Vegan Black and White Cookies
There are some concepts that just become engrained in your memory. While black and white cookies weren’t ever a “thing” down south and more concentrated up north where they were created, everything about this cookie was just so unique to me.
Originally this cookie had a chocolate based, then evolved to be vanilla, and then the textures became diverse. Typically they had the traditional crisp cookie texture, but were also seen more with a light and fluffy texture, which is more my preference. I personally gravitate towards soft cookies, so as you would imagine, it was love at first sight lol.
Sadly, like most classic concepts, there are no vegan alternatives. That being said, I was on a mission to create an effortless vegan black and white cookie recipe!.
What I love about this cookie, is everything! It’s my classic easy soft bake cookie recipe, affordable, features a handful accessible and affordable ingredients, one bowl, texture is buttery soft, perf for any season, you can switch up the size, and non vegan approved!
If you love nostalgic vegan concepts, you have to try my recipe for vegan Black and White Cookies!!
Why this recipe is great:
Quick
Easy
Involves one bowl
Handful of ingredients
Nostalgic
Perf for any season
Vegan Black and White cookies
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6-10 depending on size 1x
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup almond milk, room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Icing:
- 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 cup boiling water, plus more if needed
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat together powdered sugar, melted coconut oil, room temperature almond milk and vanilla until creamy.
- Add flour mixture and continue to mix until combined. Dough will thicken as you stir.
- Roll 4 tablespoon size scoops of dough into balls and place onto prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with fingers to 1/2-inch thick.
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake, as cookies won’t turn golden brown.
- Remove cookies from oven and place on cooling rack to cool completely.
- When cookies have completely cooled, prepare the frosting.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar, boiling water, and vanilla. Mix well to get a spreadable icing. Add a little more water, if needed. Using an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of icing onto the FLAT SIDE, the former bottom, of each cookie.
- Return the cookies to the wire rack to dry. You should have about ½ cup of icing left.
- While the white icing is drying, melt the chocolate chips in a microwave or double boiler. When the chips are all melted and smooth, whisk the melted chocolate into the remaining icing. The chocolate icing should be thicker than the white, but still be spreadable. If it is too thick, add a little hot water to thin it out. Use the offset spatula to frost one half of each cookie over the white icing.
- Return the cookies to the wire racks to dry. Store leftovers in a covered container for up for 5 days.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
This recipe is a near-perfect version of the famous “half moon” cookies of Central NY. Only tweaks I made to the recipe were baking them 5 minutes longer (they were underbaked after 10 mins) and adding the water to the icing mix only a little at a time. Adding the whole 1/4 cup made the icing too runny and looked like more of a clear glaze than white. But these are very small tweaks for a perfect cookie! The flavor and texture was nearly spot on.
Can i use regular sugar for the cookie dough? What is it about powder sugar that’s good for the dough?
You unfortunately cannot use traditional white sugar. The powdered sugar is what creates the texture in the cookie.