Black and White Cookies

Some people food blog because they love sharing recipes.

Other people food blog to share their restaurant adventures.

And then there are people who food blog because, well, fuck, they just got dumped in accordance with a prophecy (no, literally), and now would be a good time to just get out of the apartment that only has power on one side because maintenance still hasn't come to fix the outlets, and there's time to do this homework later after a walk around the neighborhood for some black and white cookies.

 I'm pretty sure that's how the Julie/Julia blog started.

My black and white cookie adventure started when I visited the neighborhood farmers' market, and decided it was time to finally try this New York landmark cookie. My cookie from Meredith's Bread would be my first foray into BnWs.

 However, perhaps more eventfully, on the way back from the farmers' market, I opened a door onto my foot. While that is not an eventful moment in my original suburbia, a lot of doors in New York are heavy, especially near/at my school. It's like the architects only wanted the able-bodied criminals and vagrants to get in the buildings; weaklings need not try.

Even more eventfully, after I limped back to my apartment, I had the prophetic relationship hammer drop. This seemed like good incentive for me to leave the apartment, despite my bruised toe, and find cold milk and a ton of black and white cookies for me to eat under the pretense of a taste test.

I limped around for about a mile buying some cookies from a local coffee shop, Nussbaum & Wu, and a grocery store, Westside Market. This may seem like a very limited taste test, but I cite my injured toe as a limitation to movement. (Pro-tip: while listening to music will not alleviate pain caused by repeatedly putting pressure on an injured body part, listening to music and having it suddenly switch to the sultry voice of GLaDOS singing "Still Alive" will temporarily make you forget your toe is severely bruised because you think sentient robots will use you for science.)

Then, the cookie tasting was ON

...after finishing that response report left undone in the haste to get cookies and milk. Homework has priorities over eating feelings.

For the uninitiated (as I was until several hours ago), BnW cookies are somewhat of a misnomer. They don't have the texture of a conventional cookie; they are more like firmer, flattened cakes to me. Wikipedia tells me they are a cake-like shortbread cookie, and if the font of all-knowledge tells me they are cookies, despite the lack of cookie-ness, then I guess they're cookies, and the name stands.

The cookie line-up. From left to right: Nussbaum & Wu, Meredith's Breads, Westside Market, and Nussbaum & Wu again. Also, my window sill is the only surface that doesn't have journal articles scattered over it. This works in my favor because the electricity is out in half my apartment, so the window is my major source of illumination.

The first cookie I tried was from Meredith's Bread.

Meredith's Bread. This one is almost halfway gone because I needed some cookie love before I could get into the heart of testing.

It was a large, cakey cookie that cost $2.50 at the market. The cookie was covered by a nice layer of icing (chocolate and vanilla-flavored, as the colors imply). The cookie part was very thick and tasted of lemon. The icing was pleasantly hard, so it provided a textural contrast between the pillowy cookie. The ratio of cookie to icing was also very good; in contrast, the Nussbaum & Wu cookie has too much icing and not enough cookie.

All-in-all, this was a pretty good cookie. It was the only one with a noticeable lemon flavor in the cookie, which was fresh. Initially, I didn't really care for the cookie, but as I compulsively ate more and more, it grew on me.

The second cookie I had was a mini BnW ($1.25) from Nussbaum & Wu, a coffee shop that claims to be famous for their cookies.

Mini black-and white from Nussbaum & Wu

The mini BnW wasn't as thick as the Meredith's bakery cookie, nor as cakey in texture. In fact, I found the cookie to be overwhelmed by the icing layer. When I ate my cookie, I mostly tasted the sweetness and felt the crunch of the icing. The cookie seemed to dissolve into pretty much nothing in my mouth while the icing stuck around for me to chew on. It was almost like eating a straight-up candy shell.

The last BnW cookie I tried before my blood sugar exploded out of every pore in my body, and my intestines started writhing with the activity of millions of bacteria feasting on milk sugar (curse you, lactose intolerance) was one from Westside Market, a grocery store.

Westside Market's cookies. Bulk pricing!

They were sold in a bag of ~12 for $6, which makes them the cheapest cookies in this test. They were probably also the cheapest cookie to make; the icing layer was very thin, and the cookie texture seemed on par with a supermarket cupcake.

 However, I really enjoyed this BnW. It fit my idea of a BnW cookie: mild icing, spongy-yet-firm texture. It seemed like something I would find in the Midwest. Midwesterners may understand that sentiment, although I'm not sure if I quite fully understand what I was trying to say.

Better yet, I have a whole bag left to eat! That's enough for two screenings of The Notebook. I think that movie is so popular because of its portrayal of romantic love in the absence of prophecies.

Maybe that line is my cue that it's time for another dose of cookie medicine.