This post is dedicated to the famous New York City Black & White cookie. The cookie, pictured below, is a wonderful creation in which, as Jerry Seinfeld puts it, "two races of flavor living side by side."
In the famous Seinfeld episode, "The Dinner Party," Jerry encourages Elaine to "look to the cookie" as a metaphor for race relations. So the way I see, the cookie is like my relationship, how can I not love it?! Although, I must admit, I find I usually eat the white side first, saving the chocolaty, black side for last. The cookie itself was created as a way for bakeries to get rid of leftover cake batter without throwing it out. By tweaking the cake batter a little bit, bakers created a delicious cookie, that is still soft and cake-like. Most bakeries frost it with fondant, you'll see below I used confectioners sugar and water, but the idea is that the frosting will dry hard. This is so when you bite into the cookie, you get the firm frosting mixed with the soft cookie.
I have always loved these cookies, but have never really thought of baking them. That is until I had the idea of making them for St. Patrick's Day and frosting them green and white. In the green frosting, I added white chocolate and food coloring, so the darker side of the cookie still had a chocolate taste. To the white side of frosting, I added a few drops of vanilla extract, to give it some more flavor other than confectioners sugar and water. I also must add, it was very hard to get these cookies into perfect circles. I assumed they would spread into nice circles as they baked, but that was not the case. I will attempt to make them again in the future (with the original black & white coloring), and will try to make better circles when placing them on the baking sheet. Below is the recipe I used, as well as pictures of my final product:
COOKIES
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
Instructions:
-Preheat oven to 350°F.
-Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a cup.
-Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then add egg, beating until combined well.
-Mix in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately in batches at low speed (scraping down side of bowl occasionally), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until smooth. (See my post below on Red Velvet cupcakes for why this is important!)
-Spoon the batter about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet.
-Bake in middle of oven until tops are puffed and pale golden, and cookies spring back when touched, 15 to 17 minutes.
-Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack and chill (to cool quickly), about 5 minutes.
(Cookie recipe is from Epicure: Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Black-and-White-Cookies-106171#ixzz0mzV2yYXU)
FROSTING
1/3 Cup boiling water
4 Cups confectioner's sugar
1 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
-In a large mixing bowl, stir the boiling water into confectioner's sugar. Stir until the mixture is spreadable.
-Separate the mixture into 2 bowls. One bowl will remain the "white" side. **This is the bowl where I added a few drops of vanilla extract for some flavor**
-In the second bowl, stir in the chocolate. **Since I was dying mine green, this is where I added white chocolate and food coloring instead of bittersweet chocolate**
When the the cookies are cool, frost them with flat side up. I frosted first the white side and then the chocolate side (the chocolate would cover up any extra white on the other side). Let the cookies harden. You can stack the cookies with wax paper in between and put them in an airtight container. ENJOY!
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