Baltimore’s Berger Finest Cookies

Total Time: 41 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 11 mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 3 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Recipe

• 1 preheat the oven to 400°f
• 2 lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
• 3 to make the cookies: in a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, salt, vanilla, and baking powder.
• 4 beat in the sugar, then the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• 5 add the flour to the wet ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour.
• 6 do this gently; there’s no need to beat the batter.
• 7 using a muffin scoop, or a 1/4-cup measure, drop the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets.
• 8 flatten each mound of dough to a circle about 3" across; wet your fingers or a knife, or grease the bottom of a drinking glass or measuring cup to do this. leave 2" to 2 ½" between each cookie, for expansion.
• 9 bake the cookies for about 11 minutes, or until they’re a mottled brown on the bottom (carefully tilt one up to look), but not colored on top.
• 10 you may see the barest hint of browning around the edges, but these cookies are supposed to be soft and cake-like, so don’t over-bake them. cool the cookies on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.
• 11 to make the icing: place the chocolate chips, baking chocolate, corn syrup, butter, and cream into a large microwave-safe bowl, or into a large saucepan.
• 12 heat the mixture till it’s very hot; the cream will start to form bubbles.
• 13 remove from the heat, and stir until smooth.
• 14 let cool to room temperature; this will take at least a couple of hours, so plan accordingly.
• 15 when completely cool, beat with an electric mixer for 6 to 7 minutes, until the icing lightens in color just a bit, and thickens just slightly.
• 16 spread each cookie with a generous 3 tablespoons icing (about 42g, about 1 1/2 ounces), leaving ¼" bare around the outside edge of each cookie.
• 17 a heaped tablespoon cookie scoop works very well here.
• 18 it’ll feel like you’re piling on a lot of icing; that’s precisely the point!
• 19 allow to set, then store airtight in a single layer.
• 20 yield: 2 dozen 3 ½" cookies.