We live in a studio in a small building. It’s cozy and lovely. The building was built in the late 1800’s and a lot of the original, pretty wrought-iron stairway railing remains alongside the six flights we walk up to our home. There are still mysterious doors in the hallway that hide the space where communal toilets were years ago. I think the super uses them as broom closets now. (I did spy a reeeeaaally old commode when one door happened to be open. Neat and gross!) We have pretty exposed beams across the ceiling, really beat up wood floors, and a kind of ugly but warming brick wall. All in all, I feel extremely lucky to live here.
My favorite thing about this apartment is the fact that my brother loved it too. It was his before it was mine. He loved it because living on the sixth floor, you could see out over all the rooftops in the neighborhood. You could see as far as the Manhatttan Bridge on one side and on the other side, the Empire State Building. He was so excited about that view of the Empire State Building. We used to just gaze at it together. It felt so New York to us. A tiny apartment with a distant view of an icon. Living the dream.
Oh that view.
Break my heart. Someone bought the parking garage next door to our building and they’re turning it into luxury condos. The new structure is growing every day, right up past our two windows. We can no longer see the Empire State Building. Now we have a lovely view of a wall and a few (very noisy) construction workers. If only we had 20 million dollars to buy a condo in that building, on the north side of the street, so I could see my old friend.
I know that we’re still very lucky. We have our health. We have each other. We have our work. We’re happy. I’m just so sad to lose my little piece of New York City. So I decided to bring a different piece back into my home. Something I can control. Black and white cookies. The quintessential New York cookie. Truth be told, this New Yorker has never actually eaten a real black and white cookie. At least not one I can remember. So I did a little online cookie research. The old classic seems good, but I thought it could use a little update. Enter caramel. And browned butter. Ok. Things are looking up.
Black and Tan Cookies
Makes 16 to 18 large cookies
For the cookies:
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup sugar
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
For the caramel glaze:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
For the chocolate glaze:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. Prepare the cookies: Preheat oven to 350°. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high. Continue to cook the butter, swirling the pan, until browned and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Transfer butter to a large bowl, scraping all the browned bits from the pan. Freeze just until butter is the texture of room temperature butter. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Add sugar to butter and beat until fluffy, 3 minutes. Beat in egg and egg yolk, one at a time, then vanilla. Beat in half of the flour mixture, then add the milk, then beat in the rest of the flour mixture. Drop about 3 tablespoons batter per cookie on a parchment-lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Spread the batter into a 3-inch circle. Bake until puffed and golden brown around the edges, about 16 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely.
3. Prepare the caramel glaze: In a small saucepan, heat sugar, salt, and 1/4 cup water over medium-high, swirling the pan, until it turns a deep amber color, about 8 minutes. Add butter and cream (it will sputter) and stir to combine. Transfer to a bowl and sift in confectioners’ sugar and whisk to combine.
4. Prepare the chocolate glaze: Sift together sugar, cocoa, and salt. Whisk in vanilla and 1 to 2 tablespoons warm water.
5. Flip the cookies over and spread a generous dollop of caramel glaze on half of each cookie. Spread chocolate glaze on the other half. Let cookies stand at room temperature until set. (The glaze will set enough to eat the cookies without making a giant mess but don’t stack them on top of each other…unless you want to eat a bunch of cookies at once, which probably wouldn’t be so bad.)