B is for the New York classic cookie, the black and white.
For the second post in the A to Z Challenge, I'm going with one of my favorite sweets and a New York City icon, the black and white cookie. While I had to stretch for "A", "B" presented great difficulty in topic choice. There was my perennial New York food favorite, the bagel, as well as Breads Bakery, which I've written about several times. But I thought it was time to feature another iconic New York treat.
I've never thought much about the history of the black and white cookie, but there is a history. When I did a little research I found that the cookie is "commonly traced" to a German bakery, Glaser's, in the Yorkville section of Manhattan in 1902. When I first moved to New York in 1975 the neighborhood still had a number of German restaurants and food stores, though sadly only a few remain. The cookie base is soft and the fondant icing is usually chocolate and vanilla, though I've had black and white cookies with a lemon section, which are equally tasty. The cookie pictured above is from Orwasher's, originally founded in 1916, also in the Yorkville section, but by Hungarian immigrants. Orwashers is one of my favorite food places in Manhattan and we'll be returning for a fuller look at its goodies in our "O" post.
