Classic black and white cookies are a mainstay of New York City shops and bakeries. Bursting with vanilla flavor and boasting a super soft texture, these large cake-like cookies are topped with thick vanilla and chocolate icings.
This New York City-style black and white cookie recipe comes from the highly talented, knowledgeable, and influential team over at America’s Test Kitchen. The first time I worked with them was to help promote their Naturally Sweet cookbook a while back.
ATK’s latest cookbook, The Perfect Cookie, is dedicated to something we ALL have in common: a deep love for cookies. There’s 250 cookie, brownie, and bar recipes packed inside!
Tell Me About these Black and White Cookies
- Texture: These are super soft and cakey cookies with a thick, creamy icing. The combination of cocoa powder and milk make the icing thinner than the coating on peanut butter half moon cookies, and it crackles when you bite into it like the glaze on these glazed doughnuts and chocolate pop tarts.
- Flavor: The cookie itself has the flavor of basic vanilla cake, but the icing is the star here. Thick, sugary sweet, and of course vanilla and chocolate flavor.
- Ease: Don’t be intimidated! This black and white cookie recipe is a lot easier than I originally thought. You’ll need a few special ingredients like corn syrup and sour cream, but the rest of the ingredients are probably already in your pantry.
- Time: There’s only about 25 minutes of prep work, but you’ll need to let the icing set so the icings don’t run together. The great news is that this cookie dough doesn’t require any dough chilling. See all of our no cookie dough chilling recipes including our giant chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, and shortbread cookies.
Recipe Testing: What Works & What Doesn’t
What I love most about ATK’s The Perfect Cookie cookbook—and what I know you’ll appreciate as well—is the comprehensive breakdown of each recipe. Why it works, how it works, tips, tricks, lessons, troubleshooting, and more. It’s the book for the baking nerd in all of us. Here are a few of the things that really worked in these black and white cookies:
- All-purpose flour: America’s Test Kitchen tried to make these cookies with cake flour at first (because they are supposed to be cake-like cookies), but the cake flour made the cookies too crumbly. For best results, use all-purpose flour.
- Salt: After I tried my first test batch, I found the cookies to be cloyingly sweet. Obviously they’re intended to be sugary cookies, but increasing the salt to 1/4 teaspoon helped balance out that sweetness.
- Sour cream: We’re confident sour cream is the secret to perfect homemade black & white cookies. This ingredient creates that iconic texture. It also reacts with the baking soda to produce enough lift in the cookies. (You’ll also need baking powder. Remember the differences between baking powder vs baking soda and why some recipes call for both?)
Overview: How to Make Homemade Black and White Cookies
The full printable recipe is below, but let’s walk through it quickly so you understand each step before we get started.
- Whisk dry ingredients together. This includes flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix wet ingredients together. Cream butter + sugar together first, then add eggs + vanilla extract.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream. Expect a very thick batter/dough.
- Scoop + bake. Using a greased ¼-cup dry measuring cup, scoop 1 mound of dough per cookie onto your baking sheet (no more than 6 cookies per sheet). Bake until the edges are lightly browned.
- Make the vanilla icing. Whisk confectioners’ sugar + 6 Tablespoons of the milk + corn syrup + vanilla extract + salt.
- Make the chocolate icing. Transfer 1 cup of the vanilla icing to a separate bowl. Whisk in the remaining 1 Tablespoon of milk + cocoa powder to make it chocolate.
- Frost the cookies. Using the flat side of the cooled cookies, spread vanilla icing on one half, and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Then spread chocolate icing on the other half and refrigerate for 1 hour until completely set.
So, which half of the black and white cookie do you prefer—the chocolate or the vanilla? Get your ingredients ready because we’re about to find out!
Homemade Black & White Cookies Video Tutorial
Print
Black and White Cookies
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours (includes icing setting)
- Yield: 12 large cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
From the cooks at America’s Test Kitchen, here is a carefully tested and surprisingly easy homemade recipe for New York City style black and white cookies.
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), or more as needed, see note*
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 10 Tablespoons (142g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup (80g) full-fat sour cream, at room temperature*
Icing
- 5 and 1/2 cups (660g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted (measure before sifting)
- 7 Tablespoons (105ml) whole milk, divided
- 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 Tablespoons (15g) unsweetened natural or dutch-process cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract, and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine. Reduce to low speed and add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with the sour cream. Beat everything on low until combined and no pockets of flour remain. Batter is extremely thick.
- Using a greased 1/4-cup dry measuring cup, drop mounds of dough 4 inches apart on prepared baking sheets—6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
- Make the icings: Whisk the confectioners’ sugar, 6 Tablespoons milk, the corn syrup, vanilla extract, and salt together in a medium bowl. Transfer 1 cup to a separate bowl, add remaining Tablespoon of milk and the cocoa powder. Whisk until combined.
- Spread vanilla icing onto half of the cookies—the flat side. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or until set so that the icings do not bleed into each other. Spread chocolate icing onto other side and allow the icing to set completely, about 1 hour, before serving.
- Cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You’ll want to bake this cookie dough right away as the baking powder is initially activated once wet. You can, however, bake the cookies in step 4, cool completely, cover tightly, and store at room temperature for up to 3 days before continuing with step 5. Frosted or unfrosted cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before serving or frosting.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Icing Spatula
- Room Temperature: Room temperature ingredients are important. The butter will curdle if some of the batter ingredients are colder than it.
- Batter Consistency: If your batter isn’t super thick– thick somewhere between cookie dough and pancake batter- try adding an extra 2-3 Tablespoons of flour before scooping and baking. The cookies spread too much if the batter isn’t thick enough.
- Sour Cream: Use full-fat sour cream in this cookie batter. Full-fat plain Greek yogurt works as well, but you’ll get the most tender texture from sour cream.
- Cocoa Powder: You can use either natural-style or dutch-process cocoa powder in the icing. It doesn’t matter since there is no leavening occurring. (Here’s more on Dutch processed vs natural cocoa powder.) I prefer dutch-process or a darker cocoa like Hershey’s Special Dark.
- Recipe reprinted in partnership with ATK from The Perfect Cookie
I was very disappointed with this cookie. Usually, I compare different recipes when I haven’t baked something before. But I trust Sally’s recipes and it had the added plus of being an American Test Kitchen recipe. So I just baked it.
The cookies themselves were good but the icing was almost three times as much sugar as any other recipe I came across The cookies were sickeningly (literally I got sick) sweet. I’m going to try this cookie again with 2 cups of confectioners sugar instead of 5.5. Also other recipes called for a little grated lemon and almond extract. I think this would have made the cookies much better and the icing more flavorful.
Hi Carolyn, thank you so much for your feedback on this recipe. I think it’s time I develop my own recipe for this, and for the icing. There have been many who are giving the same feedback as you. I’m sorry this recipe was disappointing.
I love these cookies and so do my grandkids. But inevitably 2-3 cookies spread out and get flat. Why does that happen? I whisked the dry ingredients
Hi Kathleen, it sounds like your cookie dough may have been too soft, perhaps from butter that’s a bit warmer than room temperature. Here are some tips to help keep cookies from spreading!
Are you scraping down the edges of the bowl regularly while mixing? If some cookies have bits where the butter is not very well mixed, as would happen if the bowl were not frequently scraped during mixing, the extra buttery bits would spread much more than the well-mixed parts. Because it’s only happening to a few cookies, the temperature of the butter does not sound like a very likely explanation to me; that would affect all the cookies.
Very disappointed. I agree do not taste like the black and white cookies I have had in NY. Cookies should have a cake like texture and should be puffy. I weighed my confectioner’s sugar but icing came out like plaster, not think like picture.
Hi! When I baked the cookies, they didn’t flatten out, more just puffed up. Did I do something wrong?
Hi Annie! That could be caused by too much flour in the cookie dough. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
This came out great when I made them before and I’m excited to make again for my granddaughter’s birthday.
I am planning on making the cookies in advance, freezing them, then traveling with them and doing the icing the day before the party. Can I travel with already mixed up icing? Can the icing be made ahead then painted on 1 d or 2 later? Or so I have to travel with all the ingredients?
Hi Gayle, you can freeze the iced cookies (see recipe notes) if that would be easier! Otherwise, icing can be made ahead up to two days if stored in the refrigerator – cover it tightly so it doesn’t form a crust.
All the other recipes I’ve made from this site have been absolute rave reviews, but this one just falls short. They’re not even close to a black and white you would get at a bakery in New York. Even if you don’t compare these to a black and white, I still think these are just not it. I’m still a huge fan of the site, but this one is a flop.
A black and white cookie made by someone who I guess never ate a black and white cookie from an old school New York area bakery.
They are never this thick, and other recipes omit both the baking powder and sour cream in lieu of buttermilk (an increased soda and salt). You get a cookie the spreads better.
Also, the icing, doesn’t need milk, water works fine, and that is about twice the amount of icing than necessary.
I love this recipe, but I find I don’t use all the icing. I think I will only do 4 cups of icing sugar next time.
My family loves these cookies! Our favorite deli closed during the pandemic and we always got black and white cookies there. I found your recipe and decided to try it as a replacement. This recipe is perfection!!!
Disappointing. I know how these should taste and I certainly know what I’m doing in the kitchen, and this recipe does not match up at all. I recommend looking elsewhere for a proper recipe.
can i freze these cookies
Hi Frankie, frosted or unfrosted cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. See the first Note in the Notes section of the recipe card for details. Enjoy!
This recipe was delicious but I had so much leftover icing, I would half the icing recipe next time.
Really love these cookies but I think they could use a little bit of chill time in the fridge before baking. I struggle to get them to the thickness in the pictures. Often they blob even when the batter seems the right consistency
Hi Alex, thank you for making these cookies! Here’s our best tips to prevent cookies from spreading.
Had so much fun making this recipe with my sister. She painted half with one color of icing, and I did the other – teamwork! Boyfriend told me this is his all-time favorite frosting. Is this frosting recommended for any other Sally recipes? Appreciate the rec(s)!
How can I change the vanilla cookie to a chocolate one?
Hi Katie! Unfortunately cocoa powder isn’t an easy swap in a recipe so without testing it, we can’t say for sure which ratio of ingredients to use to make these chocolate. Let us know if you do any experimenting.
Would this work well if I baked all the batter in an 8” cake pan? I want to make a Black and White “Cookie” cake, with the same flavor and texture of the cookies, but in the size of a large cake!
Would I need to make any modifications to the recipe at all?
Hi Fateh, We have not tested this recipe in a cake pan, but if you try it let us know how it goes!
Tasted just like the bakery! So good!!
I have made these multiple times and every time I say these are the best black-and-white cookies I have ever had. The recipe is easy and comes out amazing every time.
My neineighbor is turning 7 and crazy about pokemon…so my question is: can I colour half the icing red (I want to make it look like a pokemon ball: half red, half white and then I’ll just use put a chocolate strip in middle). Will the food colouring mess with icing consistency? Alternatively, can I put red sprinkles on half of it?
Hi Emily, you can definitely color this icing. Enjoy!
If I wanted to make the cookie part chocolate as well how much cocoa powder should I add?
Had some trouble following this recipe – the quantities for the icing didn’t work for us. We followed the instructions exactly but the icing came out like thick clay that was unmixable. I was able to salvage by adding more milk, but it was way over the amount in the recipe. What could be the issue here? We triple-checked that everything was right.
Hi Elyssa, we’re sorry to hear your icing didn’t turn out well! For the confectioners’ sugar, how are you measuring it? We recommend weighing it with a kitchen scale for most accurate results, and then sifting it to remove clumps.
That’s what we did! Not sure what went wrong. I just eyeballed the sugar to milk ratio to fix it.
I had the same problem and my icing came out too thin. The first time I made them, they came out perfect. What went wrong?
I will try this recipe it sounds really good. I grew up in central New York State the Black and White cookies we had were Chocolate with vanilla icing and chocolate icing, not a vanilla cookie. Hemstrought’s Half Moon cookies from Utica N.Y.
I love these cookies. I was wondering if it’s possible to double the recipe?
Hi Madeleine, for best results, we recommend making two separate batches rather than doubling. So glad you enjoyed these!
Could you make these with self-raising flour, please?
Hi Donna, We don’t recommend using self rising flour in this recipe. It would take additional recipe testing to ensure accurate results.
What is the difference if you use “Light” sour cream and 2% milk?
Hi Danielle! Full fat sour cream is best for the most tender and fluffy cookies. Light will work, but the texture will be slightly different. Same for 2% milk, which will make the icing a bit thinner, but will work!
As a native New Yorker living in Germany, I am planning to make these for a party to share as something from our “homeland.” However, I’m finding it really hard to track down corn syrup here. I have agave nectar and rice syrup – both have a similar consistency to corn syrup – do you think they could be used as a replacement
Hi J, we haven’t tested either of those substitutions, but some readers have used rice syrup with success. You could also try a homemade simple syrup, or even honey.