By Melissa Clark
Updated Feb. 29, 2024
- Total Time
- 1 hour, plus cooling
- Rating
- 4(1,772)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Tender, moist and scented with vanilla, almond and lemon, these classic confections popular all over the Midwest and the state of New York are more cake than cookie, with a fine crumb and velvet texture from the sour cream in the batter. Even better, they are glazed with both vanilla and chocolate, so you don’t have to pick favorites. These are best eaten within 24 hours of baking, when the cake is at its softest and the glaze at its snappiest. But if you store them in an airtight container at room temperature, they’ll be good for a few days longer.
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Ingredients
Yield:12 to 14 cookies
- 2cups/255 grams all-purpose flour
- 1teaspoon baking powder
- ½teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼teaspoon baking soda
- ⅓cup/80 milliliters sour cream or whole-milk yogurt
- ⅓cup/80 milliliters whole milk
- 2teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- ¼teaspoon almond extract
- ½cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
- ¾cup plus 2 tablespoons/200 grams granulated sugar
- 2large eggs, at room temperature
- 2½cups/300 grams confectioners’ sugar
- Boiling water, as needed
- 1½tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- 2½ounces/70 grams unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
- 2½tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
For the Cookies
For the Glaze
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (13 servings)
402 calories; 12 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 70 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 52 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 174 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Arrange racks in top and bottom thirds, and line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step
2
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sea salt and baking soda. In a medium bowl, whisk together sour cream, milk, vanilla, lemon zest and almond extract.
Step
3
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Step
4
Reduce speed to low and beat in ⅓ of the flour mixture, then ⅓ of the sour cream mixture. Repeat until both mixtures are incorporated, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. (Mixture will be the consistency of thick poundcake batter.)
Step
5
Dollop heaping ¼-cup scoops of batter onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. (You should have 12 to 14 cookies.) Bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets. Continue to bake until the cookies have firmed up and spring back when lightly pressed in the center, 6 to 9 minutes. (They’ll brown only on the bottoms.) Take care not to overbake, or they will dry out.
Step
6
Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and let cool for 15 minutes, then transfer cookies directly to racks to cool completely.
Step
7
While the cookies cool, make the glaze: Place the confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and whisk in 3 tablespoons boiling water, the corn syrup, vanilla and salt. Continue to whisk, adding more boiling water as needed, until you have a thick yet spreadable frosting that is the texture of hot fudge sauce. (Too thick is preferable to too thin.) Flip each cookie over and spoon glaze over half of its flat side, spreading to edges with the back of the spoon. Place on wire rack to set. You will have vanilla frosting left over.
Step
8
Whisk melted chocolate into vanilla frosting, then whisk in cocoa and enough room temperature water to make a thick yet spreadable glaze. Glaze the bare half of each cookie. Let glaze set for at least 1 to 2 hours before serving.
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Cooking Notes
Dvious
Try using your favorite gluten-free all purpose flour and then YOU tell us! Then stop posting this question for every baking recipe you find on the internet.
betteirene
For those of you wondering about the addition of lemon and almond, please watch the video. You'll learn that it's a Russ & Daughters thing. You'll also learn how to adapt recipes. And please, just trust Melissa.
Sjb
Just use vanilla.
Dom
So, I have just a minor switch, that I think better represents the classic NYC B&W that I remember: Instead of putting the lemon in the batter, I put it in the vanilla frosting, so the vanilla side has that faint yet necessary lemony twang.
Awkandel
I thought it would be funny to note that in Germany, these are called Amerikaners, literally, Americans.
Wendy
I agree. I have never seen almond extract in a black and white cookie recipe.
James Caruso
Great recipe, but I still prefer Half Moons from bakeries in Utica NY. The frosting is more of a buttercream and not sweet like a glaze. Definitely worth trying .
Katie
Yes! We call them Half Moon Cookies in upstate New York.
Emily
I am a huge fan of Melissa's and this recipe did not disappoint. I wish Melissa had included an instruction about whether you should spread the (very thick) batter out and try to make it even and round to end up with perfectly round cookies. The only place where I quarrel with the recipe is at the end. I used unsweetened chocolate but felt the chocolate glaze was too bitter. Semi-sweet would be better and use milk not water to thin the glaze.
planer
Try using the microplane the opposite way than shown in the video. You’ll find that by holding the lemon still, with the microplane upside down, and pulling it across the lemon you’ll have much more control. You will get less pith as you can take a lighter pass. It was designed as a wood working tool and you would never see a woodworker pulling the wood across the plane. Give it a try.
eve and ruth
I have tried four or five different black and white cookie recipes, and this is the best one by a mile. I skipped the almond extract and they were perfectly soft and delicious. Everyone loved them.
ANF
Whenever I have to travel on Amtrak via the Penn Station I try to stop at Zaro's Bread Basket for a blackberry and white cookie. Theirs is of the cakey variety with a little lemonade in the batter. Yummy. Their bagels are pretty good too, topped with tuna salad. Makes a good lunch on the train.
Ben Keisler
Watch the video!
Seán
I make these more often than other cookies, and I still follow this recipe almost exactly as-is. The almond and lemon are subtle and make all the difference in the base flavor of the cookie.I have some tremor, so glazing/icing these is stressful to do cleanly. If you find this too, let the vanilla cool and harden before glazing with the chocolate. You can overlap the two and then clean the lines up and it'll hide things nicely.
Yeil
I wanted to know how the cookie would turn out if I wrapped and chilled the batter before baking. They were a bit more plump than the ones made by Melissa. Still really delicious though!
franchi
these are good and really easy to make. only issue i have with them is they’re way too sweet for me. would it drastically change the texture if i reduced the sugar quantity?
Marymac
Can these be frozen?
SBB in the Kitchen
This recipe was fantastic. I am now living in the Pacific Northwest and cannot even remotely find a black-and-white or half moon. This recipe definitely fits the bill. I don’t love the taste of corn syrup in my frosting, that being said, the consistency of the frosting is amazing. It sets very nicely if anyone has any alternativevanilla frosting recommendations I would gladly welcome them. Thank you, Melissa.
Jon Jurow
This recipe is good. HOWEVER she gets the chocolate icing wrong (and, please: spare us your culinary relativism -- some foods do have a RIGHT way to do them). The white side of a proper B&W has crunch to it, but the chocolate side should be slightly rubbery. I suspect (though I haven't tested it out yet) that it should probably be something like a glacage chocolat (ganache + gelatin). Or maybe just a ganache. Don't let 1 additional dirty dish foist mediocrity upon you; you're better than that.
jill
I’ve eaten endless black and white cookies and tried several recipes that haven’t quite done the trick. This one nails it. I think the almond extract is the key — you can’t really taste it specifically but it gives a depth that’s been missing in other versions. Perfect as written, no need to make any changes.
Audrey
The icing stayed sticky and it was impossible to store them in a stack. Did anyone have that problem?
Carrie
Definitely the best recipe I’ve tried so far. Am I mistaken that this must have originally been an Italian cookie? Lemon and almond- it’s gotta be Italian.
Jill
How long did you bake the giant black and white cookie for and did you make it in a cake pan or cheesecake pan for easy release?? I want to attempt that one since I made the smaller version last year and loved them!
lj
Use just about 1/8 tsp of almond extract or just a few drops
Sue Welty
I've made two other recipes for black and white cookies and this one, my third, is the bomb ! They are just perfect, no changes made !The lemon zest is key. It gives a brightness that the other recipes don't have.Love that you only have to make one base frosting and can just add the cocoa and chocolate into the remainder of the white frosting to make the chocolate . So easy and delicious.
Laura
I love these, but each and every time, the chocolate portion seizes as soon as I add the melted chocolate to the leftover vanilla icing. Perhaps the chocolate was still too hot? I will try again!
Sue Welty
Try putting it in the microwave for about 20-25 sec. to thin it out again.
Rob
Mine didn’t rise much. I measured ingredients precisely, butter at room temperature. Correct oven temp. Cookies emerged on the flat side. Any suggestions welcome.
MM
I started off scooping heaping 1/4 cup balls, but I was on track to make about 8 cookies. I then switched to 1/8 cup, but that was too small and the cookies spread too much. Next time I think a little under 1/4 c would be perfect. The cookie itself was great! Texture was cake-y and moist, and the frosting hardened nicely.
E. Bot
Convection oven made the cookies puffier....
Jeri
where is the video mentioned in the comments?
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