Black & White Cookies

Black & White Cookies are a New York staple made up of soft, cakey cookies topped with half vanilla, half chocolate icing. After the icing sets, it becomes crackly and dissolves in your mouth and perfectly complements the soft cookie.

After seeing these cookies all over Instagram, we knew we had to veganize them.

To make these, you’ll need:

vegan buttery sticks (find the kind we use here!)

vegan sour cream (we use this brand)

soy milk + apple cider vinegar (can sub for another thick nondairy milk)

sugar

vanilla

all purpose flour (measured correctly)

baking powder, baking soda and salt

Plus an icing made out of powdered sugar, nondairy milk, light corn syrup and vanilla. You’ll add cocoa powder to half, and frost your cookies with half vanilla, half chocolate icing! The corn syrup helps the icing set and causes the firm, crackly top.

Whether or not you’ve ever had Black & White cookies before, we recommend giving these a try!

If you love cookies like we do, check out a few of our other popular cookie recipes:

Classic Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (or try them salted)

Lofthouse Copycat Frosted Sugar Cookies

Peanut Butter Blossoms

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Black & White Cookies

These New York Style cookies (made vegan!) are made up of slightly sweet, deliciously soft cakey cookies with half vanilla, half chocolate icing on top.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 18 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Servings 9 large cookies

Ingredients

  

For the cookies

• ⅓ cup vegan buttery stick slightly softened*
• ¼ cup vegan sour cream slightly softened*
• ¼ cup soy milk + ½ tsp apple cider vinegar or another thick nondairy milk
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour measured correctly**
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt

For the icing

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3+ tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp light corn syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Instructions

 

Make the cookies

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a small bowl. Set aside for 10-15 minutes.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and powder and salt.
• In a separate bowl, beat the butter, sour cream and sugar.
• Add half the flour mixture to the liquid and mix. Add in the buttermilk and mix. Add the rest of the flour. Batter will be a little sticky.
• For each cookie, place ¼ cup batter onto the lined baking sheet (should make ~8-9 cookies). Leave room for the cookies to spread while baking.
• Bake for 16-18 minutes. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Make the icing

• In a mixing bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of nondairy milk, corn syrup and vanilla. It should be thin enough to spread on the cookies but thick enough so that it doesn't completely run off of the cookies. You can add more milk to thin out or more powdered sugar to thicken the icing.
• Place ~1/2 of the icing into a separate bowl and whisk in the cocoa powder. Again, you can add more milk to thin out the icing to your liking.

Frost the cookies

• For each cookie, flip it over so that the bottom becomes the top. Frost half of the cookie with the vanilla icing, then frost the other half with the chocolate icing. Repeat with all of the cookies.
• Let the icing set until firm. Enjoy!

Notes

*The vegan butter and vegan sour cream should be slightly soft so that they beat together properly, but if they are too soft your cookies may flatten too much. We recommend letting them sit out on the counter for ~1 hour before using. If you do find that your cookies are spreading too much for your liking, you can refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes before baking. 

**Use the spoon and level method to measure your flour. Read about it here.

Keyword black & white, cookies, new york, plant-based, vegan