What's The Difference Between Black And White And Half-Moon Cookies?
When we see or read the words black and white, we might think of a noir TV or movie from yesteryear, or of a person who sees everything in terms of black and white with no gray areas as in right and wrong. Rich and poor. Happy and sad. Big and small. Good and evil. In the world of food, this could translate to — you may have guessed — chocolate and vanilla.
And some of you immediately might think of ice cream, while others will envision New York City's famous black and white cookies and their Central New York (upstate) counterpart, half-moon cookies. They're a case of two cookies that look similar on the surface but are quite different — with lots of gray area for debate (per The Takeout). A New Yorker might tell you that a half-moon is more like a cupcake, and not appreciate its thick coating of two-toned buttercream-style frosting. An upstate New Yorker might counter that a black and white cookie is flat, thinly iced, and without distinction. (And even though they both hail from the Empire State, they're not considered the state's best cookie.)
Black and whites and half-moons: Two iconic cookies
If you're a New Yorker of a certain age, you no doubt grew up munching black and whites, at least on occasion. Unless you're Herb Glaser, who had the good fortune to eat black and whites daily. Glaser's family opened the Glaser Bake Shop in New York in 1902 and black and white cookies were a specialty of the house at the bakery on the Upper East Side until it closed in 2018 (per Eater). "When I was growing up, I'd have two of them for dessert every day,” Glaser told The New York Times in 1998. "I was a fat kid.”
Black and whites are pretty much like their name suggests: Beneath a sleek topping that's one-half chocolate and one-half vanilla is a somewhat flat, vanilla-flavored cookie with a cake-like texture. The icing is considered to be more fondant or royal icing than buttercream (per Thrillist). Half-moon cookies, a staple item in Central New York bakeries and grocery stores, originated at Hemstrought's Bakery in Utica more than a century ago (per Spectrum News). Most scratch bakeries and supermarkets in the region have their own version of the celebrated cookie and offer both vanilla and chocolate cookie bases (per Syracuse.com). Think of them as a sort of hand-held cake: half-moons can be dense and domed on the bottom and tend to be very soft.
DIY black and whites and half-moons
If you've read this far, you might have the sudden urge to eat a black-and-white cookie or half-moon cookie — or to whip up a batch of each. Great idea. These best-of-both-worlds cookies will no doubt stimulate conversation and satisfy both the vanilla and chocolate fans in your life.
When "Seinfeld,” a sitcom known for its New York City flavor and a cast of characters, went off the air in 1998, a New York Times story paid tribute to the show and its famous mention of black and whites by including a recipe for the cookies. There's a hint of lemon in the cookie base, and both sides of the icing are painted on with a brush. More recently, the Times' food reporter, Melissa Clark, noshed on black and white cookies all over the city — big and small, thick and thin — in the interest of research and creating her own "perfect” recipe for black and whites (per YouTube).
Half-moon cookies had a moment in the food magazine Saveur in 1999, and a drastically downsized version of the original Hemstrought's Bakery recipe was included (the original recipe yielded a massive 2,400 cookies). The Saveur recipe is for half-moons with a chocolate bottom.