Recipe: Vanilla Bean Bakery Black and White Cookies

BLACK AND WHITE COOKIES

"Julia, who grew up in New York City, sent us a dozen of these when we opened the Vanilla Bean Bakery. We thought it was just a thoughtful gift, until she called and informed us that we were required to come up with a recipe for them! We loved them immediately - combining chocolate and vanilla in a single dessert always sounds good to us-and they went right onto the menu. Black-and-whites are a classic New York bakery confection, but they are getting harder and harder to find. Here's our attempt at preservation.

A good black-and-white is sweet and a bit cakey; with iced coffee and a dash of milk, you have the ideal cold contrast."

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon pure lemon extract
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Black and White Icing (recipe follows)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with wax or parchment paper.

Cream the butter in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer) until smooth. Add the granulated sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs, milk, and extracts and mix to combine. Combine the flours, baking powder, and salt and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar-egg mixture and mix to blend.

Using an ice-cream scoop, scoop the dough onto the pans. With the back of a spatula, press and spread each cookie into a circle about 5 inches in diameter and 3/8 inch thick.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden. Let cool on wire racks.

Turn the cooled cookies over, so that the flat bottoms face up. Spread white icing on half of each flat surface, then spread the other half with chocolate icing. Let set at room temperature for 30 minutes.

BLACK AND WHITE ICING

4 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Stir the confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla together until smooth. Transfer half of the icing to another bowl and stir in the cocoa until smooth.

Makes 12 large cookies
Source: Butter Sugar Flour Eggs by Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto and Julia Moskin