Recipe – Black & White Cookies

Posted by Lori Romano on January 11, 2012 · 4 Comments 

Okay, so between my recent move and the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year holiday craziness, this blog has been seriously neglected. But tonight, I am going to make it up to you and share the recipe for what my husband adamantly argues is the perfect cookie.

Anyone who has lived in or visited a New York deli has probably seen these before. Anyone else probably doesn’t know they exist, unless they saw the Seinfeld episode where Jerry waxes philosophical about how the cookie is a metaphor for racial harmony and that people only need to “Look to the cookie” to learn how to get along.

In reality, a Black & White Cookie is actually a delicious cake-cookie hybrid. Imagine a sponge cake and a shortbread cookie having a baby, then frost it half-vanilla, half-chocolate. The result? 100% amazing.

In the nine years that I lived in New York, I ate dozens of these cookies, and when my husband and I moved away in 2007, they were one of the things that we sorely missed. Knowing how homesick Steven was that first year away from New York, I decided to make it my mission to find an authentic Black & White Cookie recipe and surprise him for his birthday.

Easier said than done.

There are a lot of bad Black & White recipes out there, bad enough that any real-life Tony Soprano type would surely put a hit out on the person trying to pass off the cheap, tasteless imitation as the real thing.

Luckily, I didn’t let the failures discourage me. After several batches of mediocre trial and error, I finally cracked the code of the ultimate authentic New York style Black & White Cookie.

To all my New York fans–be sure to take this recipe with you if you should ever leave the northeast because once you cross the Mississippi River or the Mason Dixon Line, you can kiss these babies goodbye.

And to all my non-New York fans–you’re welcome.

 

The Ultimate NY-Style Black & White Cookie

Ingredients:

Cookie

1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 3/4 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp lemon extract

2 1/2 cups cake flour

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

Frosting

4 cups confectioner’s sugar

1/3 cup boiling water

semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (Baker’s chocolate, approximately 4-6 squares)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter two baking sheets.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the milk, vanilla, and lemon extract.

3. Combine cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt, then gradually blend into the creamed mixture.

**NOTE** Remember, Black & Whites are sort of a cake-cookie hybrid. The dough/batter is going to be quite a bit thinner than traditional cookie dough, and rather sticky. You may think you are doing something wrong, but hang in there! I assure you, you are on the right track.

4. Drop tablespoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart on buttered baking sheets and use a spoon to press down the centers to approximately 1-inch thick circles.

**NOTE** Again, the dough is sticky, so this is easier said than done. I used 2 spoons. One to scoop the dough out of the bowl, and the other to scrape the dough from the spoon onto the cookie sheet. The dough is also going to stick to your spoon when you try to press down the center. Don’t fret. Once you get them in the oven, they will do what they are supposed to.

5. Bake until edges begin to brown (about 10-15 minutes). Cool completely before frosting.

**TIP** Once the cookies have cooled a bit, put them in a large Ziploc bag or container and put them in the freezer while you prepare the frosting. If the cookies are cold, it will help the frosting to set faster, and you’ll save yourself a bit of a headache.

Now, onto the frosting…

6. Place confectioner’s sugar in a large bowl. Mix in the boiling water slowly, until the mixture is thick and spreadable. You may need a bit more or less than the recipe calls for, so be sure to add it slowly. Use mixture to frost 1/2 of the cookies.

7. After frosting the white side of the cookies, you should have approximately 1/2 of the mixture left. Transfer the remaining frosting to the top of a double boiler set over simmering water. Make sure the mixture is heated through, then stir in the chopped chocolate. Stir frequently until the chocolate melts. Then, remove from heat and frost the remaining half of the cookies.

**NOTE** The chocolate mixture can be a little finicky to work with. Unless the chocolate is heated just right, it has a tendency to “seize” and turn into a thick paste. Don’t worry! You can save the chocolate by adding a small amount of boiling water (and isn’t that handy since you have some already in your double boiler). Take just one teaspoon of boiling water at a time and stir it into your chocolate until it reaches the desired consistency needed for frosting. You can also do this again if the chocolate starts to harden or seize again before you finish frosting all of the cookies.

And that’s it folks. All that’s left to do now is enjoy! 🙂

Filed under American Cuisine, Food, Recipe, Uncategorized · Tagged with baking, Black and white cookies, cookies, deli, half-moon cookies, New York, seinfeld