Black & White Cookies are amazing - there’s the soft, cakey cookie part and the rich smooth frostings – the combination makes me pick them up as often as I can. As I never thought about baking them before, I thought they would be the perfect addition to my list of things to make while I’m 30! It’s just over halfway for me to 31 now, and I’ve been slacking off a bit on my list in favor of other things that have come to mind, like homemade (wal)nutella and buffalo chicken dip, which is I suppose the peril of making a list of things you plan to make over the course of the next 365 days. Of course when I made the list, I didn’t really think that I should probably keep my pastry intake to a minimum – but, well, one has to do what one has to do when it comes to making all 30 things on my list. So here I am, catching up and baking Black and White Cookies. The recipe I made was adapted from a few places – but primarily from Smitten Kitchen, and from David Lebowitz’s latest cookbook, Ready for Dessert. I wasn’t sure about the recipe for the frosting from the Smitten Kitchen one – it just seemed like it would be too liquidy to me – and my frostings usually tend to err on the liquidy side to begin with. I opted instead for the Lebowitz frostings, using the Smitten Kitchen cookie. These cookies were fantastic: soft and chewy with creamy frosting – I can’t get enough of them!
Black and White Cookies
adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Ready for Dessert, by David Lebowitz
For the cookies:
- 1 scant cup granulated sugar
- 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cups milk
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 and 1/4 cups cake flour
- 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
For the frosting:
- 2 cups, plus 2 tbsp powdered sugar or more if needed
- 2 tsp, plus 2 tsp light corn syrup
- 1/4 tsp lemon extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp water, plus more if needed
- 3 tbsp Dutch process cocoa powder
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a stand mixer cream together butter and granulated sugar until fluffy and light. Add in eggs, milk and extracts, mixing thoroughly. In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones, until the dough is formed. (Be careful not to overmix, so the cookies don’t become tough.) Drop by the tablespoon onto the parchment lined pans – these will bake into approximately 2 inch cookies. Bake for 18-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cookies are lightly golden at the edges. Cool completely on a wire rack.
For the frostings – mix together 2 cups of powdered sugar, 2 tsp of the corn syrup, extracts, and 3 tbsp of water until smooth. Divide this mixture into two portions. In one of the portions, stir in the cocoa powder until smooth – if this is too dry, add water in very small increments (1/2 teaspoon at a time) stirring after each addition until smooth. To the other portion of frosting, stir in the remaining 2 tbsp of powdered sugar. Spread chocolate frosting on one half of the cookie, and the white frosting on the other half. Enjoy!
[...] Black and White Cookies [...]