March 31, 2023
I have been working on recreating the iconic black and white cookies over the last couple of months. Black and white cookies are classic New York City treats. When I lived in New York City, I would see them in bakeries throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. Even so, I’ve only had them occasionally. I still remember my first time taking a bite out of the black and white cookie from Zaro’s Bakery. The soft yet springy cookie topped with a vanilla and chocolate glaze was absolute perfection. It was as if a cookie and a cake had a baby. Whenever I passed by the Amtrak station in Manhattan, I would purposely make a stop at Zaro’s Bakery for one of its black and white cookies. I even served up individually packed versions of black and white cookies from Stern’s Bakery back in 2018 when Kev and I got married in Queens. Needless to say, black and white cookies are as dear to me as some of the more iconic New York City treats. I am, of course, referring to my love of pizza, bagels, and pretzels. Because of how accessible the cookies are, it never even crossed my mind to recreate them. That changed a couple months ago, when I had intense cravings for black and white cookies. While the options around me were sufficient, I really missed the version of black and white cookies from Zaro’s Bakery. I remember distinctly the mega size, the strong vanilla flavor of the cookie base and the balance of chocolate and vanilla glaze coated over the top of the cookie. In reality, the glaze actually coated the bottom of the cookies since they’re flipped over after baking. Either way, the glaze is an essential element of the black and white cookie. I decided it was time to try and recreate a classic black and white cookie. I scoured the web for sources on what actually went into the black and white cookies at Zaro’s Bakery and ended up watching one too many YouTube videos as I gathered information. I then shifted to developing and testing out the cookie recipe. I tested different ratios of ingredients and kept close notes of each iteration. After multiple tries and feedback from Kev and my mom, I finally settled on my preferred version. I found that a combination of cake flour and all-purpose flour yielded the perfect black and white cookies. Cake flour provided the cookies with tenderness, while all-purpose flour provided the cookies with structure. Adding just vanilla extract was not enough to give the cookie the extra oomph it needed and so I took a page from Stern’s Bakery and folded lemon zest into the batter. Other ingredients for the cookies included butter, sugar, honey, kosher salt, egg, sour cream, baking powder, and milk. I learned that many of these ingredients were necessary for helping the cookies stay moist, and they were essential in the version from Zaro’s. A couple tablespoons of pureed strawberries folded into the batter made these cookies exceptional. The addition of pureed strawberries yielded a tangy, sweet cookie with a fresh strawberry flavor. To appease all the cookie lovers in our home, I created three options for the glaze to top the cookies with. The simple glaze consisted of pairing black and white, black and pink, and white and pink for three varieties of cookies. The white part of the cookie came from a simple glaze made with confectioners’ sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla extract. The black part of the cookie came from the addition of cocoa powder. The pink part of the cookie came from the pureed strawberries. I baked and decorated a batch of these cookies for Valentine’s Day last month as a treat for my family. I even reserved a pink and white version as a smash cookie for Z. Z couldn’t quite figure out how to taste the cookie, but she sure did have a good time smashing the cookie with her fingers. Only time will tell if these cookies will be a home run for her. Enjoy these cookies as my nod to New York City with a twist.
For the strawberry black and white cookies:
(yields 10 large cookies)
For the cookies:
· 1 cup all-purpose flour
· 1 cup cake flour
· ½ teaspoon baking powder
· ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
· ¾ cup granulated sugar
· 2 tablespoons honey
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· 1 large egg, room temperature
· ¼ cup sour cream
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· 2 tablespoons whole milk
· 2 tablespoons pureed strawberries, strained to remove seeds
· zest from a small lemon
For the glaze:
· 1½ cups confectioners’ sugar, plus additional as needed
· 1 tablespoon corn syrup
· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
· pureed strawberries, strained to remove seeds, as needed
· 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, plus additional as needed
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper. Set aside.
2) In a bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and baking powder. Set aside.
3) In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on low speed. Gradually add the granulated sugar, honey, and kosher salt. Add in the egg, sour cream, and vanilla extract. Beat all ingredients until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides as needed. Slowly add in half of the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and baking powder (the dry ingredients). Add in half of the whole milk and pureed strawberries (the wet ingredients). Add in the remaining dry ingredients and wet ingredients. Sprinkle in the lemon zest. Beat until the batter is fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
4) Use a large ice cream scoop to scoop up the batter for each cookie. The batter will be thick at this stage. Use a straight edge from a knife to level the batter. Drop the scoops of batter onto the baking sheet lined with parchment about an inch apart from one another. I was able to fit eight scoops of batter on a large baking sheet.
5) Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake at 350°F for 15 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies cool fully before glazing, about an hour.
6) After the cookies have cooled, make the glaze by combining the confectioners’ sugar, corn syrup and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. If making just black and white glazed cookies, start with the vanilla glaze and frost half of the cookies beginning in the center of the cookies with the vanilla frosting. Fold in the cocoa powder and mix until well combined. Frost the other half of the cookies with the chocolate glaze again starting at the center.
*If making all three glazes (vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry), divide the glaze into three parts. Reserve one part for just vanilla. Mix in cocoa powder into the second part for the chocolate glaze. Add in pureed strawberries into the third part and additional confectioners’ sugar as needed to thicken the glaze for the strawberry version. Frost as many cookies with each of the desired glazes to your heart’s content.
Takeaways: I tested out a variety of ratios for the ingredients above and flavor profiles when testing out these cookies. When I just used vanilla extract in the cookies, they seemed to be missing something. The vanilla extract itself just gave the cookies a hint of vanilla instead of a stronger vanilla flavor like the black and white cookies from Zaro’s Bakery. I may try adding in vanilla paste instead in a future batch for a stronger vanilla flavored cookie base. I found the addition of lemon zest to really add something special to the cookies. I may even add both vanilla paste and lemon zest in a future batch. The addition of the pureed strawberries added a nice touch to the cookies and gave the cookies a fruity flavor. The best part about these cookies is how easy it is to customize the cookies to one’s liking.
For the black and white cookie purists, the two tablespoons of pureed strawberries can be omitted and replaced with two more tablespoons of whole milk to yield the traditional, classic black and white cookies.