When traveling throughout Upstate NY, you will often find boxes of black and white cookies on the shelves of local grocery stores and bakeries. They go by many names: black and white cookies, half moons, half and half cookies, and crescent cookies, but they all are the same delicious sweet treat that makes your taste buds happy. 

Some may argue that the half-moon cookie from NYC is the same, but I have always found them to be more of a soft rather than a cakey cookie. The Half Moon cookie, with origins in Utica in Central New York, is best described as somewhere between a whoopie pie and a cookie. 

Tools to make the perfect cookie base

• Parchment paper– I use this for all my baking.
• Baking sheet pan– I like to use Nordic or USA Pan, but any brand will do.
• Cooling rack– A must-have for baking and cooking.
• Offset metal spatula– One of my favorite kitchen gadgets of all-time- great for spreading!
• Mixing bowl– A medium bowl will be great for cookie batter
• Stand mixer– Not a necessity, but certainly makes baking and cooking a lot easier.
• Cookie scoop– To make sure cookie batter is uniform and will bake evenly.

Ingredients 

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup sour cream

Related Cookie Recipes to try: Cast Iron Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie, Monster Chocolate Chip Cookies, Classic Sugar Cookies, Nutella Sugar Cookies, Nana's Sand Tart Cookies

How to make Half Moon Cookies Recipe

We wish we could run to the Hemstrought Bakery to get the true original recipe, but they have been closed for a long time and only offer mail-order shipments. I don't want to wait, so I think these homemade cookies will be quite tasty anyway! 

To get started, set oven racks in the middle of the oven then preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add room temperature butter, and sugar, and with a paddle attachment, mix at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until just combined. 

At low speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, alternating with sour cream, scraping sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Give one more good stir to make sure everything in the bottom of the bowl is incorporated. 

Now it’s time to line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Grab a ¼ cup cookie scoop and drop cookie dough 3-inches apart on the prepared baking sheet pans. Bake for 15-18 minutes until the edges of cookies are slightly brown, rotating your pan halfway through baking. 

Remove sheet pans from the oven and place them on a wire rack. Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then remove them to the wire rack to cool completely. 

Cookie Icing Ingredients

• 5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 7 Tbsp whole milk, divided
• 2 Tbsp corn syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted

Whisk confectioners sugar, 6 Tablespoons milk, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt together in a bowl until smooth. Remove 1 cup of glaze to a small bowl and set aside. 

In the reserved bowl, whisk in the cocoa and the remaining tablespoon of milk to create chocolate icing.

How to frost half moons

Working with one cookie at a time, spread vanilla icing on half of the flat side of each cookie with an offset metal spatula. Let icing set for about 15 minutes or put in the fridge to speed up the process. 

Baking Tip: If your icing is too runny, try adding more powdered sugar to your mix, 1 Tablespoon at a time. This will help to thicken it.

Now spread the remaining half of the cookie with chocolate icing and let sit until the icing is firm. If you want a neat line between the vanilla and chocolate, cover the vanilla with a piece of wax paper before adding the chocolate frosting. Then carefully peel off to create a perfect edge. 

Cookies may be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.   

If this is the first time you have ever indulged in a vanilla cookie with vanilla flavor on one side and chocolate flavor on the other, I know after you take a bite, it will definitely not be your last! These Half Moon cookies are so delicious you’ll be making them all the time!