Half Moon Cookies (Black and Whites)

These cookies are a New York thing.  They originated in Utica, NY and are frosted like this upstate.  In New York City, they are covered with black and white fondant and called black and whites.  There would probably be a fight between places whether they should be called half moons or black and whites, but I grew up upstate and called them half moons.  In both places they are a treat beyond compare! Often they are iced with a buttercream and a fudge chocolate on the other side.  I chose to use my Grandma's icing instead.
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These are basically a flat cupcake.  And if you are like me and can't decide which kind of frosting you prefer, they are perfect because they have both!  There is a chocolate variety as well, which maybe I will post someday down the road. 

These cookies are a fair amount of work.  It took me the better part of the afternoon to make them because I first made the frostings, then I had to bake the cookies and then frost them.  And of course sampling them took lots of time.   I am not sure where the recipe came from originally, but this is my Gramma's recipe.  I will post the halved version, because if you make the one I made, you will have like 60 cookies.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, if you are like my husband and are eating them for breakfast dessert, as well as lunch and dinner dessert.  But I personally, don't care to have 60 of these babies on my thighs.  I did make them smaller than the "originals" because I made them for a social event.  So, you can make them mini, or make them bigger which are about 5" across 
These cookies are tender, sweet and just plain delicious!


HALF MOON COOKIES (BLACK AND WHITES)
by: Bess Czyz



INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup crisco*
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350.  Put dry ingredients in mixer bowl and mix together.  Add crisco and milk and beat well.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined.  Drop by spoonfuls (I used small cookie scoop) onto lightly greased baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until you can touch the top and they just spring back.  You want them super soft and NOT browning much, if at all, on the edges. Spray sheets between each batch so they won't stick.  Let cool and frost bottoms, half chocolate and half white. They cool pretty quick so can frost within 15-20 minutes.

*I used half softened butter and half crisco, and they will still great.  Can substitute all butter I am sure, for those shortening haters.