and enjoy!
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