Black & White Cookie Project Part I

I’m working on perfecting the famous Black and White cookie. The first recipe I'm trying out is for the NYC version. This is not the upstate new York version. The upstate New York version is called the half moon (sometimes also called black and white) and I will blog about it at a later time. They are two distinctly different versions and each have their own dedicated fans. I’ve had both versions and since I am not from New York, I cannot say I have any loyalty to either version. I like them both.

I'm starting off with a recipe from Glaser’s Bake Shop. The recipe was published in the May 13, 1998 issue of the New York Times. Glaser's is a small family-own bakery and the recipe has been passed down for generations. I followed Glaser's recipe for the cookie base but I adapted the icing from Gourmet because my coworker wanted me to troubleshoot the Gourmet magazine recipe she has been using. She wanted me to help her “fix” the weird flavor. She said the lemon flavor was off and the icing tasted chalky. I found many of the icing recipes on the internet very similar to each other. They consisted of powdered sugar, water and light corn syrup. Variations included lemon juice and/or vanilla. Some recipes used cocoa powder and others used baking chocolate.
For this go around, I took the Gourmet magazine icing recipe and experimented a bit. I got a nice shiny icing that sets up really nicely and it was pretty good but I felt it could be better. I'm currently working on perfecting the icing. I read that the icing should be fondant-based so I made up a batch of fondant. It's sitting in the refrigerator, ready for me to turn it into a poured fondant icing. I will post results in the coming weeks.

Glaser's Bake Shop Black and White Cookie
makes 2 dozen large cookies

Cookie:
1 ¾ granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 large eggs
1 ½ cups milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon lemon exract
2 ½ cups cake flour
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. (I traced circles on the underside of the parchment paper as guides.)

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter. Mix until fluffy. Add eggs (one at a time), milk, vanilla and lemon extracts, and mix until smooth.

3. In a medium bowl, combine cake and all-purpose flours, baking powder and salt. Stir until mixed. Add dry mixture to the wet in batches, stirring well after each addition. Using a spoon, place heaping spoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake until edges begin to brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool completely.

I really like my local spice shop. They carry a huge selection of products including this Black Onyx cocoa. They also have several varieties of cocoas for sale.

Black and White Cookie Icing
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine

Icing:
¼ cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup water
5 cups powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon lemon extract
2 tablespoons black onyx cocoa powder
1 to 3 teaspoons boiling water

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring corn syrup and water to a boil.

2. Remove pan from heat and slowly whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla.

3. Divide half of the icing into a small heat-proof bowl.

4. Add lemon extract to one half of the icing and cocoa to the other half. You may need to thin out the cocoa icing with some boiling water. Cover the icings until ready to use.

To Frost:
1. Once cookies are cooled, flip them over so that they are resting on the rounded side. You want to frost the flat undersides with icing.

2. With a brush, coat half the cookie with the white icing. Repeat until all cookies are frosted. Allow the white icing to dry. Paint the other halves with chocolate icing. Allow frosting to completely cool and store in airtight container.

You may need to thin out the icings with more boiling water to make it spreadable. It also helps to keep the frosting warm over a pot of hot water.

I read the reviews on epicurious. Many people had issues with the icing. Below are some of them.

My icing tastes chalky (or just plain weird): I thought maybe the raw cornstarch in the powdered sugar had something to do with it. I changed the method by boiling the corn syrup and water and then adding the powdered sugar. I thought maybe the residual heat would help with the raw cornstarch taste. I didn’t want to boil the powdered sugar because I didn’t want to mess with the structure of the sugar crystals and lose the shininess of the icing. The heating of the powdered sugar helped a bit but it did not completely fix the weird flavor. (Water and powdered sugar makes a pretty unexciting icing but this shortcut version is a very good substitute for the real fondant icing.) The off flavor will mellow out over time (if the cookies lasts that long). If the chalky flavor really bothers you, you can try making your own powdered sugar, find a powdered sugar with tapioca instead of corn starch, or make a fondant icing.

Lemony Chocolate icing is just WRONG: Many of the recipes called for adding vanilla and lemon juice, dividing it and then adding the chocolate for the “black” icing. Many people found the lemon juice and chocolate “disgusting” so I only added the lemon flavor to the “white” icing, after dividing out the "black" half. I subbed lemon extract for lemon juice because I wanted the lemony notes without the tartness. Many people will say that this minor detail is not important because both icings ultimately end up mixed together in your mouth.

The “black” icing is too difficult to work: I think melted chocolate makes this icing a little finicky. Use cocoa powder and save the chocolate bars for something else.


My "black" icing is brown: Many of these icing recipes will either specify bittersweet chocolate squares or dutch processed cocoa. I won't get into the history of dutch processed cocoa now but it basically produces a darker cocoa powder than natural cocoa. Your regular Hershey’s, Nestle or even Ghirardelli will not give the icing the “black” color you are looking for. The icing will be more dull brown than black. I visited my local spice shop and bought Black Onyx cocoa. Black Onyx cocoa has been super-dutch processed. The problem with Black Onyx cocoa is that it taste more like charcoal than chocolate. Not a good thing. A compromise is to use a mix of both Black Onyx and dutched cocoa or you use whatever you have in your pantry if the color is not important. We're not baking a cake with the cocoa so the acidity of the cocoa won't affect anything.

The “white” icing is off-white: This can be attributed to the brown vanilla extract. You can use clear vanilla flavor if the color bothers you.

Cookie Base Rating: 9 out of 10. The cookie is pretty darn good. It baked up really nicely and the texture was perfect. I was skeptical about the 4 large eggs in the recipe. The end result was a bit egg-y but the texture was perfect.

Icing Rating: 7 out of 10. Again, the icing is not bad and for the amount of effort that went into making the icing, it was well worth it. I'm sure the poured fondant will taste better but it might not be worth the extra effort.