Marbled Chocolate Covered Sugar Cookies

I originally had no real plans to develop this marbled chocolate covered sugar cookie recipe; it came about as a result of holiday baking. I wanted to make some sugar cookies to decorate and send to family and friends, but was finding that my usual shortbread recipe was the kind that spread just enough to warp the shapes. 

So I got to work testing and came up with a dough that was easy to work with and produced a truly delightful cookie. And then, instead of decorating them, I dipped them in a some swirled chocolates thinking I could get something like  these millionaire bars. 

The chocolate had less of a swirled effect and was more marbled, and they turned out so pretty! 

It has been four years since and I still make these cookies every Christmas, they’re delightful, tasty and beautiful and they keep very well. 

Recipe Origins

To get a tasty sugar cookie dough that holds shape after baking, we need the right balance of butter/egg/sugar/flour which is usually done with a 1:1:1:3 ratio. A lot of linzer cookies follow this balance and it’s what we are mostly following here, except that I use powdered sugar. 

Powdered (or icing or confectioner’s) sugar is made by very finely grinding sugar into a powder. Sometimes you’ll see it called 10x which refers to how many times it has been processed. To the now very finely ground sugar, cornstarch is added to prevent caking (sugar granules binding together). 

I use powdered sugar in this recipe for two reasons: the added starch makes the dough super easy to handle (some recipes will call for cornstarch in the recipe to get this effect) and this is important because a dough that’s easy to handle and roll means one that you won’t be adding a lot of flour to, which prevents a dry cookie. 

The other reason is because the sugar is so finely ground that when we beat it together we won’t incorporate as much air into the dough which will lead to a dense, crumbly cookie – exactly what we wanted in a shape cookie.

Recipe Ingredients

Butter: In a really basic cookie that’s not going to have a lot of flavor besides vanilla, I’ll opt for salted butter which brings out the vanilla flavor more and adds a nice balance. If you don’t have it, you can add another ¼ teaspoon salt to the dough. 

Sugar: fine granulated sugar. 

Powdered sugar: I talk about this extensively in the above section but suffice to say, no substitutes! 

Flour: All-purpose flour, a medium protein content.

Egg: one large egg, it’s best if it’s at room temperature. 

Vanilla: I use pure vanilla extract in mine but you can also scrape a vanilla bean or use some vanilla paste. For a bean, I’d scrape up a long one and for the paste I’d go up another teaspoon because the flavor is less intense than pure extract. 

Salt: fine sea salt. If using table salt, use half the amount. 

Chocolate: I used a mix of four chocolates here to get as much variety as I could in terms of color: dark chocolate (72%), milk chocolate, white chocolate and once in awhile I’ll invest in some valrhona dulcey feves which is the flavor of caramelized white chocolate. But if you want to keep it really simple, you just need a dark and white chocolate for the color variety. 

How to make marbled chocolate covered sugar cookies

The dough 

Have the butter at room temperature before starting. This dough can be made a few hours or a day ahead of time. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer add the butter, granulated sugar, salt and vanilla and beat on low to combine. 

Add the powdered sugar and mix on low to combine. Scrape down the bowl as needed to ensure everything is mixing evenly. 

Add the egg and mix – the dough won’t start to form, it will look lumpy and eggy. 

Sift in the flour and mix – you may need to cover the bowl with a tea towel so the flour doesn’t fly out. Scrape the bowl and mix again. 

Once there aren’t any visible flour bits, stop. 

Lay a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter and set the dough on it then shape it into a disk. Loosely fold the plastic wrap over it and then use a rolling pin to flatten it slightly. 

Set in the fridge to chill for about 2 hours. 

The Cookies

Prepare two cookie sheets by greasing them and lining them with parchment paper 

On a well-floured surface, roll out the dough to about a quarter of an inch thickness 

Use as much flour as you need, this dough can be sticky – and then use a cookie cutter to punch out shapes 

Re-roll and re-flour the dough as needed 

Place the cookies on the prepared pan(s) 

Bake until barely golden on the edges for 9-10 minutes, we want to slightly under bake these. 

The chocolate topping 

To get that perfect chocolate topping that isn’t easily melted and doesn’t have white spots on it we need to temper it. 

A basic way to think about this is that the more cocoa solids a chocolate has in it, the longer it takes to melt. Which means that white chocolate will be the quickest to melt, dark will take the longest. Milk & blond chocolate will fall somewhere in between. 

The best way to melt chocolate carefully is to do it slowly, to stir it often and to ‘seed’ it. This is done by setting some of the chocolate aside and adding it to the chocolate after it’s mostly melted, then stirring it until it fully melts. 

Key steps: 

1. To make it easy on yourself, set aside ¼ of the amount you want to add afterwards. This is your “seed”. 
2. Melt the chocolate in 30 second intervals in the microwave. Check it and stir. 
3. Once the chocolate is half melted, stir it until it fully melts. 
4. Add the ‘seed’ chocolate you’ve set aside and stir until it’s smooth. If you used big chunks, your ‘seed’ might not fully melt, you can set it aside for use later.

How to create the marbled chocolate topping 

Once the chocolates have melted you’ll pour them into a shallow container, a pasta bowl or a quarter sheet pan work great here. I pour my dark chocolate first and then alternate adding the milk and white chocolate (for these I also used some dulcey feves, that’s the golden one you see). Then take a butter knife or an offset spatula and swirl it just barely. 

Take the cookies and dip them into the chocolate face down, very very gently jiggling them to ensure chocolate covers them. When you lift, hold it at a 45 degree angle for a second or two to let the chocolate slide down the cookie. Set on a sheet or parchment paper to capture any chocolate bits (and so the cookies won’t stick to the countertop). 

Storing & sending these cookies

Once the chocolate is firm and dry (will take less than half an hour if you’ve tempered it right) these should be kept in an airtight container. 

These store remarkably well and taste good days later. They may even improve with time! Four days after making them mine tasted great. Since they are pretty solid cookies I’d say they’d also be great ones to add to a cookie box.

Recipe for Marbled Chocolate Covered Sugar Cookies

Marbled Chocolate Covered Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies from an easy-to-roll and cut dough topped with 2-3 different chocolates for a marbled effect.

Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Cook Time: 10 minutes mins

Yields: 20 cookies

5 from 13 votes

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Ingredients

• 226g or 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 130g or 1 cup powdered sugar sifted if lumpy
• 50g or ¼ cup fine granulated sugar
• ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 large egg at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• 380g or 3 cups all purpose flour sprinkled into the cup and leveled, not packed
• Optional: freshly grated nutmeg or zest of an orange

Marbled chocolate topping

• 150g dark chocolate, chopped
• 75g white chocolate chips
• 75g milk chocolate chips or caramelized white chocolate feves or use more white chocolate

Method

• An hour before baking (less if your kitchen is warm): take the butter out of the fridge to soften.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the powdered sugar (sifted), butter, sugar and sea salt. With the paddle attachment, beat the mixture for at least 5 minutes, until it’s well combined. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for at least 3 minutes to combine. The mixture will look clumpy.
• Place a sieve over the bowl and sift in the flour. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and beat on medium low until the dough comes together. Use your hands and gather the dough into a flat disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and set in the fridge for an hour or so until the dough is firm but not too stiff to roll out. If you’ve left it for a few hours or overnight, let it soften on the counter until it’s workable
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about a quarter inch thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Set the shapes on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Don’t crowd them but also don’t worry about leaving too much space, they won’t spread. Set the tray in the freezer and preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Bake for 10 minutes until they are just set, don’t wait for the edges or the bottoms to turn golden or they will overbake and be tough.
• When the cookies are completely cool, begin tempering the chocolate:
• Set the chocolate into three separate heat-proof bowls. Remove about ¼ of the chocolate from each bowl and set aside, this is your ‘seed’.
• Microwave the bowls of chocolate for 30 seconds and check them, if none have begun melting then do another 30 seconds. Stir the chocolate and return to the microwave for another 30 seconds. At this point the milk and white chocolate should be somewhat melted but the dark chocolate will still be firm.
• As needed, microwave for another 20 seconds. Stop once the chocolate is half melted and stir, stir stir. The heat from the melted chocolate will melt the rest. Add the “seed” you set aside to the bowl and stir again until you have a smooth chocolate. The dark chocolate will take the longest to melt and it’s likely that those ‘seeds’ won’t melt fully (especially if they are large).
• Alternate pouring the chocolates into a quarter sheet pan or a pasta bowl (something small-ish and shallow) and gently swirl them with a tip of a butter knife. Dip the cookies face down into the chocolate and hold them upright for a few seconds to let the remaining chocolate slide off. Place on a sheet of parchment paper and allow to set.
• Store in an airtight container.

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