Stone Cookies

These were supposed to be sliced with beautiful stripes... turns out it's easier to just swirl it all together and use a cookie cutter! Tastes like a less sweet gourmet oreo. 

INGREDIENTS

• 226 g or 1 cup butter
• 120 g or 1 cup powdered sugar
• 50 g or ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 260 g plus 65g or 2 cups flour, plus ½ cup (divided)
• 40 g or ⅓ cup black cocoa

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add chunks of cold butter and powdered sugar to a stand mixer and beat until it is fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. 
   
2. Add the granulated sugar, continue beating.
3. Add the salt, vanilla and egg and mix to combine.
4. Add 2 cups of flour and mix. I like to add 1/2 cup at a time to mix it in gradually to prevent flour from going everywhere. 
5. Next you will make your white and black dough. Separate the dough in half, using a scale to be exact. Do this by putting a piece of saran wrap on top of the scale, scrape all the dough on it. Take note of the weight and do a little calculation to divide the weight of the dough in half. Put enough dough back into the bowl to reach the number you calculated. The dough in the bowl will become the white half of the dough. Reserve the dough on the scale and wrap in saran wrap. This will be the half that will become the black dough later.
6. Add the remaining flour (65g or ½ cup) to the half of the dough that's in the bowl and mix. Once mixed, remove from bowl, smush into a flattened ball, and wrap in saran wrap and add to the fridge. 
   1. Important! Do the white half of the dough first - the black cocoa powder will get all over everything. I am not kidding.
7. Once you've finished with the white half of the dough, then put the remaining reserved dough in the bowl and add the 1/3 cup cocoa and mix. The dough will be very black and the black cocoa powder will get everywhere. I recommend using a mixer shield at this step due to the mess. Take out and wrap in saran wrap and place in fridge.
   1. Note: if you are doing a double batch of this recipe... Make this recipe twice (don’t try to double it and do it in one mixer at once) but reserve both halves of the dough that need the cocoa powder and do all of the black dough at the very end by adding 2/3 cup black cocoa powder. I really cannot stress enough how much the black cocoa powder gets all over everything.
8. Once the two doughs are wrapped, set them in the fridge for about an hour. Don’t leave them more than 3 hours, they’ll dry out and be difficult to work with.
9. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet (I recommend using an airbake sheet to reduce browning on the bottom).
10. Prepare your workspace with a silpat mat, rolling pin (I recommend using a rolling pin with guides and selecting the 6mm height guide), 2" cookie cutter (a biscuit cutter with a handle on top works well for grabbing them and transferring them to the sheet), and two small bowls of flour and water. Place your cookie sheet with parchment paper next to you so you can move the cookies directly there as you cut them out. It makes life so much easier.
11. Flour your workspace. Cut each ball of dough into four quarters. Reserve two quarters of each color - you can put them back in the fridge in plastic wrap, or leave them out if you're quick. Roll two quarters of each color out to about 6mm. You'll need to flour your rolling pin and the dough as the dough gets softer. Next, stack the four rectangles of dough, alternating colors. I.e. white, black, white black. Because you need to flour the rolling pin and workspace, you will need to use your fingers to add a bit of water to the top of each layer as you stack them so they will stick together. 
    
12. Once they're stacked 4 layers in a general rectangle, roll up the dough into a log. Before rolling, use your fingers to add more water to the top of the dough so that it sticks together when it's rolled. Next, slice into three sections. Work with one chunk at a time, place a section swirl side facing up and then use the rolling pin to roll it out. Cut out 3 or 4 cookies with a 2" cookie cutter, strategically placing the cookie cutter on top of where you'll get the nicest pattern/stripes. Next, mush/twist up the remaining dough lightly, re-roll, and cut again. If you used a lot of flour, you may need to a little add water with your fingers to laminate the dough together at this stage. The more you work with the dough, the blacker it will get and you loose the marbling. Flip over the dough to see which side has better marbling as you're rolling it out. 
    
13. Once your airbake pan is full of cookies, bake on 350 F for 12 mins. They can be fairly close together as they won't spread. While they bake, repeat the cutting process until all dough is used up.