The solar eclipse is coming, the solar eclipse is coming!
UPDATE:
Well, the solar eclipse of 2017 has passed but these half-moon cookies will always stay relevant! …
So, let’s celebrate!
Happy Half-Moon Cookies for the solar eclipse
Half-moon cookies! That’s what they’re called. They’re half-moon cookies and I don’t care what you say. Well, I do care what you say, but I have to agree to disagree on what you call black-and-white cookies and what I call half-moon cookies.
The big cake-like cookie with equal parts white and chocolate frosting was always my favorite.
Upstate New York Half-Moon Cookie Memories
Full disclosure: I was born in Binghamton, NY. I’m an upstate girl. But I’ve been living the last twenty-plus years, in the Hamptons.
My confectionary dreams as a child consisted of half-moon cookies. I also loved my Aunt Bonnie’s penuche fudge but that was only available on Christmas day when we gathered at my Great Grandma’s house (insert wistful sigh here).
But I always just called them moon cookies. I lost the “half” somewhere along the line.
There was no favorite side. I’d go back and forth taking bites of the chocolate side then bites of the vanilla. I loved them both so much. Double the pleasure was a bite right in the middle where the two flavors meet. Whoa, just whoa.
You’re not in Kansas anymore! (er, I mean, upstate New York anymore!)
Then I grew up, married my prince charming, aka the big guy, and moved far, far away to live happily ever after. With a pit stop along the way to Virginia Beach, VA for about 4 years (fond memories), we landed more permanently on the Eastern End of Long Island, NY.
While raising four little Hampton Vegans into adulthood, we lived a busy life. And when treats were in order, the Beach Bakery played a big part if I didn’t have time to make any homemade treats like our Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies or the Perfect and Easy Peanut Butter Cookie.
The black-and-white cookie phase
The Beach Bakery in the center of Main Street, Westhampton Beach was where our family spent many days, picking up fresh-baked bread, amazing jelly-filled croissants with a sugary coating, key lime pie, chocolate mousse cake, and my favorite- those cookies.
Everyone in our family knew, that in a box of Beach Bakery treats, the moon cookies were mine. I never really noticed what they called them at the Beach Bakery but as the years went by and our family would venture into the city (NYC), it began to sink in, after many “moon cookie” purchases at various bakeries and delis, that in this neck of the woods, they’re called black-and-white cookies.
The mysterious half-moon cookies
So much time had passed since I’d eaten a cookie officially called a half-moon cookie, that I started to believe this was a childhood name I gave them. It felt like I was the only one that called those cookies by that name.
Then I decided to google it.
Eureka! There it was. Finally, the answer was right on the World Wide Web! I found my people. The half-moon cookie lived in upstate and New England traditions. Wicked cool. (My Upstate NY/New England people know what I’m talking about).
According to some websites, it was invented at a bakery called Hemstrought’s in Utica, NY back in the early 1900s. Other sites claim the credit goes to Zaro’s in NYC around 1940. Yet another claim they came from Europe with Dutch immigration. I’ve read that in Germany, these cookies are called Amerikaners! American cookies!
It’s all good for half-moon cookies
Whichever source you believe, does it matter where they came from or what you call them as long as you can eat them?! I think not!
So today, in honor of the solar eclipse by the moon (appearing on August 21, 2017), I dedicate these cookies to it.
And to all those, like me, who will indeed be gazing with our eclipse glasses at the solar-lunar-earthly alignment (partial for Long Island) and thinking, Mmmmm moon cookies. Or is that just me?
Shoutout to a displaced Hampton Vegan
Because a member of our crew-a Hamptons Vegan, living in Austin, Texas will be traveling to witness the solar eclipse in a prime spot in Missouri, I want to send my best wishes for a sunny day, a cloudless sky and lots and lots of lunar love to her, her partner, and to all those watching the skies on August 21.
Now make a batch of these Happy half-moon cookies for this stellar occasion!
P.S. You want to know why they’re “Happy” half-moon cookies? Because they’re vegan, of course!
P.P.S.
The original recipe from the Hemstrought bakery in Utica, NY appeared in Sauveur magazine. It featured a chocolate cake bottom. Get that recipe here.
To veganize Hemstrought’s recipe, just change the margarine to vegan margarine, the 2 eggs to 2 Tablespoon ground flax-seed mixed with 6 tablespoons water (let gel for 5 minutes), and the milk to non-dairy milk like soy or almond. Then frost with vanilla and chocolate icing.
Additionally, you could try the original fudge icing from Hemstrought’s. I loved it but just be careful! Because that frosting is hot if your hands get dripped on. So consider yourself warned.
It makes enough for 30 cookies so you’ll need to halve the recipe unless you want a lot of leftover fudge frosting. And there’s nothing wrong with some extra fudge frosting! But to veganize that recipe, switch out the butter for vegan butter.
A Step-by-Step of The Happy Half-Moon Cookies in Photos
copyright © thehamptonsvegan 2017 – 2024. All rights reserved.
Happy half-moon cookies
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 340 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking powder 4.6 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking soda 4.6 grams
- 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 grams
- 3/4 cup shortening or vegan butter 170 grams
- 1 cup sugar 200 grams
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seed 22 grams
- 6 tablespoons water 88.7 ml (or 3 fluid ounces)
- 3/4 cup soy milk 177 ml
- 1 tablespoon vinegar 16 ml
- 1 tablespoon vanilla 14.8 ml
Vanilla icing
- 2 cups organic powdered sugar sifted. 240 grams
- 2 tablespoons water add more, a few drops at a time, if too thick
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup make our corn syrup sub recipe or use store-bought
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
chocolate icing
- 2 cups organic powdered sugar sifted 240 grams
- 2+ tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup Make our corn syrup recipe or use store-bought
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 6 tablespoons cocoa powder 36 grams
Instructions
Cookie Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium size bowl.
- Add vinegar to soymilk to sour and set aside.
- Mix ground flax seed with water and let set for about 5 minutes to gel.
- Cream shortening (or vegan butter) until light
- Add sugar to shortening and blend very well until light and fluffy.
- Add flax and water mixture, and vanilla to shortening and sugar and mixture.
- Add 1/3 of the flour mixture into the wet mixture and stir to incorporate. Then add 1/2 of the soymilk mixture, and stir. Then add 1/2 of the dry mixture, then the rest of the milk mixture, and then the last of the flour mix, stirring to incorporate the mixture together after each addition.
- Drop 1/4 cup for each cookie onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Cookies will spread so leave at least 3 inches between each cookie.
- Cook for about 18-20 minutes until a light golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- When cooled, frost the bottoms (flat side of cookie) with 1/2 vanilla. Let dry for about 30 minutes. Then frost the other half of the cookie with chocolate icing.
- Store in an air-tight container for up to 3 days. Can freeze.
vanilla icing
- Mix all vanilla icing ingredients together until smooth and easy to stir.
chocolate icing
- Mix all the chocolate icing ingredients together, adding more water as needed if it's too thick.
