When you think of classic Big Apple eats, a few staples come to mind: a $3 slice of pizza, a hot dog on a street cart, a bagel with a schmear. But perhaps no treat is as famous in the city as the illustrious black and white cookie. The result of bakeries using leftover cake batter at the end of the day, a black and white has a soft, fine crumb that’s more like your favorite vanilla cake than a cookie. The contrasting frosting on top is half chocolate, half vanilla (no need to pick a favorite!), split down the middle and melts in your mouth.
Many people trace the black and white cookies to Glaser’s Bake Shop in Manhattan. Bavarian immigrants John and Justine Glaser opened the shop in 1902, first introducing the cookie; the bakery closed in 2018. Others point to Hemstrought’s Bakery in Utica, New York, which opened in 1920 and still serves customers today. Their “half moon” cookies can have a chocolate cake or vanilla cake base and are covered with a thick layer of vanilla buttercream frosting on one half and fudge frosting on the other. After World War II, the black and white cookie became a larger part of Jewish-American culinary culture, and today many of New York’s most famous black and white cookies come from bakeries. Jewish.
Blacks and whites were further entrenched in New York City lore in the episode “The Dinner Party” of Seinfeld. In one scene, Jerry and Elaine are in a bakery, standing near the pastry display case. “The key to eating a black and white cookie, Elaine, is that you want to get some black and white in every bite,” says Jerry. “And yet, somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would just look at the cookie, all our problems would be solved.”
Jerry is looking at the race relations issue here, but he knows how to properly eat a black and white. Be sure to eat the dough within a day or two after it’s baked so it’s still soft and doughy. But how to address the gap between black and white? Do you eat your favorite flavor first? Or go in the middle? “After all, New Yorkers can measure a man by the imprints of his teeth imprinted on a black-and-white cookie,” Molly O’Neill wrote in a 2021 New York Times history in the cookie She said that Seinfeld was “ambivalent, incapable of choice and afraid of commitment” because he took equal bites in black and white. So be careful when you bite, as this cookie is the New York equivalent of a Rorschach test.
Today, you can find black-and-white cookies at bodegas, bagel shops, and bakeries throughout New York, or you can try making the delicious icon at home. They vary in size, but what they all have in common is bi-color frosting, a texture more cake than cookie, and deeply loved by New Yorkers.
Where to buy black and white cookies
These are the best places to get a black and white cookie, whether you’re visiting New York City or want a dozen shipped to you.
of Zabar
Drop by their Upper West Side location, or have a dozen mini black-and-white cookies delivered to your door.
William Greenberg Desserts
If you can’t make it to your Manhattan bakery, you can order a variety of black and white cookies from their website, including a gluten-free version.
rus and his daughters
This New York City institution is best known for its lox bagels, but don’t skip the biscuit. They even deliver nationwide through Goldbelly!
bagelsmith
Go for the bagels, stay for the black and white cookies.
Wu and Nusbaum
If you like a black and white cookie with fondant instead of ganache frosting, head to Morningside Heights for this one.
you might also like