Halfmoon Handiwork

I’m back! Although I’ve been baking I haven’t been blogging lately.  Well I cannot NOT share the cookies I made this weekend (how’s that for grammar???). When I was little my family and I would go back to Utica and Rome, New York where my Grandma Min and Pa (my mom’s parents) are from.  Every time we went we were guaranteed three things—1) to see a lot of family, 2) to gain at least five pounds from eating spinach and cheese fatayers (Lebanese spinach and cheese pies), and 3) to eat delicious halfmoon cookies.  Halfmoon cookies are black and white cookies for those of you who are unfamiliar with the upstate NY vernacular! These are some of my favorite cookies in the world (and that’s saying something). 

I saw the recipe in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and instantly knew I had to make them.  My friend Karla is moving to Madison, Wisconsin and she is a fellow baker so I figured I would dazzle her with homemade goodbye halfmoon cookies!

These cookies are extremely easy to make, which was the opposite of what I thought since I have this thing where I think everything that looks pretty must be complicated to make! The cookie part was quick—it was the waiting that was killer! Waiting for the cookies to cool, waiting for the white icing to dry, and then waiting for the chocolate icing to set.  I am not a patient person. 

Overall these cookies turned out beautifully! The only criticism on taste I have is the white icing—it was way too sweet for me.  I always have a problem when making royal icing, because the confectioners’ sugar/water balance is difficult to strike and you can end up with cloyingly sweet icing.  Although I tried to make it balanced, to get it thick enough to spread required more confectioners’ sugar than I prefer.  Next time I would definitely add in more vanilla extract to cut the sweetness. 

I know I enjoyed them and these cookies were a good reminder that food can really bring you back to certain moments in time.  Not to get too sappy, but I have really been missing my Pa lately, and these cookies brought me back to the comfort, excitement, and feeling of satisfaction I always felt on those trips to upstate NY!

On a more upbeat note, my Aunt gave me a sourdough bread starter today, looking forward to experimenting with sourdough bread next (I’ve never even made real bread before, so this should be interesting)!