Half moon cookies

I grew up with half moon cookies, a domed yellow cake-like cookie topped half with vanilla frosting and half with chocolate frosting. After many rounds of testing, I can't wait for us all to have a perfect and delicious half moon recipe for our home kitchens!

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Depending on where you grew up or where you live now, you may be more familiar with a black and white cookie - with the same or a similar cookie base, but topped with half vanilla and half chocolate icing. While those cookies are great, with lots of recipes available to recreate them at home and available pretty broadly, I've found it much more difficult to find half moon cookies for purchase or a great recipe to bake them at home! While the two cookies are similar, a half moon is topped with frosting rather than an icing. So instead of a thin shiny icing topping, you get more of a cupcake-like experience similar to a buttercream.

It all starts with a cakey vanilla cookie. The cookie recipe has a perfect balance of sweetness and a strong vanilla flavor with enough moisture to have a great texture, and enough structure to hold up as a handheld cookie. Some people believe that a half moon or black and white cookie should have lemon in it, but my family strongly disagrees. Instead here we use clear vanilla extract for a true vanilla cake flavor - but don't worry, a standard vanilla extract works great here too.

A scooper is important for this cookie batter since it's so soft (it really is more like a batter than a traditional cookie dough). I used a 3 tablespoon or # 20 scooper like this one. I also recommend baking the cookies one cookie sheet at a time. Keep the unscooped batter in your fridge in between each round, and scoop right before you bake so that the batter doesn't get too soft.

I used a stand mixer for the cookies but you could absolutely use a hand mixer. The most important part is that you are sure to scrape the sides and bottom of your bowl and the mixer attachment between each round of mixing to ensure you aren't missing any pockets of unmixed ingredients. If you do end up with any unmixed pockets, it can lead to your cookies "leaking" when they bake. Don't worry too much if this does happen but you want to avoid it if possible!

When I set out to work on the frostings, I hoped to make it one base recipe that you could split in half and add ingredients to to make your vanilla and chocolate frostings. I tried with two different methods and it just simply didn't work. So while you will have to make two separate frostings, I've made the process as easy as possible I promise. For each frosting, you'll melt most of the ingredients together until smooth on your stovetop, whisk in another ingredient or two when removed from the heat, and then let cool while you bake your cookies. Before you frost your cookies, you'll whip the cooled frosting - I recommend using a hand mixer though you could absolutely do this by hand too with a little muscle. You'll start with your vanilla frosting and frost half of each of your cookies, and then place the cookies into the fridge for at least 15 minutes to let the frosting harden slightly. Then you'll finish off by frosting the other half with your chocolate frosting to make your half moon complete.

Once you've frosted your cookies, your frosting may be a bit soft so I do recommend letting the cookies sit in the fridge to set but you can of course enjoy right away especially if you don't need to transfer your cookies anywhere. If you do plan to store your cookies, let them first chill in the fridge in a flat layer and then once the frosting has hardened you can place into an airtight container with parchment between each layer. While the cookies should be stored in the fridge because of the frosting (and I do think it helps to maintain their overall freshness), I think they're best enjoyed at room temperature. My husband disagrees and loves to eat them right out of the fridge, so when you bake them at home you'll have to taste test cold and at room temperature and see what you prefer!

Before we get baking I wanted to talk through some of our ingredients as they are ones we don't often see in my cookie recipes.

• Sour cream: While I don't think I've ever included sour cream in my cookies, I do often include it in my pound cake and other more dense cake recipes. It adds an incredible moisture and body that I thought would be perfect for these cookies and it really was. It's important to use a full fat sour cream here, as I haven't tested with any alternative.

• Corn starch: Another ingredient that can be popular in cookies but that I don't use often. In this case, I was having trouble getting the cookies to just the right texture and the combination of corn starch and sour cream seemed to bring the cookies exactly where we wanted them. I don't recommend it, but if you don't have cornstarch on hand you can replace with half a tablespoon of flour (about 4g) just know that the texture won't be quite the same.

• Light corn syrup: When I first started working on the frosting for this recipe I just couldn't get it right. It wasn't smooth or shiny enough, and the texture just wasn't the perfectly sweet, delicious frosting I remembered. After a lot of testing, I found that incorporating corn syrup (especially for the chocolate frosting) was just what we were missing. Similar to the corn starch, I don't recommend replacing it, but if you really can't get it or don't have it on hand you can replace with some additional powdered sugar to taste but please know that I can't guarantee the texture and taste of the end frosting if you do this (though it would still be delicious).

For the best results, I highly recommend using the gram measurements provided

Ingredients 

Vanilla frosting

• 6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1 1/2 cup (180g) powdered sugar

• 1 tablespoon (15g) light corn syrup

• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract 

• Pinch salt 

Chocolate frosting

• 4 tablespoons (56g) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1/4 cup (28g) cocoa powder dutch process

• 1/4 cup (56g) heavy cream

• 3 tablespoons (45g) light corn syrup

• Pinch salt 

• 1 1/2 cups (180g) powdered sugar

Cookies

• 8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (216g) granulated sugar 

• 2 tablespoons (22g) neutral oil canola or vegetable

• 2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract 

• 2 large eggs*

• 1 2/3 cup (200g) all purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon (8g) corn starch

• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt 

• 2/3 cup (158g) sour cream*

*Take your eggs and sour cream out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you start, or before you make your frostings

Prep time: About 45 minutes

Bake time: 10-12 minutes

Chill time: 3-4 hours

Servings: 17 cookies

Equipment

• Nonstick heavy bottom pot

• Medium bowls

• Whisk or large fork

• Stand mixer and/or hand mixer

• Spatula or large spoon

• Cookie sheets

• Parchment paper

• Large cookie scoop (3 tablespoons)

  
  

Cooking instructions

Start by making your frostings. For the vanilla frosting, add your butter, powdered sugar, corn syrup and heavy cream to your nonstick pot and melt over a low heat. Stir frequently with a spatula until glossy and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in a pinch of salt and your clear vanilla extract. Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside.

For your chocolate frosting, you can use the same nonstick pot (give it a quick wipe but it does not need to be completely clean). Add in your butter, cocoa powder, heavy cream and corn syrup. Melt over a low heat until dark and glossy with no clumps of cocoa powder unmixed. Remove from heat and transfer to a medium bowl. Whisk in your powdered sugar and pinch of salt until completely smooth.

Let both frostings cool off, mixing every 5-10 minutes to avoid a crust from forming on the top. You can also make these earlier in the day and cover with plastic wrap and let them sit at room temperature for up to 4-6 hours.

Meanwhile, make your cookies. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Into your stand mixer bowl with the paddle attachment secured, add your butter and sugar. Mix on a medium speed for 1-2 minutes until lightened in color. Scrape down the sides of your bowl, being sure to reach down to the bottom of the bowl.

Add in your oil, vanilla extract, and eggs and turn your mixer back on to a medium speed. Let your mixer run for another 1-2 minutes until your ingredients are completely combined - it should be a smooth mixture and yellow in color. Scrape down your paddle attachment and the sides and bottom of your mixer bowl.

At this point, you'll add half of your dry ingredients, followed by your sour cream, and then the rest of your dry ingredients. For your dry ingredients, you can either mix them together in a separate bowl and add half at a time, or you can add half of your flour (1/2 cup + 1/3 cup or 100g) and the rest of your dry ingredients (corn starch, baking powder, baking soda and salt) in the first round and the second half of your flour (1/2 cup + 1/3 cup or 100g) in the second round to use fewer dishes.

Add half of your dry ingredients (using whichever method from the above you'd prefer) and turn your mixer on at the lowest speed letting it run until just combined. Pause your mixer and scrape down your paddle attachment and bowl being sure to scrape well.

Add in your sour cream and turn your mixer back on at the lowest speed until your sour cream is fully incorporated. Scrape down your bowl and mixer attachment again.

Add in the remainder of your dry ingredients, and let your mixer run one final time at the lowest speed until just combined. Use your spatula to finish folding your batter together and to ensure there are no pockets of unmixed ingredients.

Scoop and bake your cookies, top with your frosting and enjoy.

Onto a large, parchment lined cookie sheet, use a 3 tablespoon scooper to scoop up to 6 cookies evenly spaced out. You'll bake one cookie sheet of cookies at a time, so place the remainder of your unscooped batter into the fridge in the meantime to ensure it doesn't get too warm.

Bake your cookies for about 10-12 minutes until very lightly golden on the edges (if you feel comfortable, you can lightly tap the center of one cookie and there should be little to no give when they're fully baked). The recipe makes about 17 cookies in total, so you'll likely bake in three rounds total, keeping your batter in the fridge between bakes and scooping just when you're ready for the next cookie sheet to go in.

Allow your cookies to cool completely, and when you're ready to frost you'll first whip your fully cooled vanilla frosting. Use a hand mixer at a low to medium speed, or a whisk and whip by hand. Whip just for about a minute or two or until your frosting turns into a bright white color and is slightly thickened to medium peaks. Frost half of each cookie with your whipped vanilla frosting and then place into the fridge to allow it to harden for 15 minutes, up to 30 minutes.

Then, whip your chocolate frosting to medium peaks and finish off your cookies by frosting the other halves with your chocolate frosting.

If you plan to transfer your cookies or will need to store them, first let them chill in the fridge on your flat cookie sheets for about 2-4 hours to let your frosting harden and then you can stack them between layers of parchment. I think these cookies are best enjoyed at room temperature, but lots of folks (including my husband) enjoy them chilled to enjoy them however you like them best!

Carb and serving info  

Servings: 17 cookies

Carbs per serving (1 of 17): 48

Carbs for full recipe: 815

Carbs for cookies only: 393

Carbs for vanilla frosting only: 193

Carbs for chocolate frosting only: 230

Note: Carb information is calculated based on the specific ingredients I used to cook with to help guide my own insulin to carb ratio when dosing before I eat my home cooked recipes.