Themed Snack For Game Night – Chocolate Poker Chip Cookies

If you know the difference between a full house and a royal flush, and you love baking, then you’ll love making these extra-special Chocolate Poker Chip Cookies. They are the perfect nibble for your poker games, and they look so authentic you’ll need to warn your poker buddies to make sure they nibble on the cookies, and not their real chips!

The following recipe makes around forty-four cookies. It may look like your regular chocolate chip cookie recipe but there’s a surprise ingredient to help you make the two-tone chips and it’s called matcha.

Matcha (抹茶^?, pronounced [mat.tɕa]^[1]), also spelled maccha, refers to finely milled or fine powder green tea. [1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matcha]

photo credit: yakubovich via photopin cc

Ingredients 

4 cups of all-purpose or plain flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

12oz butter, slightly softened

1½ cups of light brown sugar

one egg & one egg yolk

1½ teaspoons of vanilla extract

½ cup of sifted cocoa powder

3 tablespoons of matcha powder

Method

Sift together the baking powder, flour and salt, then set aside.

Using a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar using an electric mixer until fluffy. Next mix in the egg, then the egg yolk, and then the vanilla extract. Pour in the flour mixture then mix well. Complete the mixing using a wooden spoon or your fingers.

Split the dough into equal thirds then mix two of the thirds back together. Kneed half a cup of cocoa powder into the bigger portion of dough, and then the matcha powder into the smaller portion.

Split the matcha/chocolate dough in half, and form each into a rectangle. Refrigerate for between two hours and one day.

Remove the matcha dough from the refrigerator when ready, then roll it into an eleven inch cylinder. Wrap the cylinder in plastic wrap and slide into a paper tube. Replace into the refrigerator until the dough is firm.

Take a portion of the chocolate dough and the other portion of the matcha dough out of the refrigerator and allow them to soften. On baking paper roll each portion of the dough into rectangles that are half an inch in thickness. Cut out six half-inch wide strips that are eleven inches in length from each dough. Working carefully, alternate the matcha and chocolate strips to form a striped rectangle. Remove the matcha cylinder from the refrigerator and place it on top of the striped dough. Roll the striped dough up around the matcha cylinder so it is enclosed. Roll it a little to make sure there are no gaps, then roll this cylinder into wrap and place in the fridge until firm.

On parchment or baking paper, roll the chocolate dough that’s left into a rectangle that’s a third of an inch thick and about a foot long. Place the chilled chocolate-matcha dough into the middle with the longer sides parallel, then roll the dough around the cylinder, making sure you press firmly so that it sticks. Roll up the finished log to make it smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

Bake in the center of the a preheated (to 350⁰) oven. Use a good-sized baking sheet with baking paper then, using a sharp knife, slice the dough into quarter-inch slices. Roll the log about a quarter of a rotation after you make each slice. Lay on the baking sheet, making sure you leave about one inch gap between each cookie. Bake your cookies chips in batches, for about twelve minutes until golden brown. Leave them on the baking sheet, allowing them to cool for about fifteen minutes, then move them to the rack so that they cool completely.

Enjoy with family and friends!