“Scribble Cookies” Are the Only Treat I’m Making for the Holidays This Year

I love to scroll through photos of intricately decorated cookies; perhaps because my own attempts at making my own precision-iced treats fall woefully short! That’s why I think Scribble Cookies were created just for me.

Chef Pati Jinich, host of Pati’s Mexican Table, shares her recipe for Scribble Cookies: simple butter cookies that sandwich a fudgy filling of chocolate ganache. And the tops? Well, that’s where you get to “scribble” with drizzles of that chocolate ganache. It’s a straightforward and fun cookie recipe.

What Are Scribble Cookies?

Known as galletas garabato, these chocolate sandwich cookies can be found in many Mexican bakeries and are also a favorite for families to make together in home kitchens. 

In Jinich’s Scribble Cookies recipe, butter, flour, sugar, and eggs are blended into a simple cookie dough that resembles a shortbread dough. Once chilled, the dough is rolled out and cut using a three-inch round cutter. The crisp cookies are then sandwiched with a stovetop ganache: chocolate blended into hot cream to make a thick chocolate sauce. 

The fun part, of course, is the scribbling. In this recipe, you dip a fork into the chocolate ganache and flick it back and forth over the tops of the cookie sandwiches, decorating them with thin, chocolaty streaks. 

Jinich says she enjoys these cookies best when they’re cold. Chilling also helps firm up the chocolate filling so that it’s less likely to squish out when you take a bite. The simple, buttery taste of the cookies allows the rich, chocolatey flavor of the filling to take center stage. If there was ever a cookie that begged for a cold glass of milk on the side, this is it. 

The next time I make these, I plan to add some vanilla or orange extract to the dough to give it a little extra flavor. I also chose semisweet chocolate over Jinich’s recommended bittersweet, since there are no dark chocolate fans in my house.

My Top Tips for Making Scribble Cookies

• Although Jinich’s recipe doesn’t call for it, I recommend chilling the cookie dough cutouts before baking them. This firms up the butter in the dough so that the cookies hold their shape and don’t brown too quickly. Hold the rest of the dough in the fridge while you bake them. Also, pull the cookies from the oven as soon as they’re set and show traces of light browning at the edges.
• Some of the cookies puffed during baking, which gave them little bulges. If you want perfectly flat cookies, try pricking them a few times with a toothpick so that steam can escape from underneath.
• The chocolate ganache is thin. Let it cool to room temperature so it thickens somewhat. Jinich calls for up to two tablespoons of chocolate between the cookies. I found one tablespoon to be plenty; any more and the chocolate would have run out the sides. 
• Another option for the scribbling is to transfer the chocolate ganache to a piping bag with a small writing tip. This will allow you to make loops, swirls, and any kind of doodles you’d like on the cookies.