New York Classic Black and White Cookies [Halloween-ified!]

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made one of my favorite treats that I discovered upon moving to New York: Black and White cookies. I will be bringing these to karaoke tonight in Koreatown and can't wait to eat one in between singing DIRTY POP and I WILL SURVIVE. Oh yeah and we are dressing up as Starlord and Gamora. : )

My first job straight out of college was at an academic publisher located in midtown east of Manhattan. On my lunch breaks I would explore the area as much as I could, frequenting the New York public library, Bryant park, Tudor City, and Grand Central Station--which besides being a subway station, it also is home to a ton of restaurants, stores, and Grand Central Market. It is here that I first had a classic New York black and white cookie from Eli Zabars, and it was pure heaven. They have them all over the city (and at Starbucks!) but I like to think that Eli's has the best.

When I get them, I like to eat the chocolate side first, and then pick at the white side, or give it to Kyle. Mostly because I just kind of have a thing for chocolate. These cake-like "black and white cookies" have the same flavors but I had to make them Halloween festive, with orange food dye. Hope everyone has a spooky evening!

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New York Black and White/Orange Cookies (makes approx. 36 cookies)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 12 tablespoons softened unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs

for glaze:

• 3 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• orange food coloring
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix until combined.

Slowly add in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, alternating between the two. Scrape down sides of bowl and mix until smooth. Using a one tablespoon measure, spoon out cookie dough batter onto baking sheets. You may need to do this in two batches since they won't all fit on two pans! Bake in preheated oven for 7-9 minutes, or until tops are puffy and spring back when touched. Remove to a cooling rack.

While cookies are cooling, make the glaze. Stir together confectioner's sugar, vanilla, milk, and salt, until thoroughly combined. Remove half of the glaze to a different bowl, and add the orange food coloring in drops to one half, until reach the desired color. Add the cocoa powder to the other half. Add more milk to chocolate mixture if necessary, to thin out the same as the white (orange!) side.

for assembly: Once cookies are completely cool, use a spatula or knife to spread the white/orange glaze on half of the cookie. Repeat with the rest of the cookies. Afterwards repeat with chocolate glaze. Start with a line down the middle and fill in the other half. Allow to harden slightly and eat!

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Pear, Pancetta, Caramelized Onions, and Arugula Pizza

This mouthful-name of a pizza contained a bunch of firsts for me. 1) Caramelized onions. I had never made them before, but I've always loved them. They weren't as difficult as I thought! I followed a tutorial somewhere on youtube and it takes about 30 minutes to become that gorgeous brown translucent color, but it was so worth it. 2) Pancetta! What is it? Where do you find it? Originally I wanted to get prosciutto because that's the closest thing to bacon but less greasy. But, when I ventured out across the street to the store pancetta was sitting right next to prosciutto and it looked lonely, and it was $1 cheaper, so I thought I'd give it a chance on this experimental pizza. Guys, it worked, and it was so good!!!! 3) Pizza dough from scratch. I always thought making the dough from scratch would be really scary and require a lot of effort. It was very simple actually, and from start to finish (making dough, topping pizza, baking pizza, and putting it in my belly) it was an hour and a half.

I added pears to the pizza which may seem strange but it was refreshing! These pears were leftover from the apple picking adventure (they also had pears at the apple orchard!). When sliced thinly, and eaten with the caramelized onions and gouda and melted mozzarella, it was delicious. Fruit and cheese as a classic combo always works, and it translated to pizza extremely well!

Anyway, I'm getting excited for Halloween this weekend! I still don't have my costume put together yet, but I still have time...heh heh. Is anyone else dressing up? going out? watching scary movies? eating candy? carving pumpkins? Whatever you do (or don't do) hope you have the best Halloween ever!

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Pear, Pancetta, Caramelized Onions, and Arugula Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 pizza dough (I used this recipe and thought it worked out fine!)
• 8 oz. mozzarella 
• 1/4 cup gouda, diced into small cubes
• 4 oz. (approx. 1/2 cup) cubed pancetta
• 1 large pear, sliced thin, length-wise
• 1/2 cup caramelized onions (approx. 1 small onion)
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 2 tsp. garlic powder
• large handful of arugula, for topping
• drizzle of olive oil

Directions: Preheat oven to 375° F. Roll pizza dough out evenly until flat on a pizza stone or flat baking sheet. Drizzle with a little olive oil, and sprinkle with garlic powder and oregano. Top with mozzarella and gouda to start, spreading evenly. Then, add the sliced pears. Sprinkle the caramelized onions and pancetta on top, and bake in preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes or until cheese in the middle is completely melted and the bottom of crust is slightly brown. Top with arugula, slice, and serve!

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Spiced Pumpkin Loaf

I can't believe it is already the last weekend of Octoberl This month has flown by and now Halloween is in 6 days and I don't have my costume all together yet. Last year on Halloween we stayed in and watched The Shining and ate candy. As someone who isn't a huge fan of scary movies, I liked it a lot! This weekend we saw Crimson Peak, and although I closed my eyes a lot of the time throughout, it wasn't that scary overall. I think I'm getting better at horror movies! But I definitely can't watch them alone, or without snacks of some sort. : )

Now that October is coming to an end, I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and the holiday season. The exciting part is, it's not that cold yet! We had one cold front a week or so ago, but as of this week, it is still jacket weather (not beanie, scarf, heavy coat, wool sock weather yet). And if you know me at all, that makes me a happy gal. Maybe the winter will be a milder one? Here's to hoping!

I have just a simple pumpkin loaf for you today. I'm sure many people have already made pumpkin bread this season, but this is definitely my most favorite version of all of the ones I've made before. I also realized I love the word loaf so much more than bread. Don't you? Loaf just sounds so cozy and baker-like. If anything, this spiced pumpkin loaf will make your entire kitchen (and apartment!) smell like fall. It's pretty difficult not to eat more than one slice when it comes out of the oven! 

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Spiced Pumpkin Loaf

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. cloves
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Directions: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside. Mix sugar and oil in medium bowl until blended thoroughly. Add eggs and pumpkin. In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients and whisk together. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and pour into loaf pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then flip out onto a cooling rack.

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