Black And White Cookies, New York Style?
Baking By MichelleM77 Updated 21 Sep 2009 , 3:11pm by mjfitz
I received a request for New York style black and white cookies. Can someone explain them for me? I understand they are iced half in chocolate and half in a white icing, and that the cookie is more cake-like and lemon flavored. Is this correct? I do have a few months to figure this all out.
Thanks!
I found a great recipe online a while ago. I'll look for it and post it.
I couldn't find the same recipe, but if you google "black and white cookies recipe", you'll get a ton of stuff.
I've found a few recipes that I might try out. Do I have the description correct? Is that what they are?
Yes--it's a cake-like cookie with a slight lemon flavor and half chocolate/half vanilla frosting. The originals were large, but you can also make minis.
This is from a blog that I follow...HTH
http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2008/04/red-velvet-black-and-white-cookies/
Thank you everyone for your help! I was not getting emails that there were any more responses to my post. Monkeny, I will check out the blog. Thanks!
My mom grew up in Utica, NY. There was a bakery there that was said to have invented them. The bakery's name was Hemstradt's (sp?) Anyway, it was a tradition for us to get them every summer when we'd go back to NY to visit my mom's family. They were, indeed, large cookies, soft in the center (cakelike) and were always, always, vanilla with black on one side, white on the other. Seinfeld featured the black and white cookie "look to the cookie" on an episode, but like many others it was a black (like devil's food) cookie underneath. My dad has replicated the recipe, although I don't have it (sorry) and it is very close to the cookies I remember from childhood. Sadly, Hemstradt's went out of business a few years ago... no more cookies. 
Vanilla flavored? I thought they were traditionally lemon. Ugh, decisions!. LOL! I guess it's a preference either way.
I remember black and white cookies. They were as big as the moon and alwasy my choice when my Mommy would say yes you may have ONE cookie-after I had begged her the whole time we stood in line at the deli counter. They were vanilla cookie with white and black colored chocolate vanilla icing. No lemon that I rememeber.
I received a request for New York style black and white cookies. Can someone explain them for me? I understand they are iced half in chocolate and half in a white icing, and that the cookie is more cake-like and lemon flavored. Is this correct? I do have a few months to figure this all out.
Thanks!
Michelle - I work in Manhattan - if you PM me your address and I can send you a couple of the mini ones so you know what the real thing tastes like! (that way if you are testing recipes you can know if they're any good!) 
I am from Syracuse, NY we called them half moon cookies. They are the best thing in the world. There not a lemon cookie. I am at work. I have a great recipe, when I get home I can PM it to you. You will fall in love with them....might have make some this weekend.
When I was in NYC I had one and it tasted Vanilla. However I remember when Martha Stewart did a piece on them she had them as lemon. Also a while back there was a thread on the black and white cookies and there was a website posted who did nothing but sell them in every conceivable way and they made a ton of $$$ off them (of course I can't remember who the website was or where the thread has gone to with this info...)
Here's the recipe I use. It does not have lemon extract in it, but many recipes do. (And even when the cookies have lemon extract in them, they are not very lemony--they just have a slight tangy flavor.) Anyhow, my family loves these. They're not difficult to make, but they are time-consuming.
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/rosemary/2007/10/a-bakers-sweet-memories-of-a-c.html
Win,
Hemstrough's (sp?) no longer has a store front, but still produces them for stores. If you're in any Utica area grocery store you can still buy half moons by the dozen.
or you could order from Holland Farms and they'll ship halfmoons to you! These are far better than the others!
http://www.hollandfarms.com/index.html
hi michelle-if you're testing out recipes why not have a small tasting for your bride-she could decide if she wants vanilla or lemon (especially if you have some time) i'm sure as with many other things some say they're only ever vanilla and others (martha) says only ever lemon. either way they sound delicious and pretty
If you have a Starbucks near by they have 2 mini ones in a package. Might be good to taste them before you try to make them. I keep wanting to buy some, but afraid I'll be let down.
The pre-packaged ones never measure up, to me.
Just about every bakery around here makes them...some are great, some are so-so, and some are awful. One week, I went from bakery to bakery testing black and white cookies. I ate quite a few, but only one or two good ones. Some were so dry and tasteless. The homemade ones are the best-----fresh and tasty.
You might find this VERY interesting.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2009/08/25/pastrami-on-rye-a-dr-brown-and-oh-yeah-one-of-those-black-and-whites/?go=RT90825D1&utm_source=RT90825&utm_medium=email&utm_content=&spMailingID=2214594&spUserID=MTEwMDMwMTgxMDIS1&spJobID=156455633&spReportId=MTU2NDU1NjMzS0
Nice to see I'm not the only one who uses lemon oil in baked goods! 
This is for an out-of-town customer coming to town in a few months and wants to order them (I believe she is originally from NY). She did prefer vanilla (I asked which she preferred), so no tasting since she is out of state.
Thank you for all of the help!
This business looks like they are doing well www.blackandwhitecookies.com
I'm in Brooklyn...the black and whites are a regular in the bakeries here - it is a soft cookie that bakes to a slight domed shape that is then turned over and frosted half black and half white on the flat "bottom" of the cookie.....and yeah, here they make them vanilla flavored not lemon...and they are yummy!
I followed the link that Gingoodies gave and found this link..
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Halfmoon-Cookies
Say's it is the same recipe that Hemstrought's Bakery used.
Good luck
I too grew up on LI loving these cookies. I found this recipe awhile back and have to say this is as close as I've gotten but am stil having trouble with the right consistency for the icings. Please read all the reviews on this recipe as people have tweeked it using less flour, extract etc... and it is much better with the tweeks.....I have made this numerous times and everyone raves about them, especially my fellow NYers down here in the south!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Black-and-White-Cookies-I/Detail.aspx
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