Black and white cookie
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Origin | |
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Alternative name(s) | Half-and-half cookie |
Place of origin | United States |
Region or state | Northeastern states |
Details | |
Course served | Dessert |
Type | Biscuit |
Main ingredient(s) | Shortbread, fondant |
A black-and-white cookie, or half-and-half cookie, is a soft, sponge-cake-like shortbread which is iced on one half with vanilla fondant, and on the other half by chocolate fondant. It is similar to a neenish tart, although neenish tarts are filled with a cream center, whereas a black-and-white cookie is not.
Notably, this style cookie is often seen as a particularly "New York" snack.[1]
Although bearing a superficial resemblance to black-and-white cookie, half-moon cookies, popular in Central New York, are made to a significantly different recipe. The traditional half-moon cookie is a devil's food cake cookie with buttercream frosting, resulting in a cookie that is richer and moister than the black and white cookie. Half-moon cookies are now also available with a vanilla cookie base.[2]
Contents
Names
Cookies of this style are collectively known as "black-and-white cookies" or "half-and-halfs". In Germany they are called "Amerikaner" (American).[3] On October 19, 2008, Barack Obama dubbed them Unity Cookies at a deli in Hollywood, Florida.[4][5]
History and difference from half-moons
The exact origin of the black-and-white cookie is unknown.[6] The half-moon common in Upstate New York and New England is sometimes confused with the black-and-white cookie but is made with a different recipe. Nonetheless, while the two names are often used interchangeably, there are considerable differences between the two; most notably in the textures of the base and the icing, with black-and-whites having a drier, cookie-like base and fondant frosting. And with the cookie also being bigger than most half-moons.[7]
Half-moons most often come with a chocolate cake base, dark fudge icing on one side and sugary white frosting for the "half-moon" side. Hemstrought's Bakery in Utica, New York, one of the earliest known bakeries to make the half-moon cookie, also made a vanilla cake base with fudge and white frosting, as well as full "vanilla moons" and "coconut moons," with either a chocolate or vanilla cake base. The original Hemstrought's half moons bakery closed their doors in 2011; they, however, still bake half-moons for local supermarkets, where they are still available.[8][9]
The typical New York City and Long Island black-and-whites have a vanilla cake base with fudge and white frosting.
In popular culture
Black-and-white cookies are mentioned twice on Seinfeld, set in New York City. In the episode "The Dinner Party", Jerry eats a black-and-white cookie while waiting in a bakery with Elaine. He uses the cookie as a metaphor for racial harmony and that people should "Look to the cookie!"[10] In the episode The Understudy, the hospitalized Bette Midler asks Kramer for one after she is injured at the softball game, telling him, "If I don't get a black-and-white cookie, I'm not going to be very pleasant to be around!"[11]
See also
References
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- ↑ The Black and White Cookie Meets the Amerikaner | Beyond Burgers and Bratwurst
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