Half Moons

If you’re from Upstate New York, you know these. Half Moon cookies are the regional obsession: big, soft, cakey rounds frosted with chocolate on one side and vanilla frosting on the other. They’re the cookie version of a black-and-white, but with a lighter, more tender crumb.

The sour milk is what gives these their distinctive texture. A tablespoon of vinegar stirred into regular milk and left to sit for 15 minutes creates a homemade buttermilk that reacts with the baking soda, giving these cookies a pillowy softness that’s closer to cake than a traditional cookie. Alternating the sour milk with the flour mixture builds that tenderness without overdeveloping the gluten.

Drop them by big tablespoonfuls and space them widely apart. These spread into large, flat rounds as they bake, which is exactly what you want. That flat surface is the canvas for the frosting, and the generous size is what makes a Half Moon a Half Moon.

Pull them when the edges brown but the centers still look slightly underdone. They firm up as they cool, and overbaking turns them dry and crumbly instead of soft and spongy.

Kitchen Tips

• Make the sour milk first and let it sit the full 15 minutes. The acid needs time to curdle the milk properly
• Space cookies at least 3 inches apart on the sheet. They spread significantly
• Let cookies cool completely before frosting. Warm cookies melt the frosting and it slides off
• A simple chocolate frosting: melt chocolate with butter and powdered sugar. For vanilla: powdered sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla

Variations

• All chocolate: Skip the vanilla frosting and do both halves in chocolate for a double-chocolate Half Moon
• Peanut butter half: Replace the vanilla frosting with a peanut butter frosting for a chocolate-PB combo
• Lemon vanilla: Add lemon zest to the vanilla frosting for a brighter, tangier contrast with the chocolate side