Chocolate and vanilla is a terrific combination, and cooks use it whenever they can. Black and white cookies, also called halfmoons, are big cakey discs covered with chocolate and vanilla icing sold at Dean and Deluca in New York City. A black cow is a chocolate soda with a vanilla ice cream float, and a hot fudge sundae is a scoop of vanilla ice cream with thick chocolate sauce running down the sides.
Black Bottom Pie is another twist on the chocolate and vanilla theme that’s hard to resist. Technically it’s a layer of chocolate covered with rum-flavored vanilla Bavarian cream and decorated with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. According to the late culinary guru, James Beard, recipes for Black Bottom Pie began showing up in cookbooks about 100 years ago.
