Black and White Cookie

Despite the fact that I seem to be on a food tour of New York City, I had never tried a famous black and white cookie... until Saturday.

Somewhat unique, however, was that I had a black and white cookie with a black bottom. Apparently this is a speciality at Cranberry's Bakery in Brooklyn Heights. To give a scientific opinion, I guess I should also try a black and white with vanilla cookie. But for now, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. The white frosting balanced with the chocolate cookie and the chocolate chocolate half was decadent. The cake-i-ness reminded me of the scrumptious Berger cookies that you can get in the DC area.

Anyone know where the best traditional black and white is in the city?

Here's the Wikipedia entry about black and whites. Check out the Germany reference:-) Who knew!

"A black and white cookie is a dessert iced on one half with vanilla fondant, and on the other half by dark chocolate fondant. The base is comprised of a soft, sponge cake-like shortbread with a hint of lemon.

The black and white cookie is often seen as a peculiarly "New York" snack, cemented by its appearance in the Seinfeld episode "The Dinner Party", in which Jerry Seinfeld bases his philosophy of race relations on the cookie, saying "look to the cookie."

The black and white cookie also goes by the name half-moon cake in upstate New York and New England. The base is a soft, sponge-like chocolate cookie, not a lemon base. It is believed that Hemstrought's Bakery in Utica, New York was the first worldwide to create this dessert.

In Germany, a variety of the black and white cookie (usually baked with either the "white" or the "black" part only) is called an Amerikaner. Some believe this is because it was imported to Germany by the GIs after WW2. However the true origin is a change in name from Ammoniakaner which it was called because ammonium hydrogen carbonate was used in the recipe."