The last time I visited my family in the U.S. my mother passed along an old German baking manual and I recently got around to taking a look at its inspiring if somewhat dated recipes. A German book printed in the early 1970s at a guess, there’s no such thing as a vegan recipe in its contents. It’s a good thing veganising most (imagine me sighing in memory of macarons) cookies is pretty straightforward!
When I bake cookies, I have all sorts of good intentions. I tell myself things like “just have 2 or 3 a day and they will last” or “maybe if you only make a dozen you’ll be more likely to savour them so they last until the weekend.” Sometimes I even tell myself I should save some for my hard-working husband.
I generally eat all the cookies by myself, quickly. Paul, if he’s lucky, might manage to scavenge a couple.
Recipe Notes
Raise your hand if you’ve already thought, “but wait a minutes! Those aren’t black and white cookies!” What you might traditionally think of as black and white cookies are coated with split black and white fondant frosting, apparently quite a favourite in New York. These cookies, however, resemble a shortbread with a mild cocoa rum twist.
I use a couple of teaspoons of rum in the recipe. Its impact on the overall flavour isn’t huge, but it does add a mellow extra something. If you don’t have any though, I don’t think the world will end if you leave it out.
Get creative with the dough! You’ve got two different colours on your hands, so twist and twirl it to your heart’s content and make some cool designs! The easiest is to make two small balls of dough and press together. Other options include mixing the dough together a bit so you get a swirled effect. You can also roll the dough into thin snakes for spiral effects.
German cookies tend to use far less sugar than American and British counterparts. This of course means they are less sweet, but it doesn’t mean they’re less good! Besides, it means it’s more acceptable that I eat virtually the entire batch by myself.
Right?
Vintage German Black and White Cookies
- Directions/Method
- Preheat the over to 180 degrees Celcius (350 Fahrenheit) and lightly grease two cookie sheets.
- In a small bowl sift together the flour, arrowroot, and baking powder.
- In a larger bowl, combine the margarine and sugar. Whisk (I use an electric beater) until creamy before adding the vanilla, rum, and 2 tbsp of soy milk.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until all ingredients are incorportaed into a semi-firm dough. Split this dough in half and add the cocoa and the extra tablespoons of sugar and soy milk to one half. Mix until all of the cocoa is combined into the dough.
- If you want to make spiral swirls, roll a small piece of each colour dough into a thin snake (you may need some extra flour on your surface). Pinch the ends of the two snakes together and roll into a spiral, stopping when the cookie is an inch and a half (or thereabouts) wide. Cut the rest of the dough away and smooth the edges against the spiral. Place the cookies on the tray about two inches apart.
- Bake for 15 minutes before removing and cooling on a rack.
[miniflickr tags=”german-black-and-white-cookies”]
jenitreehugger says
24 October, 2009 at 12:42 pmThey looks gorgeous.
tokyovegan says
4 November, 2009 at 4:30 amHi, it's William again.
I am going to try these, too. Any reason why they wouldn't turn out well with whole wheat pastry flour? Have you ever tried with even less sugar, and what was the result? I can't get vegan margarine here, either, so assume shortening will be OK. Lots of assumptions–will have to report back later.
By the way, I lamented not being able to eat macaroons, after converting to vegan diet, too. There is a link to a recipe for Vegan Date Macaroons on my site. Although not as good as the original, they're made only with dates/banana and coconut, and very delicious.
Regards
Kip says
4 November, 2009 at 5:13 amI think these would be good with whole wheat flour…
I haven't tried them with less sugar, but I'm sure a little less would be okay. They aren't very sweet though even with the sugar that's in them.
Not sure about the shortening vs margarine thing. In theory it should work, but I don't know if it would affect the taste too much? These are basically like a shortbread, and without the real butter there is a difference in flavour (but still tastes very good). I'm curious to know how it turns out!
Thanks for the macaroon recipe link. It looks good, but unfortunately what I'm talking about are macarons (one 'o'), the French egg white cookie. Macaroons are great but macarons are the god of the cookie world 😀
tokyovegan says
4 November, 2009 at 11:30 amHi, it's William again.
I am going to try these, too. Any reason why they wouldn't turn out well with whole wheat pastry flour? Have you ever tried with even less sugar, and what was the result? I can't get vegan margarine here, either, so assume shortening will be OK. Lots of assumptions–will have to report back later.
By the way, I lamented not being able to eat macaroons, after converting to vegan diet, too. There is a link to a recipe for Vegan Date Macaroons on my site. Although not as good as the original, they're made only with dates/banana and coconut, and very delicious.
Regards
Kip says
4 November, 2009 at 12:13 pmI think these would be good with whole wheat flour…
I haven't tried them with less sugar, but I'm sure a little less would be okay. They aren't very sweet though even with the sugar that's in them.
Not sure about the shortening vs margarine thing. In theory it should work, but I don't know if it would affect the taste too much? These are basically like a shortbread, and without the real butter there is a difference in flavour (but still tastes very good). I'm curious to know how it turns out!
Thanks for the macaroon recipe link. It looks good, but unfortunately what I'm talking about are macarons (one 'o'), the French egg white cookie. Macaroons are great but macarons are the god of the cookie world 😀
Quiltsrme says
14 December, 2011 at 12:26 amIs it possible to roll the dough out? I have made non-vegan German Black and White cookies for years. I roll out both doughs, layer them on top of each other and roll them up into a log, freeze them for a little while and then slice them for baking. I adopted a vegan diet a few months ago and am trying now to bake some German vegan cookies without wasting lots of ingredients through trial and error.
Kip says
14 December, 2011 at 7:17 amIt’s been awhile since I made them so I’m having a hard time recalling the consistency of the dough, but there’s no reason it technically shouldn’t work… I’d be happy to try to veganise to the recipe you already use since it’s something you’re familiar with if you want to drop me an email at kip (at) messyvegetariancook.com – if I have the ingredients I will have a bash at the recipe myself.