Make Baltimore’s Iconic Fudge-Topped Cookies With This Actual-Deal Recipe From a Meals Historian

When Henry Berger moved from Germany to Baltimore within the mid-1800s and opened a humble bakery in a metropolis already teeming with German bakeries, breweries, and butcher retailers, he most likely could not have dreamed that over 150 years later his legacy would stay on by means of the Berger cookie—a cakey, evenly candy vanilla cookie base with a thick layer of fudgy chocolate frosting perched on prime. Though Berger’s bakery was offered and have become DeBaufre Bakeries in 1969, the Berger cookie continues to be offered on the bakery and has a passionate regional following. Copycat “Baltimore-Model” or “Berger-Model” cookies can be discovered at bakeries and supermarkets all through Baltimore, however for a lot of, solely an actual Berger cookie from DeBaufre Bakeries will do. 

In Baltimore, Berger cookies have reached such iconic standing that they’re now not an finish in themselves. They now make their method into different native food merchandise, such because the Charmery’s Berger Cookies & Cream ice cream and the Baltimore Bomb pie at Dangerously Scrumptious. Like all good hyper-local specialty, Berger cookies elicit some sturdy opinions. “Berger cookies make me consider my journeys to Lexington Market as a child,” Angel Llewellyn, a lifelong Baltimorean, recollects fondly. “They used to have a complete stall stuffed with cookies and desserts. I can nonetheless keep in mind the trays stuffed with treats, stay bands enjoying, and the glow from the entire indicators.”

Whereas Berger cookies have many ardent followers like Llewellyn, there are some haters among the many locals: When Berger Cookies come up in dialog or in Baltimore-centric Fb teams, there are all the time just a few individuals chiming in that they’re “too candy” or “too wealthy.” However for these of us who love the cookies, the sweetness is all a part of the attraction. And whereas there are different bakery and grocery store replicas on the market, nothing else hits fairly the precise notes of a real Berger cookie. I dove into the Berger cookie’s historical past and baked up batch after batch to develop my foolproof copycat recipe under for individuals who need to recreate the unique of their house kitchens. Learn on for tips about perfecting the sunshine, cakey cookie and dense, candy fudge topping and to get the total recipe.

Historical past of the Berger Cookie

Baltimore’s historical past of German immigration is woven all through the town’s culinary panorama, from the ever present shakers of Previous Bay (which originated in Baltimore and was created by German immigrant Gustav Brunn) to the sauerkraut served with Thanksgiving turkey. Germans have had a lingering affect on the native candy tooth as nicely.

“Berger was amongst many German names within the baking enterprise,” says Claire Mullins, former advertising director for the Baltimore Museum of Trade. The museum has an exhibit centering on bakeries, together with Berger. She feels that “nothing says Baltimore fairly just like the fudge icing–topped Berger cookie.”

Mullins factors out that Baltimore was a serious level of entry for immigrants from Europe, who introduced with them the recipes for breads and pastries from throughout Europe. “When baked right here [these breads and pastries] supplied a style of house, and small family-owned bakeries helped to form the tradition of Baltimore and its various neighborhoods.” 

Francis Beirne devoted a complete chapter of his 400-page 1950 cultural reflection The Amiable Baltimoreans to the phenomenon. “From the times when individuals of German blood first discovered their technique to Baltimore they started to play an vital half in offering food and drinks to the general public, they usually proceed to predominate within the discipline,” Beirne wrote. An 1884 metropolis listing lists 4 Bergers who had been bakers.

Visually, Berger cookies bear a resemblance to an virtually fully forgotten pastry often known as Kossuth desserts, a form of chocolate-covered cream puff. Kossuth desserts had been a well-liked specialty in Baltimore bakeries after the Hungarian Revolutionary Lajos Kossuth visited the town in 1851. Tales range on whether or not the desserts had been merely named in Kossuth’s honor or impressed straight by his description of the same pastry. It’s doable that Berger’s bakery tailored Kossuth desserts for longevity and mass manufacturing, ditching the cream filling within the course of.

Many individuals examine Berger cookies to chocolate tops or black and white cookies. All three cookies have a candy, delicate, cake-like cookie base, however the texture of the Berger cookie topping is extra like a stiff and crystalline fudge than the pourable fondant icing on these different two cookies—and Baltimore has an extended historical past of fudge. Many Nineteenth-century recipes for fudge go underneath the identify “Baltimore Caramels.” By the early 1900s, recipes appeared in regional newspapers for “Baltimore Fudge.”

Ideas for Creating the Excellent Cakey Berger Cookie Base

The cookie a part of a Berger cookie is someplace between cake and a cookie. Listed below are just a few key tricks to getting it good.

Skip the yolks. The softer, cake-like texture of Berger cookies had me tempted to depart within the enriching fattiness of an egg yolk, however I discovered in my testing that omitting the yellow yolks creates a satisfyingly white cookie to distinction the darkish fudge. And I used to be nonetheless capable of obtain the specified delicate texture even when simply utilizing egg whites. 

Begin with softened butter. A significant factor that may push the cookies too far into the cake zone is utilizing butter that’s too chilly, which causes the dough to tackle an excessive amount of air, rise too excessive, and stay overly delicate. So be certain to make use of softened butter that lotions simply within the batter.

Go for evaporated milk. Whereas many cookbook and on-line recipes for Berger-style cookies name for milk and cream, I discovered that the concentrated taste of evaporated milk enhanced each the cookie and the fudge. The nutty caramel notes of evaporated milk pack in taste with out including an excessive amount of moisture or fats. (Evaporated milk additionally makes an look in Maryland’s state dessert, Smith Island Cake, the place it equally enhances each fudge and cake. Its bonus shelf-stability lends itself to island dwelling.)

Be beneficiant with the vanilla. After I separated a Berger cookie from the grocery retailer for inspection, and tasted the cookie alone, with out its fudge topping, I used to be shocked on the vanilla-forward taste of the cookie itself. To imitate this, I embrace two teaspoons of vanilla extract in my recipe. For a taste that’s nearer to the true factor, chances are you’ll even go for synthetic vanilla as an alternative of pure vanilla extract.

Perfecting the Berger Cookie’s Fudge Topping

Getting the chocolate topping proper for Berger cookies is likely to be probably the most difficult a part of the recipe. The cookies needs to be coated in a dense fudge layer that’s clean sufficient to unfold simply over every cookie with out tearing the cookie base, however thick sufficient to carry its form. Most significantly, this topping needs to be piled excessive—at the least a strong half-inch thick on prime of every cookie, with a little bit of a crystalline texture (that is truly a welcome high quality right here!). In a 2022 article, an worker at Rheb’s, a historic Baltimore chocolatier, referenced an outdated fudge recipe of their assortment. “It’s a hard-grained fudge, not just like the creamy fudge we make,” he mentioned. Previous Baltimore fudge recipes concerned numerous the very factor that we now keep away from—stirring. The satisfying chew atop a Berger cookie could nicely be all ears to this older components. Whenever you take a chew right into a Berger cookie, your tooth marks needs to be clearly outlined in that fudge. 

However making fudge at house could be a little bit of a frightening activity. It requires temperature management and precise visible cues so you find yourself with the right fudgy texture slightly than a hardened sugary mess. I’ve seen copycat Berger cookie recipes that keep away from the problem of constructing fudge completely, and as an alternative name for fast no-cook icings that depend on melted chocolate and powdered sugar. Whereas I perceive the justification for attempting to take the shortcut—working with actual fudge might be intimidating—these outcomes persistently fall quick, and simply don’t have the satisfyingly fudgy consistency of an actual Berger cookie proper from the field, which is what I needed. Taking the time to make a thick, dense fudge topping is one of the simplest ways to provide a real Baltimore Berger-style cookie.

The excellent news is that I’ve developed a fudge recipe that’s approachable at house. Persistence, sweet thermometer, and a bit confidence are all you have to create a fudge topping that can impress a Baltimore native. The important thing to creating this fudge topping at house is to warmth the sugar slowly and evenly, and preserve your eye on the thermometer. The temperature for the sugar combination ought to rise to someplace between 235 to 240℉, nevertheless it wants to achieve this temperature slowly, over the course of a strong 15 to twenty minutes. Don’t rush the method, in any other case the sugar won’t dissolve correctly, and also you’ll be left with a hardened mess. In the event you discover the temperature rising too shortly, decrease the warmth.

For many do-it-yourself fudge, the purpose is to maintain the sugar crystals as small as doable, which often entails ready for it to chill to 120° earlier than stirring something into the combination. However I discovered that I may toss this common fudge knowledge apart and stir in my chocolate when the sugar had cooled to round 210°F. This created a fudge that retained a little bit of the crystalline chew that is an indicator of the Berger fudge topping.

The fudge cooks greatest in a skinny stainless-steel pan that doesn’t retain an excessive amount of warmth. As a lot as I like my enameled forged iron, in my assessments it was more durable to cease the warmth from rising too excessive as soon as I reached the mandatory temperature within the forged iron, and far simpler in stainless-steel. Including a remaining sprint of Dutch-processed cocoa to the fudge enhances the chocolate taste and ensures the fudge has a pleasant darkish shade like the true Berger cookie topping. Make sure you use Dutch-processed cocoa powder slightly than pure cocoa powder for a darker shade and extra mellow chocolate taste.

Assembling the Cookies

As soon as the fudge is made, it’s a little bit of a mad sprint to ice the cookies. I purchase myself a while by turning the warmth on very low to maintain the fudge softened whereas assembling the cookies. If it begins to stiffen, I like to recommend stirring in an occasional splash of water to maintain it shiny and delicate sufficient to unfold onto the cookies. In my assessments, I discovered that spooning the topping onto my cookies allowed me to dole out these famously beneficiant heaps with much less mess and waste than after I tried to dunk the cookies straight into the fudge.

My important departure from the basic Berger cookie is the scale. I went a bit smaller than the true factor, as a result of these cookies went shortly, and folks needed extra. In the event you choose a much bigger cookie, the recipe will nonetheless work in the identical timeframe so long as the batter is unfold out to a fair thickness. 

For these exterior the area, DeBaufre Bakery will ship their cookies of their common packaging or ornamental tins. For many who cannot wait or preferring a private contact, this do-it-yourself model thrilled my Baltimore-native tasters and had them sharing nostalgic reminiscences. I feel they are a tempting sufficient deal with to persuade even the Berger naysayers.

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