Making the Perfect Black & White Cookie Recipe | Melissa Clark | NYT Cooking

we are on our final day of
black-and-white cooking and I’m going to
assume that it’s all gonna be perfect
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hi I’m Melissa Clark I’m a food reporter
for the near pipes and I’m on a mission
to develop the best recipe for black and
white cookies I’m a native New Yorker I
grew up in Brooklyn eating black and
white cookies as often as I possibly
could and recently I’ve been going
around trying to figure out what makes
the perfect black and white cookie
there’s so many different shapes and
sizes there’s different icings there’s
different types of cookie bases and I
wanted to come up with a recipe that is
easy enough to make at home that would
just capture the best first things first
I have to go out and try all the cookies
New York City is the home of the black
and white cookie I’m gonna eat a lot of
them and I’m gonna try to discover what
secrets I can take from those cookies
and add to my cookie recipe that donut
club’s really like they’re black white
cookie and then a really good apple
fritter stick this is so big it’s bigger
than I remember
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any tips that you could give me anything
I should be looking at once and
everybody’s are different we like ours
cake here you know a little softer you
know they’re a little higher
good buttermilk you know put buttermilk
in there it gives it a different age I
have known Josh for so many years and
ninety-minute tell me how many years
doing this thank you for constantly
feeding me LOX and black and white
cookies my pleasure our black and white
cookies are made by hand and coated by
we add a little lemon zest secrets now
how do you feed it chocolate side first
vanilla side first what’s your my first
plate is always right in the middle of
the white and the dark it’s funny like
we have these things that Russell
daughters like slicing salmon and making
black and white cookies that are amazing
to watch not so easy to do
okay I just I’m learning something here
I’m learning something always on the
flat side so it doesn’t all drip off
okay different – all right cool why is
there a different chocolate tool than a
vanilla tool the chocolate is what
creates that straight straight line this
is the tough part that edge lays right
in the middle where you want the
straight line and then spreads it out
those are gorgeous
thank you so much they’re a little
crater II in the chocolate okay that’s
kind of cool I object to this but I mean
it really away the time it just needs
more flavor they are frosted on both
sides I’m sorry that’s a cheap
I don’t think I’m gonna make my cookies
this big good frosting good chocolate
flavor you really taste the lemon here
this is a very light cookie red velvet
what do red velvet like a fun idea the
icing has a really good
snappy texture I want a bit of crunch in
every case there is more chocolate than
there I mean I know it should be equal
but if it’s not gonna be equal you need
to err on the side of the chocolate my
daughter actually definitely gonna steal
the flavorings of the cake I think this
is the exact right size it’s about four
inches this is a size that I want that
is a perfect serving for me welcome to
my kitchen
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Carroll from William Greenberg was
saying how she used buttermilk so I
loved that idea
I love the buttermilk idea but I hate
buying buttermilk because you have to
buy an entire court and then you use
like 1/3 of a cup and then what happens
right it sits in your fridge so I
decided that instead I would use 2
things that I always have accommodation
of milk and sour cream or you could use
Greek yogurt
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whenever I develop a recipe always start
by changing only one ingredient or one
technique per recipe because if you
change two things at the same time then
you’re gonna confuse yourself you go
slow and you write everything down
because otherwise I’ll forget it so
these are just uneven but they are soft
and they’re nicely browned on the bottom
and you can see when I break them they
break like a cake not like a cookie
the flavors are too muted I need to go
heavier on the almond heavier on the
lemon I love the flavor of the rest of
Otacon I love the moistness of the
Empire and also of um William greener
and also had a nice moistness of
cakiness so I’m gonna try to get all of
that in this next batch this is a muffin
top pan because it’s a batter I figured
it should have a contained pan right and
then maybe it won’t run all over and
become misshapen like the ones I did
before
that’s enough this is gonna be visually
aesthetically the right look but it’s
worth it was worth a try we’ll save
listen version free
I’m gonna try to make these with a
better shape than the last one so I’m
trying to do recipes with with the home
cook in mind but also with what I want
to do and I actually want to just keep
it as easy and delicious as possible
that intersection between easy and
delicious see these look more black and
white cookie ish but I don’t like the
way that looks or that looks you shall
see so going forward
so my next plan because these these are
perfect I really like I mean they’re
ugly and they’re flat but I like I like
the way they taste better but I still
want them more still want more lemon I
want more almond if I didn’t have a dead
lion I would just keep baking these
forever we are on a final day of black
and white cooking today we’re actually
gonna shoot the how-to video before I
started testing actually thought black
on my cookies are gonna be pretty easy
to do I ended up testing the recipe
about six times they were a little more
challenging I’m not good at getting
really round cookies they come out a
little oblong sometimes they come out a
little splotchy sometimes they look like
Texas but what I’ve noticed is if you
put the frosting on nobody really
notices the shape so I think it’s okay
if the cookies are not perfectly round I
think the only difference between a
black and white cookie batter and just
the regular yellow cake batter is the
amount of liquid because you need a
little less liquid for the batter to
hold its shape on the baking pan the
thing about almond extract a little goes
a long way
whatever your zesting a lemon you just
want to get the yellow outside part
that’s the part that has all the
fragrant oils the white pith underneath
is a little bit bitter so avoid it the
testee was actually super fun my
daughter loved eating them
I loved eating every single cookie or
gave them to my neighbors at one point
my daughter came home from school and we
decorated them all with faces just
because if you turn them on their side
kinda looks like a face so you always
want to go on sluice
to make sure that the sugar gets
moistened then you can raise it to
higher speed otherwise your sugars just
going to come up in your face see how it
looks crumbly right now I want it to be
creamy
I mean business now
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and in this case you actually can’t
overbeat so just until you don’t see any
more flower that’s when you stop you
want something come on you know you do
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that’s good so what was your best I
agree for shaping I mean I just used a
quarter cup measuring thing and a spoon
no oh do we have an ice cream scoop so
this was Vaughn’s idea is a really good
idea I haven’t done it before but right
it makes perfect sense you want round
you start round thank you
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oh it’s so good everybody didn’t think
of this that one’s a little lucky and
then you have to lick your finger cuz
what he gonna do this looks so good
can’t believe after all that I can’t
believe they went out and bought a
muffin top pan I’ve bought a muffin top
pan to make them round like I’ve just
been using an ice cream scoop and now
I’m going to ice and this is very
important you need to frost with a flat
side of it because if you frost the
round side of it all the frosting is
gonna just fall right off and that will
be sad so nervous about doing the
frosting and on camera because I’m
really bad at doing Crossfit
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reason I’m using boiling water instead
of room-temperature water is
confectioner sugar always has lumps in
it and if you use boiling water it
smoothes it out immediately and it’s
just easier to get a nice smooth
beautiful frosting I’m getting better I
have to say just wait till we get to the
chocolate that’s where I’m going to mess
it up
sip thoughts I don’t like the air
bubbles and I think it’s because for
this cookie and maybe this cookie the
icing was a little bit too thick so I
added a little bit more water this is
what you’re looking for slightly you
know I mean is this honey but how would
you describe this texture please let me
know now I’m going to add chocolate and
cocoa to this vanilla batter and turn it
into chocolate batter it’s like magic
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okay so here’s the thing once you get
that line then you’re you’re free and
clear the rest of it easy
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does it cute so now I just have to do it
eleven more times
oh really oh good okay I’m a little bit
proud of myself these really are the
best ones for me really good I got the
lines straight they baked up beautifully
they’re reasonably round but the
question is how do they taste
right so I’m just gonna have to try one
and tell you let’s find out shall we
lemon vanilla soft and cakey I don’t
know if this is the perfect black and
white cookie but it’s pretty darn close
okay it’s perfect so the question is how
does one go about eating a giant black
and white cookie same way you’d eat a
smaller one do I have to share this do
you have thoughts black and white cookie
thumbs other thoughts do you have other
recipes that you would like to see us
make well leave a comment subscribe send
us an email send us a photo I don’t know
I’m just gonna sit here and quietly
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