Red, White, and Blue Cookies with White Chocolate Chips
These fun cookies use red, blue and plain “white” chocolate chip cookie dough to form a patriotic cookie that is reminiscent of the American flag. They look complicated to make but I’ve included step-by-step instructions and they’re easier than they look. They do require you chill the dough both before you assemble the cookies, as well as after you assemble them so plan accordingly. You can also prepare the cookie dough the day before, and let them sit in the fridge overnight, then assemble the next day and chill again overnight, baking them the third day if you like.
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine American
Keyword chocolate chip, cookies, white chocolate
Prep Time 1 hourhour
Cook Time 15 minutesminutes
Refrigerator chill time 3 hourshours
Servings 21cookies
Calories 301kcal
Author Irvin
Ingredients
1 1/4cupsunsalted butter255 g or 2 1/2 sticks
1 3/4cupswhite sugar350 g
1/2cuplight brown sugar110 g
1tablespoonvanilla extract
1 1/2teaspoonbaking powder
1 1/4teaspoonbaking soda
1teaspoonkosher salt
2large eggs
3 1/2cupsall-purpose flour490 g
2cupwhite chocolate chips370 g
Red and blue liquid food coloringroughly a teaspoon each
To finish
Flaky sea salt or sparkling sugaroptional
Instructions
Place the butter, both sugars, vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the ingredients together on medium speed until they are creamy and cling to the side of the bowl.
Add the eggs, one at a time, waiting until the first egg is incorporated before adding the second one. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding each egg. The batter will look “broken” but don’t worry. This is normal.Add the flour and slowly mix it. I like to “pulse” the mixer on and off quickly, until the bulk of the flour has been absorbed in the dough. If you turn the mixer just to on, flour will go everywhere. Just slowly mix it in. Once most of it is absorbed, you can turn the mixer on to slow to incorporate it fully.
Now add the white chocolate chips and mix in slowly. You can do this by hand if you want.
Now divide the dough into 3 even parts. If you have a scale, this is roughly 550 grams of dough. Pat one dough into 1-inch thick disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Place the second part of the dough in the mixer and add 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of the red liquid food coloring. Mix until evenly colored. Remove the dough, pat it into a disk that is 1-inch thick, and wrap in plastic wrap. Wipe out the bowl and paddle attachment with a paper towel (no need to clean it thoroughly, a little red dough won’t hurt the blue dough). Place the third piece of dough and add 3/4 to 1 teaspoon of blue liquid food coloring and mix until evenly colored then pat into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap.Place all the wrapped cookie dough in the refrigerator and let it chill for 2 hours or overnight, up to 3 days if you want. You can also freeze the dough at this point, keeping them wrapped in the plastic wrap and placing them in a large freezer bag. Thaw them in the fridge before assembling.
Once the cookie dough is chilled, line 4 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking pads.Divide each dough into 8 equal pieces. If you have a scale, that about 65 to 70 grams each. Then take each piece and form a disk in your hands, about 2-inch wide by 1-inch thick.
Take a plain white disk of dough cut the disk into 6 strips. Repeat this with the red disk, cutting it into 6 strips. Take the one blue disk and cut it into 4 quarter pieces.Then take two red layers and one white layer and alternate them, then press them together to form half a disk. Set them aside and repeat with the two white layers and one red layer. You should have two half disks. Cut one of these half disks in half, down the middle. It should be the same shape as the blue quarter.
Then assemble a cookie. Take one of the half red and white strip and place it on the bottom. Add a blue quarter on the top left and the matching shape red and white striped piece on the top right. Squish together and set aside.Repeat this process with the remainder of the dough, keeping mind that the dough quarters that you cut might need to be flipped over or rotated to match the right side. Always pair up the half and quarter red and white striped pieces so the stripes continue to alternate.
Place 6 cookies on the prepared baking sheet spacing them out about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle the top of the cookies with some sea salt and place them in the refrigerate for 1 hour. This will help keep the cookie shape and prevent them from spreading. If you skip this step, place only 4 cookies per sheet and expect the cookies to spread a lot more and be flatter.While the dough chills again, preheat the oven to 350°F. Once chilled, sprinkle the top of the cookies with sea salt or sparkling sugar (if using) and then bake in the oven for 14 to 16 minutes or until the edges of the cookie start to turn light brown. If the cookies are slightly misshapen, just gently tap the sides of the cookie with a spatula or wooden spoon immediately after they come out of the oven. You have about 30 seconds to do this, while the cookies are still warm. Once they cool, the firm up and you can’t manipulate them in the same way.Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire cooling rack. Cool completely.
Video
Notes
This recipe will yield 21 red, white, and blue large cookies. You will also end up with 2 all blue cookies, and one blue cookie with a red and white striped corner. This is because of the nature of dividing the dough into the multiple colors and assembling them all together. Reserve the extra cookies of yourself as a special treat!