Black and Tans

By patticakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) butter
• 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 4 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 cup Hi-maize Fiber, or additional 3/4 cup flour
• 1 cup (8 ounces) milk
• Chocolate Icing
• 1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• 1/2 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips or chunks, melted
• Espresso Icing
• 2 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar or glazing sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• 1 tablespoon espresso powder

Details

Servings 24
Adapted from kingarthurflour.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) a baking sheet, or lightly grease a muffin top pan.

Beat together the butter, sugar, salt, baking powder, vanilla, and almond extract until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Whisk together the flour and Hi-maize, and add alternately with the milk.

Drop the thick batter by 1/4-cupfuls onto the prepared pan of your choice. (Using the muffin-top pan makes consistently sized, thicker, more cake-like cookies.) The batter should form a circle about 2" in diameter. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, until browned on the edges. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool completely before icing.

To make the chocolate icing:

Sift the confectioners' sugar into a large bowl and add the corn syrup and hot water, stirring until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and mix until thoroughly combined. Spread half of each cookie with the icing, then place on a rack to set while you make the espresso icing.

To make the espresso icing:

Follow the preceding directions, adding espresso powder instead of melted chocolate. Spread the other half of each cookie with the espresso icing, and place on a rack to set.

I tried these today for a birthday party and they were really good. I don't have muffin top pans, but I used whoopie pie pans and they worked out great. I made a double batch and had to microwave the chocolate icing a few times because it would get a bit thick. This worked well a few times, but after that the icing was progressively thicker and didn't spread as well. If you're making more than a single batch, you might want to make the chocolate icing twice so that you don't have to microwave it more than maybe once. I made both icings, and then also made another batch of icing with white chocolate (I just used white chocolate chips in place of bittersweet chocolate) and made both Black & Tan cookies and Black & White Cookies. Thanks for another great recipe!

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