Food - Drink
The Rich Origin Of NYC's Black And White Cookies
By HEATHER LIM
If you’ve stepped into a New York bakery, you may have tried a moist sugar cookie iced with half-chocolate, half-vanilla frosting. These famed black and white cookies are technically "drop cakes" made from cupcake batter thickened with flour, and like many NYC icons, this treat has a complicated history involving multiple influences.
A chocolate and vanilla drop cake-style cookie called the half-moon debuted in New York in the 1900s, but contrary to popular belief, black and white cookies did not originate from the half-moon cookie. The first black and white cookie was invented at Glaser's Bake Shop in 1902, by Bavarian immigrants Justine and John Glaser.
Dutch settlers in general are responsible for cookies as we know them; the word cookie comes from the Dutch word keokje (little cake). New York was even called New Amsterdam, until the British took over and renamed the colony, and the black and white cookie really is a product of Dutch roots merged with Anglican influences.