Wizard of Oz Dorothy Checkerboard Cookies
Add these easy blue checkerboard shortbread cookies to your Wizard of Oz themed cookie platter, inspired by Dorothy’s gingham dress.
I’m a big fan of Wicked, both the Broadway musical and the movie, so in honor of the release of Wicked: For Good, I’ve been revamping some of my cookie recipes to create a Wicked/Wizard of Oz themed cookie platter. Last year I redid my matcha strawberry neapolitan cookies to do an Elphaba and Galinda swirl. Then I modified my easy black sesame cookie recipe to be “Tin Man” cookies. Now, I’ve redone my matcha checkerboard cookies to be a Dorothy theme.
How to Make Gingham Cookies
Now I know Dorothy’s dress is technically gingham, which CAN be done in a cookie, but it was a little too complicated for my tastes. So I simplified it to blue checkerboard.
If you would like to tackle gingham, however, you can double this recipe. You’ll want to dye half the dough a light blue, one fourth of the dough a darker blue, and the remaining dough leave white. Instead of slicing your cookie dough logs into thirds, slice into fourths. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I would suggest making a batch of checkerboard cookies first to get used to the slicing and rearranging technique. When you rearrange the cookies back into a log, do one layer alternating light blue and dark blue strips. Then on top of that alternate white and light blue. And continue alternating the pattern like that for the next two layers.
What Kind of Cookies are Checkerboard Cookies?
These cookies are sort of a modified shortbread. Traditional shortbread uses only butter, sugar, and flour. The resulting dough is very crumbly, aka short. I’ve added an egg here to help it be a little bit more malleable in shaping into a rectangle. The egg is not technically necessary, but it makes the dough easier to work with. It also causes the cookie to spread ever so slightly in the oven, but not so much that you lose the pattern. The end texture is kind of similar to grocery store slice and bake cookies.
Ways to Modify This Recipe
If you like a more soft and velvety texture, substitute the granulated sugar for 1 cup of powdered sugar. You can also substitute bread flour for the all purpose flour. If you’d like a more firm and “short” cookie, you can either omit the egg or use just an egg yolk. You can also bake the cookies more on the long side of the suggested time frame to get a crispier end texture.
For the food coloring, I did try using a natural food dye (butterfly pea powder) in place of the gel color. However, the blue did not really match the classic Dorothy blue gingham dress, so I opted not to use it. If you don’t care about matching the iconic dress so much, you can use 1/2 tsp of butterfly pea powder instead of the food dye. Or substitute another color of your choice for a totally different take!
More Wicked Themed Baked Treats
Looking for baked goods that may fit with a Wicked or Wizard of Oz color palette? Try these:
- Matcha Crinkle Cookies for Elphaba or the Emerald City
- Strawberry Matcha Pinwheel Cookies for Elphaba and Glinda
- Mochi Brownies cut into Witch Hat shapes
- Classic Butter Mochi for the yellow brick road
Wizard of Oz “Dorothy” Checkerboard Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup room temperature unsalted butter (113g), 1 stick
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100g)
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (180g)
- 1-2 drops sky blue food coloring
- 1/4 tsp almond extract or vanilla extract
Instructions
- With an electric mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream room temperature butter with sugar and salt.
- Add egg and extract of choice and continue beating until the mixture is light, fluffy, and fully incorporated.
- Add in flour and gently mix until dough comes together.
- Divide cookie dough in half. Pat one half of the dough into a rectangular log, about 3 inches long and 2 inches tall and wide. Wrap in plastic wrap and set in the fridge to chill.
- Return the other half of the dough to the stand mixer or mixing bowl. Add blue food coloring and mix until the color is evenly dispersed.
- Pat the blue cookie dough into a rectangular log the same shape and size as the first – about 3 inches long and 2 inches high and wide. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
- When dough is firm to the touch, remove from the fridge. Slice each block of dough lengthwise into thirds, then rotate the block 90 degrees and slice into thirds again so you have nine 3 inch long strips of dough.
- Rearrange the strips of dough in alternating colors to get two rectangular blocks that form a checkerboard pattern (example: place blue, white, and then blue strips next to each other for the bottom layer. Then layer white, blue, and white for the middle, then layer another set of blue, white, and blue strips on the top layer). Wrap each block of dough in plastic wrap again and put back in the fridge to chill for another 10-20 minutes or until dough becomes firm again.
- While you are waiting for your dough to chill, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Take out your chilled dough and slice crosswise into squares about 1/3 inch thick or about 7 slices per cookie dough block. Arrange the checkerboard cookie slices onto your prepared baking sheet and bake for 10-14 minutes or until cookies are slightly browned on the bottom and edges and lift from the tray. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.
