Santa's Favorite Black and White Cookies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a hand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add the milk.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients, and gradually add to the butter-sugar mix. Stir in the lemon zest.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use an ice-cream scoop (don't fill it up all the way) to drop six largish circles of batter onto the baking sheet. Smush them down a bit in a circular motion with s spoon so you don't wind up with giant puffy cookies. Bake for 15 minutes or until they spring back when pressed. Remove from the oven, let them sit for five minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack. If some of the cookie bottom sticks to the parchment that's OK, because that means they won't be so tippy.
4. Prepare frosting: gather 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup plus one tablespoon boiling water, 1/2 ounce bittersweet chocolate, shaved. In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar and water until melted. Transfer half into a small bowl, set aside; add chocolate to the remaining half and stir over low heat until melted.
5. Frost the flat half of each cookie with white icing; the other half with brown icing. Serve with a New York attitude!