"Black and whites" are a New York City speciality. It is an unusual cookie because the cookie part is more cake-like than cookie-like-- almost a very dense yellow cake with a light lemon flavor. The distinctive frosting is half vanilla/lemon, half chocolate. A couple of weeks ago I had a craving for these treats and dug up a Martha Stewart recipe. I stopped by Sur La Table to pick up a small ice cream scoop, which is necessary to get the perfectly round shape. The saleswoman warned me that the frosting on black and whites was tricky. The batter was easy enough to put together, but needed an hour to sit undisturbed in the fridge while the flour absorbed the liquid. Bad news because I started making the cookies at 9:00pm!
I was very happy when the cookies finally came out of the oven. Perfectly round, smooth, and a golden yellow color. The frosting itself was not too difficult, but just took a little care and patience to let one half dry before starting the next half. I could hardly wait until they were dry enough to eat one!
Once the cookies were dry, I took one and eagerly took a bite. Blech! The lemon extract in the cookie batter and vanilla frosting gave the cookies a somewhat alcoholic, astringent flavor. I was somewhat discouraged, but decided to let the cookies rest overnight in the time-honored Koyama baked goods storage center-- the microwave (door closed, of course).
The next morning I decided to try the cookies again. After eating a healthy (ha!) breakfast of cherries and Triscuits, I did another taste test. I was happy to note that the lemon flavor had mellowed, and the cookies no longer had the unpleasant taste of pure alcohol. The chocolate side was yummy-- very chocolately. However, I was disappointed in the cookie part. I didn't think it had enough flavor, and was not enough to stand up to the strongly flavored icing, which was right on. I will have to research other recipes to see if I can improve the cookie. Martha let me down
3 comments:
Even if the taste wasn't exactly right, they looked *very* official and worthy of being called a black and white. Maybe there is a good recipe from America's Test Kitchen?
I think you could improve the recipe Using some grated lemon rind and some real lemon juice next time.
Try it for both in the cookie dough and the white icing part.
Otherwise I found you this, but haven't tried it myself:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/BLACK-AND-WHITE-COOKIES-106171
paula
I second the lemon zest comment and add that no martha recipe is ever perfect-I always here people tweek them, they never turn out right. I think it's a plan to have you keep watching her show so you think you are learning more...
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