Black and Whites from A Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

Black and Whites - made dough April 3, 2024 from A Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

2 cups chocolate chips
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar in separate bowl, for rolling

1. Melt chocolate chips and butter in the top half of a double boiler set over hot water. Stir until combined and completely melted.
2. Add in brown sugar and let cool, 5-10 minutes.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla, baking powder and salt. Add flour and mix until just combined.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls (or smaller), cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Roll chilled dough balls in confectioners' sugar and evenly space on baking sheets. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes, cool on baking sheets for several minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Before you get too far into this post, let me caution that, as you can see from the pictures, these are not the traditional "black and white" cookies that are common on the East Coast (New York City comes to mind) where a vanilla cookie is covered half in vanilla glaze and half in chocolate glaze, hence the "black and white" term. This black and white is more commonly referred to as chocolate crackles: a chocolate cookie rolled in powdered sugar before baking. Black and Whites is what they were called in A Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke so that's what I'm listing them as.

I had mixed results on this one. After I mixed the dough, it was very, very soft and liquid-y, more like a thick brownie batter than actual cookie dough. I had to chill it for half an hour before I could even reasonably scoop it out into dough "balls". Even then the dough was still rather sticky.

I froze them before I baked them like I do with most cookie doughs as I was afraid these would spread too much if I didn't. They did still spread but not as much as I feared they would.

Flavor wise, they were good but I think I underbaked the first batch a tad too much as they were more like fudge than chocolate cookie. Nothing wrong with that but make sure they cool and set first before you eat them or you'll just have mushy goo instead of fudgy cookie.