Hello all 
,
I am in search of a tried and true recipe for the traditional NY style Black and White cookie (fluffy cake-like cookie with half chocolate/half vanilla frosting). My BF loves these cookies and I want to make them for him as a surprise. Any recipes that you could suggest that you've had success with, I'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks in advance for any help!
Hi MOBOGAL,
This is my tried and true Black and White Cookie Recipe. The cookie part tastes just like the bakery ones. The icing part is close, but not exactly like the bakery ones. Below the recipe I will give more direction on the icing.
1 cup (2 sticks) margarine
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 cups flour
White icing:
1 c confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)
1/4 tsp. vanilla
2 T hot water
1 T oil
1 drop lemon juice
Chocolate icing:
3/4 c confectioners' sugar
4 tsp. cocoa powder
2 T hot water
1/2 T oil
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream margarine and sugar together. Add remaining ingredients, adding eggs one at a time. Shape into medium (2.5 inch) balls and place 2" apart on parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool completely.
Make icing in separate bowls. When cookies are cool, turn over and frost on the flat side, half white, half chocolate.
makes 2 dozen medium cookies
First, yes you can use butter. The traditional Jewish recipes use margarine so the cookies could be eaten after a meat meal.
Second, the icing recipes supplied above are to give an easy to make at home icing that is similar to the bakery ones. I don't care for it. True black and whites are iced with poured fondant.
Here is a simple version that is closer than the above icings, but not as difficult to make as homemade poured fondant:
The cookie book Got Milk?, by Nancy Cullen, says a good approximation of a bakery glaze is to mix 2-3/4 cups of confectioners sugar with 5 tablespoons of boiling water and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. The consistency should be a bit runny, but thick enough to spread, she says (thin it with more water, or add more sugar to thicken, if necessary). Once all the cookies are half frosted, stir 2 ounces of melted bittersweet chocolate into the remaining frosting (which is likely to need a little more thinning), and frost the other halves of the cookies.
Or you can make your own homemade poured fondant from the recipe below:
Food Processor Poured Fondant
From The New Pastry Cook, by Helen Fletcher.
Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup corn syrup
Instructions:
Heat sugar, water and corn syrup to the soft-ball stage (238°F; 114°C). Pour into the food processor fitted with the steel blade. Wash the candy thermometer well and reinsert into the syrup. Let the syrup cool undisturbed in the workbowl to 140°F (60°C), about 30 minutes. Remove the thermometer.
Add any coloring or flavoring (vanilla, almond extract, etc.) and process 2 to 3 minutes, until the syrup completely converts from a glassy syrup to an opaque paste. When thoroughly cooled, store sealed at room temperature for 24 hours. Use or refrigerate for later use.
She doesn't tell you, but you will need to heat the fondant over a double boiler before you can use it. The easiest way to frost these is to start with white, "drizzle" a line down the center, then put a fair amount of fondant on your offset spatula, start at the center and pull out to the edge. Have a bowl nearby to scrape your spatula incase you get crumbs in the fondant. Once set, repeat (except the drizzle) with the chocolate fondant. Let set completely, about 8 hours depending on humidity.
Or, finally, you can purchase ready made poured fondant and an unsweetened chocolate base and combine.
Good luck,
Kathi
WOW Kathi...thank you SO much. That is a tremendously helpful post. I'd seen a lot of recipes online, but none seemed quite right. One quick question...if I want to try my hand at making the poured fondant, how do I make it chocolate? Would you add melted chocolate or cocoa powder? And how much? I really appreciate you taking the time to so clearly explain everything! I can't wait to try these!
Hi MOBOGAL,
Sorry! I thought I included that info. After poured fondant is heated (either freshly made or later), stir in unsweetened chocolate to taste. You will also need to add a little water. I would start with 2 oz unsweetened chocolate (for a whole recipe), and then adjust to taste. Also, don't be surprised if you need to add a little water when you reheat the fondant. I usually keep a plate beside the stove so I can test the fondant. Drop a little on a plate and wait a couple of minutes to see if it crusts. If it hardens too much add a little more water, too runny heat longer to let excess evaporate.
If you are a visual person, here is a website that shows the food processor method. Just remove the spaces to get the address since sometimes the links don't work from CC.
http://joepastry. site. aplus.net/ index.php?cat=63
Good luck,
Kathi
P.S. if you are lazy like me or plan to make these on a regular basis, you can buy ready made poured fondant and unsweetened chocolate base from the Peppermill in Brooklyn. They are online at
http://www. thepeppermillinc. com/. They ship anywhere. Just buy twice as much fondant as chocolate base, since you add the base to the fondant. When I used this with the above cookie recipe people swore they came from a NY bakery!
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