21 January 2010

The Black and White Cookie

Oh, the beautiful Black and White cookie!
I have had a hankerin' for these o' so yummie "cookies"!
Have you heard of these? They are the quintessential New York City treat.
I got myself on-line, found a recipe, read the comments, and set to baking! I love to bake cookies and usually do a good job of it. Cakes, now that's a different story, are much more of a challenge for me. This cookie is very cake like and I wondered how I would do so I made only half a batch. Good for me as this needs some altitude tweaking... of course, I should have looked at that first.
This was the result.
The pictures look ok but I can see some of where the vanilla side of the frosting did not quite cover. The chocolate covered wonderfully and is so very very very rich.

Overall I would report this first attempt as a success but I will still try other recipes or tweak this one. I know, I know, on the closeup the icings don't touch in the middle. Chalk that deficiency up to my need for instant gratification.. I couldn't wait to try. One of the keys to getting that good line in the middle is frost the vanilla side and let it set before frosting the chocolate side.


http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/black-and-white-cookies/
This is the recipe I (kinda) followed. After reading the comments I made some adjustments. Here are my notes for next time: I used the confection sugar-milk-vanilla frosting and it wasn't very white or the frosting I remember. Next time I will use the icing as listed in the recipe. For the chocolate I used the sugar, milk, vanilla, added unsweetened chocolate and melted over a double boiler. I can't believe I am saying this, but wow, too rich for this cookie. I will file it away for something more appropriate as the frosting was oh, so yummie! Some of the comments mentioned there wasn't enough lemon extract. I thought the amount listed was just right or maybe even a smidge too much. Because the cookies didn't raise too much I will try some altitude adjustments. I didn't have cake flour so I used the 2TBL cornstarch in the cup measure and added the rest AP flour substitution.

So there you have it... my first attempt at the nostalgic Black & White Cookie. Seeing as my dad works in NYC it may be possible to have some shipped in for taste comparison when I am further along in my quest for the best recipe.

I hope I don't have the same fate as Jerry Seinfeld!

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