Hi friends – Eva from Eva Bakes here to share a fun mother-daughter story that involves these amazing black and white cookies.
It was a regular Sunday morning when both my daughter and I were reading on the couch. She was reading a Nancy Drew book while I flipped through the latest cookbook that I had found at the library. Every once in a while, I caught her looking at the photos in the cookbook. Finally, she stopped reading her book and turned her attention to my cookbook.
“Mommy. I want to make something.”
“Sure. What do you want to make?”
Several minutes later, after we had browsed all of the recipes, she settled on these colored black and white cookies. Now while I know that the title of these cookies sounds like an oxymoron, these are essentially black and
white cookies except they are dunked in different colored icing. Mine
happen to be pink and blue because that’s what my 7-year old wanted when I had her choose out her icing colors. I explained the directions to her and we made the dough together. Of course she got to taste the extra dough that was left over on the spatula. She got a bit impatient as we were waiting for the icing to dry; in fact, it was reminiscent of when I paint her toenails. “Is it dry yet?!”
We were finally able to eat these about an hour after I had dunked the second half of the cookie in the second color icing. The cookies were soft and tender with a hint of lemon flavor. The thin layer of icing on top made the cookies super fun with the pastel colors and added just a hint of sweetness with the powdered sugar.
I’m really enjoying this age where my daughter and I can share the joy (and journey) of baking together. She’s already excited about the fact that I’m documenting all of these recipes and stories for her to read about when she’s older. I hope that she’ll cherish these stories about her childhood one day and that these recipes bring her good memories.
- Cookies
- 1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (82 grams) cake flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (I substituted with about ½ teaspoon of lemon extract)
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup (160 grams) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (125 millileters) milk of choice
- 6 Tablespoons (90 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Icing
- 1 and ½ cups (120 grams) powdered sugar
- 4 and ½ Tablespoons (57 millileters) lemon juice (from 1 large lemon)
- food coloring of choice
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with silicon mats or parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, mix together the lemon zest, eggs and sugar on medium speed until well blended. Add in the milk, butter and vanilla and mix well.
- Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the dry ingredients until a soft dough forms.
- Using a cookie scoop or two spoons, drop dough by the scoopful onto your prepared baking sheet, making sure to leave at least 2 inches in between each cookie. Do this one sheet at a time, so save the other half of the dough for another batch.
- Bake in your preheated oven for about 7-10 minutes or until the tops are set and the edges start to turn golden. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool for 1-2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining batch of dough.
- Once the cookies are completely cooled, make the icing. In a small bowl, mix the powdered sugar and lemon juice together until no lumps remain. Divide the icing into smaller bowls to prepare the different colors. Add 1 drop of food coloring into each bowl and mix well.
- Dunk the cookies (or use a small spatula or spoon) to spread icing onto half of the cookie. Allow to dry before dipping the other half of the cookie into another icing color.
- Allow cookies to dry completely before serving.
Source: Bake Happy by Judith Fertig
