A280422
Black and Whites are a New York City tradition, well known and loved on the east coast but they never really migrated fully coast to coast. Full disclosure -- I never saw the magic of the popularity. I have tried several over many years, from bakeries and homemade, and always thought the chocolate and vanilla icing made them visually interesting but generic tasting. That's history now!
Two new variations on the recipe : adding trendy-again browned butter, and fresh orange zest and flavoring - make a world of flavor difference. They're fast and simple, and the missing flavor emerged.
Preheat oven to 350 and line flat cookie pans with parchment.
Brown the butter: melt 5 TB salted butter on med-high heat, then simmer 3-4 minutes, not stirring, just wait til the bottom looks golden brown. Don't overcook! If you do, start over. Pour it into a small bowl to cool. In another smallish bowl, whisk 1/4c heavy cream, 1 egg and 1 egg white, the grated zest of 1 orange,and tsp vanilla. In the bowl of a standing mixer with a paddle, combine 1 3/4 c cake flour* with 1 c sugar, 1 tsp baking powder,1/2 tsp kosher salt.. With the mixer on low, pour in the cooled butter and mix 10 seconds. Still on low, pour in the cream mixture.
Drop mounds of dough onto parchment paper on a baking sheet. For about 36 2" mini cookies, use 1 TB. Double that for about 18 bigger cookies. Leave 3" between cookies. Mini cookies will bake in 8-10 minutes, bigger ones in 10-13 minutes. Don't let them brown at all, bake only til the very edges just begin to look a bit brown. Leave them on the pan for one minute to let them set up just a tad, then remove to cool. They'll stick to the pan if left on too long. Cool on a wire rack.
When its time to do the easy icing, whisk 3 TB heavy cream with 2 TB white corn syrup, 1/2 tsp orange extract, and 2 to 2- 1/2 c powdered sugar. When smooth, put half in another bowl and add 2 TB cocoa powder and 1 TB white corn syrup to that bowl. Whisk til smooth.
IMPORTANT: flip the cookies over before icing. Then spread half of each cookie's flat side with the two colors of icing. The icing will harden after 20-30 minutes.
* to make cake flour, just mix 1/4c cornstarch well with 1 3/4 c flour.
