Vegan Black and White Cookies

Allyson, Lila and I decided to try our hand at a "fancy cookie" recipe, and the draw of Black and White cookies was strong. We had most of the ingredients on hand, but had to purchase lemon extract.

The recipe called for adding lemon juice to soy milk, to allow the milk to curdle. We added the remaining liquids and sugar to the mix. Dry ingredients were mixed separately, and the wet ingredients were added to a well pressed in the center. As we were mixing the ingredients together we noticed that the result was less like other cookie doughs, and more like a cake batter.

Wet ingredients before adding sugar-  reminded me of modern art.

We scooped the batter onto silpat covered cookie sheets. The scoops spread, looking very much like pancakes as they settled and spread onto the baking surface.

Cookie batter going on the pan.

The cookies baked for about 20 minutes, though through the batches we fiddled a little with the temperature and the time needed to bake - I had a new oven thermometer, and discovered that my oven actually runs cool. That in addition to the Silpat added to the recommend baking time.

Large cookies - they spread even more that we expected.

Another thing that surprised me about this recipe was that the icing actually goes on the bottom of the cookies. It made sense once I thought about it, as the bottom of the cookie was flat from the pan, and the top was slightly raised, like the dome of a cake (not surprising given the texture of the batter.)

Bottom of the cookies were flat - the side we iced.

While the cookies cooled we made the icing. We added almond extract to the confectioners sugar and warm water as the vanilla extract I have is not clear, and I didn't want to ruin the color "off-white and black cookies" just doesn't have the same ring. When we first made the icing we didn't add enough water, though we didn't realize it until we used most of it up, the recipe said there should be enough left after completely icing the cookies in white to mix with melted chocolate to make the black icing. We ended up adding more water to the mix for the remainder of the white portion, and then more water and sugar to add to the chocolate.

Making Icing - warm water in confectioner's sugar

The white icing went over the entire cookie, and then the chocolate icing was spread on top of that over half the cookie. We set to work with an off-set spatula and a butter knife. Our lines weren't terribly straight, but as we went along, we got a better handle on it.

Each cookie gets iced completely with white - the chocolate half is actually double iced.

The cookies were nice and light (being essentially cakes), if large. While the thicker icing produced a better white color, those cookies that had the thinner white icing were a bit less overwhelming on the sweetness. The orange and lemon extract in the cookies made a nice flavor, though Allyson, Lila and I agreed that if we didn't know what was in the cookies, we probably wouldn't have been able to identify exactly what the taste was. All in all, the cookies were a success, and I hope to make them again soon.

About 6" in diameter, these were big cookies

New tools/ ingredients:  Lemon Extract
Recipes used: NYC Black and White Cookies Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar pg 160-163
Co-bakers: Allyson, Lila
Date: April 6, 2011