Baltimore's Little Secret by Paula

Baltimore has a well kept little secret. It’s a wonderful cookie made at the DeBaufre Bakery called the Berger Cookie, named after the original founders of the bakery, the Berger brothers from Germany . It’s really a very simple cookie and is much like the Black and White cookie in New York and New Jersey. It has a simple soft sugar cookie base. But the topping! Oh My! The topping is outrageous! It is as thick as the cookie and is a thick, fudgy chocolate that is soft and yet firm. It doesn’t melt in your hand, but there is more chocolate in every bite than any candy bar you have ever eaten.

Recently, I was doing a catering job for the opening Gala Fund Raiser for the show “Hairspray”, which takes place in Baltimore. The menu reflected the low country Southern cuisine that is featured in the show. But in a nod to Baltimore, I had to include the Berger Cookie for dessert. A phenomenon that most people here were unacquainted with. I couldn’t afford to order enough cookies directly from Baltimore (you can order them on line) with the budget I had, so I determined to make them myself.

Once again, I had to experiment with the recipes I found on line. Other people have also attempted to recreate the cookie in their own kitchen, which in itself is a challenge, because bakeries have access to ingredients and equipment that the home baker does not. After a couple of tries I found the cookie base that seemed most authentic. But the topping was more illusive. People on line seemed to feel that it was a ganache. I disagreed, though I tried it with the ganache at first. It was clearly not a plain ganache of chocolate and cream. That was too thin and too soft, not the chewy texture of the real thing. I tried adding corn syrup, which improved the thickness, but it was too sweet and again too soft.

One day it dawned on me that it might be fudge instead of ganache. I made a few batches of fudge. It had to be a dark chocolate, not milk chocolate fudge. At about this time, a friend of Walt’s from Baltimore sent him a couple packages of Berger cookies. I was able to taste the cookie alongside my different versions. I had finally found a fudge that matched the flavor of their topping pretty closely. And finally, I have the perfect Berger Cookie recipe that I can make at home when I can’t have the real thing (which is still a tad better than the homemade version, I admit).

So here then is my version of the Berger Cookie. It’s easy and decadent. Don’t be stingy with the fudge topping, it is supposed to be at least as thick as the cookie.



Cookies: Makes approx 30 cookies
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1 ½ tsp salt
1 TBS Baking Powder
2 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup milk
4 ½ cups flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Sift flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.
Cream butter, vanilla, sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium for 2 minutes. Add eggs til incorporated. Scrape down sides. Add vanilla.
Alternately add milk and flour mixture just to incorporate.
Chill batter for at least 10 minutes. Dough must be cold before handling.
Roll dough out on lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 2" rounds and place on parchment lined baking sheets.
Bake for 10 minutes.

The topping is more difficult to figure out. People on line suggested a ganache. I think it is more of a fudge. I am including both recipes here.

Fudge:
½ cup whipping cream
½ cup light corn syrup
3 cups (18 0z) semi sweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
Bring cream and corn syrup to a boil in a heavy 2 qt sauce pan over medium heat. Boil 1 minute. Stir in chocolate. Stir until chocolate is melted. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla.
Place cookies single layered, flat side up, on a cooling rack set over a cookie sheet.
When fudge is slightly cooled and thickened, but still thin enough to pour, pour over cooled cookies. Refrigerate til set.

Ganache:
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
10 oz semi-sweet chocolate
2 TBS unsalted butter
1/3 c + 2 TBS light corn syrup

Melt all ingredients in a pot on low.
Remove from heat when melted and let sit til it comes to room temp.
Frost each cookie on bottom or flat side of cookie with a very thick layer of frosting (equal to the thickness of the cookie).
Note: Frost when frosting has set up but is shiny and still spreadable. If it sits too long it becomes too set and though it is spreadable it loses it’s shininess.

Let cookies sit over night to reach proper density.

THE BIG LASAGNA
by
Walt

In the fall of 1987, I was at the Harriman House in Harriman, NY for a Columbia University Business School retreat. I don’t remember much about what was taught that week, but I do remember eating a nice vegetarian lasagna ( for an institutional setting). I came home and decided to make my own version of vegetarian lasagna.

Never having had the Italian Grandmother that I had always wished for, nor having had an extensive Italian cooking background, I made the lasagne how I thought it should be made. Strangely, without using garlic.

In graduate school at U of M, I had made what became known as “Walt’s Fireghetti”, a homemade spaghetti sauce with a base of seasoned, sweated onions and mushrooms. That base seemed fabulous for lots of things like spaghetti and stroganoff, so I used that as a jumping off point for the lasagna. Next I added zucchini and green and red peppers to the sweating onion mixture. After adding those vegetables, the resulting liquid in the pan was extremely flavorful. (It could be reduced and added back in, or it could be enjoyed by the chef, sopping it up with crusty bread.) It always seemed like the ricotta layer in lasagna was quite flavorless. So, my solution was to add all the softened, seasoned vegetables that had just been sweated down, to the ricotta along with an egg to hold it all together.

My family enjoyed the lasagna (once the kids were over the age of 16). When I didn’t have mushrooms on hand to use however, Paula and the kids liked it even better. One year, many years ago, I made it for a family gathering in La Canada, California at Thanksgiving time. (One of my nephews, Brian, still makes his own version for his family).

Twenty four years after that first aha moment at Harriman House, still never having gained an Italian Grandmother and facing the escalating price of prime ingredients, it was expedient to use second tier ingredients. Instead of using only the best stuff ( aside from the fresh vegetables), like De Cecco pasta, fresh mozzarella, and Parmesano Reggiano, I used second tier ingredients, such as Barilla pasta and Argentinean Parmesan.

Since Italian cooking is the cooking of Grandmothers and consists of time, texture and tasting (i.e. knowing when things are right), the only way to pass that on is by cooking together.
I think it helped that when I was dating Paula, I cooked for her. And it has certainly helped her to keep me around, because I cook to entertain her. So, since Parry needs help in the area of attracting a wife, we made “Second Tier Lasagna” together while he was home for Christmas.




Here then is the original recipe for
WALT’S VEGETARIAN LASAGNA:

Lasagne Noodles
1 pint container of ricotta cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 pound Kraft brand part skim mozzarella cheese, grated
1 to 1 ½ jars of Newman’s Sockarooni Spaghetti Sauce or your favorite Spaghetti Sauce
1 large onion, diced
2 medium zucchini, washed and chopped into ½ inch cubes
2 medium red and green peppers, washed, cored, seeded and diced into ½ inch cubes
olive oil
Knorr vegetable or chicken bullion cube
Salt and Pepper
Parmesan cheese, finely grated
9x13 inch glass or lasagne pan

1. Boil 12 noodles in a large pot of boiling, salted water until cooked but still firm. Drain and lay on paper towel to dry and cool.
2. Heat about 1/4 cup olive oil in a 16 “ saute pan over medium heat. Add onion and lower heat. Sweat onion about 15 minutes. Add peppers and sweat 2 to 3 minutes. Season with chicken or vegetable bullion cube (not diluted). Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a separate medium saute pan, heat 2 Tbs olive oil over medium heat. Add the zucchini and saute until lightly browned. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
4. In a medium bowl mix ricotta and egg til blended.
5. Gently fold in cooked and cooled vegetables to ricotta cheese mixture. Don’t worry if it seems a little salty, the ricotta can use the saltiness.

To Assemble:
1. Spread a small amount of spaghetti sauce in bottom of pan.
2. Lay 3 noodles (or as many as needed to cover bottom of pan) side by side. Spread sauce over noodles just enough to cover.
3. Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over the noodles.
4. Sprinkle 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese next.
5. Repeat layering as in steps 1-4 above 2 more times. Ending with noodles. Do not put sauce on top layer of noodles.
6. Cover with plenty of plastic wrap and weigh down with books or weights to compress layers. If made the day before, refrigerate until ready to bake.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
8. Remove weights and plastic wrap. Cover top of noodles with plenty of spaghetti sauce.
Bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese or additional mozzarella if desired, to cover and bake another 15 minutes. Let sit for 10-15 minutes before serving.