Before debating the best Black and White Cookie recipe I need to say something: I don’t like Black and White Cookies! Pioneer Woman said it best when she called this the “cookie created by indecisive people for indecisive people.” And this inspired me to create a better black and white cookie (aka Half Moon Cookie or Harlequin depending what region of the country you’re in).
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Why I don’t like Black & White Cookies
0:49 My changes to the NY Times Black & White Cookie Recipe
1:14 Crack an egg with one hand
1:29 Science of eggs in baking
1:55 Tips to refine the texture & flavors
3:21 How to extract vanilla bean paste from a vanilla bean
4:22 History of the Black & White Cookie
5:23 How to create “Sprinkle Butts”
6:16 Baking Tip: Types of cookie pans & how they affect cookie baking
7:22 How to make better black & white cookie icing
10:49 Taste test: NY Times Black & White Cookie vs. My Version
The traditional style Black and White is a cakey cookie flavored with vanilla, almond and lemon extract, and covered in a thick chocolate and vanilla fondant style icing. The cookie bottom is actually the cookie top that’s frosted in it’s iconic black and white icing, and the cookie tops are the bottom.
Every time I’ve been seduced by one of these cookies I’ve been underwhelmed. There are DIE HARD fans of this cookie who will fight me that these cookies are the GOAT (greatest of all time). I disagree. Yet here I am, making Black and White Cookies on a quest to understand what it is I don’t like about this imposter cookie and how to make it better for my taste.
I started with the NYT Cooking recipe for Perfect Black and White Cookies by Melissa Clark as my base recipe for reference and started adjusting from there.
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Hello and welcome to baking with chickens i’m christina today i am going to tackle the classic black and white cookie i’m going to say something really controversial i don’t like black and white cookies i don’t like black and white cookies she doesn’t like black and white cookies they’re not
Actually a cookie it’s a weird cake cookie thing it’s too sweet there’s too many flavors going on it doesn’t work i hate it before you want to stab me with your pitchforks on fire new yorkers get hurt yeah get her burn her kitchen down yeah i
Get why you like the cookie but i think it could be improved so i’m gonna up your entire recipe and do my version i think you’ll like it sprinkle butt sprinkle but let’s make this cookie better how about just make it not disgusting
Stick around i’ll show you how i did it block buff fake let’s go here is the original new york times version of the recipe here is my version of the recipe you can see the difference first things first i’m gonna stick to the same butter and less sugar i cut the sugar because
It was just way too sweet in the original recipe from three quarter cups to a half cup of sugar and i added an extra pinch of salt to help offset it I’m gonna crack an egg with one hand one two yeah look at that Fresh eggs make a huge difference you want room temp eggs they will make a difference in your bake why are eggs so important eggs play a very specific role eggs actually provide lift and rise to your baked goods the egg yolks provide a certain richness that’s why you add eggs to your baked
Goods it’s a chemical process and it comes out of my butt if you like this video don’t forget to hit like and subscribe what i find really strange about black and white cookies is the mix of lemon zest and almond extract and vanilla it’s like one too many things it just tastes wrong
What i decided to do was to take out the almond extract and instead to add the nuttiness i took out half a cup regular flour and used a half a cup of almond flour instead i’m going to take my salt add it to my flour mixture baking soda
And baking powder and whisk it together the other key here to your black and white cookies is milk and sour cream sour cream is the secret because it’s that tanginess that’s going to add extra flavor and fat i’m using whole milk but you could also do any milk substitute like a full fat
Coconut and then lemon zest i’m just going to zest it directly into here with my fancy new microplane zester courtesy of dece dice dece this is my first adult microplane and i love it it’s so good it’s so much better than the crappy one i used to use
If you want to pick up this microplaner i’ll drop a link for it in the description below it’s available on amazon the original recipe called for vanilla extract which i normally don’t have a problem with but i have these beautiful tahitian vanilla beans this is a very large
Giant vanilla bean normally when you get them from the grocery store they’re like this big so two of the small ones or one big one would be perfectly sufficient I’m going to show you how to get the vanilla bean paste out of a vanilla bean pod so you’re going to take this big one trim off the ends so you’re going to find this kind of like a hollow piece because it’s like a straw it’s just
Flattened and dry and i’m going to cut a slit down the side i’m just splicing it open and flatten it with my knife inside of this are all of these beautiful vanilla bean seeds to get these out you just need to take your knife flip it over use the back of your knife
To scrape here’s the beautiful vanilla beans and i’m going to just drop it in my milk so i’m going to save this pod for later because i’m going to use this to infuse some of the milk that i’m going to use for the icing stir this together a little bit so now
We’re going to add the dry and the liquid ingredients a little bit at a time to incorporate into this batter so i’m going to put it on low and start adding i love the little vanilla bean specks i think it looks really pretty i think it’s going to change the flavor of this So the black and white cookie actually came to america in 1902 and it was introduced by bavarian immigrants in new york in manhattan so that’s why you see black and white cookies all over new york city and all over manhattan they were brought by bavarian bakers introduced to new york and
Everybody went crazy over it also during that time black and white things were really popular in pop culture so black and white tiles subway tiles those like penny tiles so that’s why you saw a lot of these black and whites the cool thing is in new york city they’re called black and
White cookies in upstate new york they’re called half moons and in the midwest they’re called harlequins harlequins nope so i’ve got my cookie sheets lined with silicone mats you can also line them with parchment paper i’m not making these too large i don’t like those huge cookies if you
Like big ones get a big ice cream scoop all good whatever you want to do My friend nosh with tosh made these cookies with sprinkle butts so the cool thing is the tops of these cookies are actually going to be the bottoms of the cookies so if i put sprinkles on top now i’m going to frost the bottom of the cookies so the tops become the bottoms
Therefore sprinkle butts i love what she did i thought it was so fun and creative and it just makes a boring black black and white cookie more festive because everything is better with sprinkles we have sprinkle butts i have these awesome fancy sprinkles and these rainbow non perils from cake craft so
Because i’m baking them into the oven they are gonna bleed into the batter a little bit but that’s okay so i’m gonna pop these into the oven for six minutes at 375. flip it over so that they bake evenly and then bake it for another six minutes Also something to note the type of pan you’re using is going to affect how long it bakes for so this type of cookie sheet that has like the air bake layer is go not going to cook your bottom part as fast so if you have something like macarons or these
Where you really need the bottoms to cook up or else they stick these are going to need a little bit more time than just like a flat metal baking sheet so the other pan that i’m using is a flat baking sheet and those are going to cook
Faster so this is the example of the type of pan that the bottoms are going to bake faster than the air bake pans so i’m going to let them cool on the pan for a little bit for them to kind of stiffen up before i
Take them off and put them on a cooling rack let’s go visit the chickens and i’m going to bring them a little snack So let’s get these onto my cooling racks look how cute these little sprinkle butt cookies turned out while these finish cooling i’m going to make the icing the original recipe said to use boiling water to help melt it and give it that shine and then other recipes
Had milk so i decided to use oat milk because it’s not quite dairy but it’s got a creaminess to it and i think it’ll be really good and i want to infuse my vanilla flavor with my leftover vanilla pod instead of the extract so i need some
Fat to help carry that flavor so i’m going to heat this up and take my leftover vanilla pods that i have here so i’m butterflying them open and just putting them face down into the milk put it on low heat just to simmer while that’s happening i am going to
Chop up unsweetened chocolate and melt it in my double boiler and i’m going to keep it on some heat to keep it melted and leave it here to make the vanilla portion of the frosting we’re going to need all of this confectioners sugar which is why this entire thing is so sugary to
Begin with and i’m going to add a large pinch of salt the original recipe said to use light corn syrup now corn syrup is really important because the corn syrup is what adds that shininess to the fondant style icing and gives it that texture but corn syrup is kind of nasty stuff
And i’m not a big fan i’m going to use agave instead of corn syrup to try to give it that shininess the original recipe had one and a half tablespoons of corn syrup so i’m just gonna do a little bit less than one tablespoon and see how it goes oh agave syrup is
Also a really great secret to mr bacon chickens loves making and agave syrup is his secret to how to make not hot just so you know i’m gonna edit that part out you’re not giving away my secret you guys did you just hear what he said he will not
Share his secret he’s so upset at me so i got my agave look at this beauty so here’s my infused vanilla oat milk nice and vanilla-y it’s got those vanilla beans in there now let’s ice these beautiful babes and take cookie flip it over and just ice the back
Yeah this is so much better than the original it has that real vanilla flavor it’s not too sugary it’s like oh so much better come back to the stove with me i’m gonna take this vanilla icing and scoop it into my double boil i’m trying to cut the sugar and the
Sweetness so i like the dark better than regular all of it’s unsweetened the only sugar in it is from the confectioners sugar The flavor of this chocolate which is different than the original recipe in the new york times is that because i’m using dark chocolate it’s got a bittersweet taste to it it isn’t as sweet it’s got a really nice chocolaty flavor i’m taking the flat part of the spatula
And my chocolate and pouring it on drying this line and then filling out the rest So taste test time how’d i do super awesome so the cookie is definitely a lot thinner so i like the texture of it because it’s not as cakey the cookie itself is less sweet which is great but it has a nice little crisp on the edge i like that super wet Five stars i would love if you did your own comparison all the people who hate black and white cookies tell me what you think for all of you who love black and white cookies and i am bastardizing your childhood classic tell me what you think about these
I would love to know if you feel the original ones are better than mine or vice versa thank you for watching until next time i’m christina that’s miles and my trash panda muffin