Back while I was still living in the UK one of my friends brought us some Berger cookies from her hometown of Baltimore. Like most of the rest of the world, I had never heard of these cookies. According to wikipedia, they were developed by a baker in Baltimore in the 1850s, adapted from a German recipe. The base is similar to that of the black and white cookie, aka a soft boring sugar cookie. But then that simple white cookie is piled high with a fudge like chocolate frosting and that is what makes this cookie shine. My friend from Baltimore tells me the goal when making them at home should be to have as high a ratio of chocolate to cookie as possible. I usually aim for 1:1, before the chocolate looks about to topple off the cookie base.
I think I've finally perfected the chocolate fudge topping, now that a few people from Baltimore have tasted them and said they are better than the original. I shipped some this week to the friend who introduced them to me, and she wrote back that "they taste like friendship and home." For a blog that is all about comfort food and baking away from home, that seemed like a pretty perfect endorsement (at least for those from Baltimore).
