Perfect Black and White Cookies Recipe (2024)

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.

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.

Just use vanilla.

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.

I thought it would be funny to note that in Germany, these are called Amerikaners, literally, Americans.

I agree. I have never seen almond extract in a black and white cookie recipe.

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 .

Yes! We call them Half Moon Cookies in upstate New York.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Watch the video!

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.

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!

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?

Can these be frozen?

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.

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.

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.

The icing stayed sticky and it was impossible to store them in a stack. Did anyone have that problem?

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.

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!

Use just about 1/8 tsp of almond extract or just a few drops

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.

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!

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.

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.

Convection oven made the cookies puffier....

where is the video mentioned in the comments?