Alternative names Half-and-half cookie Course Dessert Place of origin United States of America | Type Biscuit Region or state Northeastern states Main ingredients Shortbread, Fondant icing | |
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Similar Shortbread, Fondant icing, Cookie Cake Pie, Rugelach, Snickerdoodle | ||
A black-and-white cookie, or half-and-half cookie, is a soft, sponge-cake-like shortbread which is iced on one half with vanilla fondant, and on the other half by chocolate fondant.
Contents
- Seinfeld black and white cookie
- Names
- History and difference from half moons
- In popular culture
- References
Notably, this style of cookie is often seen as a particularly "New York" snack.
Although bearing a superficial resemblance to black-and-white cookies, half-moon cookies, popular in Central New York, are made to a significantly different recipe. The traditional half-moon cookie is a devil's food cake cookie with buttercream frosting, resulting in a cookie that is richer and moister than the black and white cookie. Half-moon cookies are now also available with a vanilla cookie base.
Seinfeld black and white cookie
Names
Cookies of this style are collectively known as "black-and-white cookies" or "half-and-halves". In Germany they are called "Amerikaner" (Americans). On October 19, 2008, Barack Obama dubbed them Unity Cookies at a deli in Hollywood, Florida.
History and difference from half-moons
The exact origin of the black-and-white cookie is unknown, but it is a variation of its predecessor the half-moon. The half-moon, common in Upstate New York and New England, is believed to be first created in the early 1920s by Hemstrought's Bakery in Utica, New York. It is sometimes confused with the black-and-white cookie but is made with a different recipe. Nonetheless, while the two names are often used interchangeably, there are considerable differences between the two; most notably in the textures of the base and the icing, with black-and-whites having a drier, cookie-like base and fondant frosting. And with the cookie also being bigger than most half-moons.
Half-moons most often come with a chocolate cake base, dark fudge icing on one side and buttercream white frosting for the "half-moon" side. Hemstrought's Bakery also made a vanilla cake base with fudge and buttercream white frosting, as well as full "vanilla moons" , "coconut moons," and custom colors with either a chocolate or vanilla cake base. Hemstrought's Bakeries still bakes half-moons for their customers and local supermarkets.
The typical New York City and Long Island black-and-whites have a vanilla cake base with fudge and white frosting.
In popular culture
Black-and-white cookies are mentioned twice on Seinfeld, set in New York City. In the episode "The Dinner Party", Jerry eats a black-and-white cookie while waiting in a bakery with Elaine. He uses the cookie as a metaphor for racial harmony and that people should "Look to the cookie!" In the episode "The Understudy", the hospitalized Bette Midler asks Kramer for one after she is injured at the softball game, telling him, "If I don't get a black-and-white cookie, I'm not going to be very pleasant to be around!"
Gary Dell'Abate (Babba Booey) of The Howard Stern Show is commonly teased for eating black and white cookies on the air by Sal Governale