Casino de Monte-Carlo Poker Chip Cookies
2 for 1 recipes! Cinnamon & Orange and Honey & Rosemary
For the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix, we paired a French potato gratin with a butter-basted strip steak – so needless to say it was a pretty rich dinner. To finish off the meal we decided to go on the lighter side for dessert, so a simple batch of cookies fit the bill. But of course, I’m Jessica and this is Grand Prix Eats, so we can’t just make one type of cookie. The base of this recipe is a simple butter sugar cookie, however before bringing the dough together with egg yolk you can split the crumbs into two piles and add your desired flavouring. I chose to add orange zest and cinnamon to half the batch, and local honey & rosemary for the 2nd half.
Nothing says Monaco like the Casino de Monte-Carlo
To put a Monaco twist on this recipe, we decorated the sugar cookies to scale for a proper poker game. Nothing makes for a better playing card cookie cutter than, well, a playing card. And for the poker chips, if you don’t have a circle cookie cutter on hand then a champagne flute is almost to scale (enjoy a little champagne cocktail while you’re at it).
To make the cards, pipe and flood the cookies with white icing and allow to dry for 5-10 minutes. Pipe on the card design of your choosing. For poker chips, begin with a wide-circle in the middle of the cookie and then 8 spikes out to the edge. Fill the circle with white icing, and an accent colour between the spikes. Once dried, pipe the value in the center and outline the white circle and rim of the cookie in black.
Voila!
A set of sweet & tasty playing cards fit for James Bond. Enjoy with a Vesper martini and platter of oysters and caviar.
Casino de Monte-Carlo Cookies
2 for 1 recipes! Cinnamon & orange for half, and honey & rosemary for the other. Decorated in the spirit of Casino Royale for the Monaco Grand Prix.
Equipment
- Food processor (optional)
Ingredients
Cookie Base
- 350 grams all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 250 grams salted butter, cold & cubbed
- 150 grams icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon & Orange
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ orange, zested
Honey & Rosemary
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp liquid honey
- 1½ tsp fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
Royal Icing
- 250 grams icing sugar, sifted
- 1 egg white
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- black cocoa powder (black icing only)
- assorted gel food colouring
Instructions
Cookie Base
- In the base of a food processor, pulse together the flour, icing sugar, salt, vanilla, and cold butter. Pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Divide the crumbly mixture into 2 bowls.
Cinnamon & Orange
- With ½ the cookie mixture in a bowl, add the cinnamon and orange zest and stir. Add the egg yolk and bring the dough together into a ball. If the mixture is still too dry add a touch of milk. Wrap the dough ball in cling film and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Honey & Rosemary
- With ½ the cookie mixture in a bowl, add the honey and chopped rosemary. Add the egg yolk and bring the dough together into a ball. If the mixture is still too dry add a touch of milk. Wrap the dough ball in cling film and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Baking the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thickness. To make the playing cards simply use a playing card as your template and cut out the design. For the poker chips, use a 1.5 inch round cookie cutter or a champagne flute to cut out your circles.
- Place your cut-out cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
- Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes or until a light golden brown. Rest the cookies on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooking rack. Allow the cookies to cool completely before icing.
Royal Icing & Decorating
- Royal icing is all about consistency. The quantity of sugar to egg white will vary greatly based on the size of your eggs, so when in doubt start the lemon juice and gradually add the whites until you reach your desired consistency.
- In a standing mixer with a whisk attachment, mix all ingredients together until you have royal icing. Divide the icing into dishes and colour as you like with gel food colouring.
- Black Icing: To make black icing, add a touch of black cocoa powder to the mixed royal icing along with a good squeeze of black gel food colouring.
- To make the cards, pipe and flood the cookies with white icing and allow to dry for 5-10 minutes. Pipe on the card design of your choosing. For poker chips, begin with a wide-circle in the middle of the cookie and then 8 spikes out to the edge. Fill the circle with white icing, and an accent colour between the spikes. Once dried, pipe the value in the center and outline the white circle and rim of the cookie in black.
