black and white cookie disaster!

yesterday linds was craving cookies. so we decided to try out a recipe for the famed "black and white cookies" found only in NYC. her roomie carly came over and we got to work like the gourmet chefs we are, and slaved for three hours to make these cookies. and three hours later, none of us could finish a single cookie. they were straight sugar! we didn't realize the frosting would be so thick! we used about twice as much as we should have..... haha at least we had a good time doing it, right? now i'm sure these cookies are really good- so i'll give you the recipe. BUT with this caution- make the frosting thinner than you think you should, and don't put too much on! if it starts to get too thick, reheat it and add some more water. (if you REALLY want to know, ask lindsay where the recipe came from....)

Black and White CookiesAdapted from a bunch of places, but mostly Zabar’s
Traditional black and white cookies are BIG and LOUD, not unlike the New Yorkers that made them famous. Preferring everything on the daintier side, I’ve made them very small before, but this time went for a nice medium size.
Yield: About 2 dozen very large cookies, 60 medium (I used a scoop 1 3/4 inches in diameter that yielded 3-inch cookies) or so many cookies that you might lose your mind frosting them if you go tinier. I’m just saying.
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature4 large eggs1 1/2 cups milk1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract1/4 teaspoon lemon extract2 1/2 cups cake flour2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour1/2 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt4 cups confectioners’ sugar1/3 to 1/2 cup water3 ounces very bitter or unsweetened chocolate1 teaspoon light corn syrup.1 to 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 2 baking sheets with nonstick spray, or line with parchment paper.
2. In large mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter. Mix by machine or hand until fluffy. Add eggs, milk and vanilla and lemon extracts, and mix until smooth.
3. In medium bowl, combine cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Stir until mixed. Add dry mixture to the wet in batches, stirring well after each addition. Using a soup spoon, place heaping spoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake until edges begin to brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool completely.
4. Boil a cup or so of water in a small pot. Place confectioners’ sugar in large, heat-safe mixing bowl. Gradually stir in enough boiling water to the sugar to make a thick, spreadable mixture. Err on the side of caution because a too-thin frosting is hard to undo. Leave remaing boiling water on the stove.
5. Spread frosting on half of the flat side of each cookie. Once all cookie halves have been frosted, place the bowl of the remaining frosting over the hot water and bring it back to a simmer (creating a double-boiler). Stir in the bitter or unsweetened chocolate until melted, as well as the light corn syrup. At this point, depending on the chocolate you used and your preferences, you might find the chocolate color to be a little lighter than the “black” of a black-and-white cookie. If so, I find that a tablespoon or so of cocoa mixed in darkens the color nicely.
6. Ice the remaining half of the cookies with the chocolate frosting. I find that the chocolate–especially with cocoa in it–is especially prone to getting too dry, so don’t worry about whisking in an extra teaspoon of that hot water from time to smooth it back into a shiny frosting.
7. Let the frosting set. Store in an airtight container. These cookies keep for a few days, but I think they’re best on the first or second. Because of the cake nature of the bases, they can get stale quickly. However, this is really a non-issue as I have yet to make a batch that didn’t get polished off in no time

hopefully someone can do this faster than the three hours it took us!