Favourite Christmas Half Moon Cookies

Favourite Christmas Half Moon Cookies are an upstate New York holiday tradition, particularly around the Utica and Mohawk Valley regions where bakeries have sold them by the dozen for over a century. They look similar to the New York City black-and-whites, but the resemblance ends at the frosting. Half moons are softer, fluffier, and cake-like rather than dense, with a buttermilk crumb closer to a flat cupcake than a cookie.

The trick to that pillowy texture is the buttermilk and the way the baking soda dissolves into it before joining the batter. Quarter-cup portions get scooped onto the sheet and bake into puffy domes. Once cooled, the cookies flip so the flat bottom faces up, ready to be frosted half white and half chocolate. That flat surface is what makes the iconic two-tone presentation possible.

Pro Tips

• Drop big quarter-cup portions. The recipe calls for sixty cookies but they’re meant to be substantial. Smaller cookies bake too thin and dry.
• Pull from the oven when the edges are barely golden but the tops still look pale. They keep cooking on the sheet, and over-baking gives a tough cookie instead of a tender one.
• Frost the flat side (the underside during baking). The dome top is uneven and won’t look as clean.
• Use a butter-based frosting for both halves, the same base tinted with cocoa for the chocolate side. Different bases on each half taste mismatched.

Variations

• Add a teaspoon of lemon zest to the dough for a brighter, more old-fashioned flavor.
• Use vanilla extract in the white frosting and a teaspoon of espresso powder in the chocolate side.
• Make smaller cookies for a tea-tray presentation, just shorten the bake time to 6 to 8 minutes.