New York black and white cookies

Cream the butter and sugar for two to three minutes until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and mix until combined.

In a smaller bowl combine the baking soda, salt and flour; separately mix the buttermilk and vanilla.

Add the flour and buttermilk alternately, a little at a time, starting with flour, until all is in.

Preheat the oven; spoken as '150 degrees Fahrenheit is 176.7 degrees Celsius'.

Butter the parchment paper. The batter is too soft to scoop, so pipe it onto the parchment, leaving plenty of space between cookies.

Smack the tray against the counter to knock out air bubbles.

Bake 15 to 17 minutes (first batch).

Variation (second, preferred batch): a thicker batter with a little more baking soda and one normal-size egg instead of one and a half; bake about 14 minutes.

Make a substitute corn syrup by mixing one and a quarter cups sugar with a quarter cup hot water.

For the fondant icing, stir together the powdered sugar, one tablespoon corn syrup, two teaspoons lemon juice, one tablespoon water and a quarter teaspoon vanilla until smooth.

Move half to a separate bowl and mix in a quarter cup cocoa powder, adding a little water so it matches the texture of the vanilla icing.

Flip each cookie and spread vanilla icing over half of the flat side, then chocolate icing over the other half; a little overlap is fine.