KB Fudge Cookies

Last summer I was in Utah visiting some family, and my aunt handed me a recipe and a couple magazine articles about some cookies that are pretty famous back East. In Baltimore, Maryland there is a bakery that sells "Berger Cookies". A quote from the magazine article my aunt handed me said, "I'd always considered the two-tone black-and-white cookies sold in the corner delis of my native New York City to be the height of cookie extravagance. But a plain old black-and-white is downright dainty when compared with its Baltimore relative, which consists of vanilla cake messily coiffed with chocolate fudge. "

Ummm, hello? Cookies AND fudge? How did I forget about this recipe and let it sit untouched among my recipes for over a year?!?

My aunt graciously did all the leg work, and found a recipe for those New York black and whites, altered the recipe slightly, added some fudge, and voila! Berger Cookies. ( I realize the title of my post says KB Fudge cookies- I'll get to that in a sec.)

We were going to have dinner guests on Sunday, and knowing full well I haven't updated this blog in FOREVER, I searched for something new and yummy and a guaranteed hit (anything from my aunt Janis is a good bet- unless I totally wreck it.)

So I got going on the recipe, pre-heated my oven, started the cookie dough, got distracted by my kids several times, and after about 2 1/2 hours after I pre-heated my oven, (still hadn't even stuck one cookie in it) it beeped at me, then shut itself off. And boy, was that oven hot. On the outside. The whole thing. My highly uneducated guess is that the heat regulator (I'm just making that phrase up, I have no idea what it is really called) is broken, and my oven just continues to get hotter, and hotter, whereas normal ovens try to stay around the temp you set it to (350) The heat turns on and off, thereby attempting to maintain whatever temperature you set. I think that thingy, whatever it is, is broken. Bad, bad news for cookie bakers. I can't be baking thin little butter cookies in 500 degree oven. (or whatever)

I stuck the cookie dough in the fridge and went to bed. Luckily my meal plan for the next day only included things cooked in the crock pot or on the stove top, and I had ice-cream as a back up, but I managed to beg a friend to let me come over after church and invade her kitchen and use her oven. ( She got a plate-full of the finished product.)

As always when trying out a new recipe, I ask for constructive criticism. "Don't spare my feelings! Tell me what you like or don't like about them! Please!" I received this e-mail the next day from a family John visits regularly-

"The cookies were so awesome! We started calling them “homemade E.L. Fudge Cookies” because we are fans of E.L. Fudge. They were delicious. Ryan said he would give them 5 stars out of 5 stars and Amber agreed. Then Audrey said 70 stars and Nathan said infinity. Tim and I agreed. Then we started calling them K.B Fudge cookies. That seemed more appropriate."

So without further ado,

KB Fudge Cookies

3 cups all purpose white flour (I added about 4 more Tbs flour- the dough was really sticky)

Scant 3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/3 cups sugar

2/3 cup (1 stick plus 2 2/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, lightly softened

1/2 cup Crisco

2 large eggs

2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp light corn syrup

1/3 cup sour cream

Pre-heat oven to 350. Bake for about 11 min, until edges start turning golden.

My aunt's instructions- (my comments in parenthesis) "I used my smallest cookie scoop, then rolled them in balls after spraying a little PAM on my palms (dough is sticky) I put the dough balls on Silpat on cookie sheets (I use parchment paper, the original recipe calls for greased cookie sheets).

After they are cool, turn upside down and put a cookie dough scoop full of warm fudge. (recipe follows) Mine may have been a little over cooked because it maintained its shape until spread out with a knife (me too). If you want them to look like the originals you could use a bigger cookie scoop full of fudge, then it would drip down the sides, but you would run out of fudge for all the cookies."

Fantasy Fudge (from the back of a jar of Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme)

3 cups sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter

1 small can (5 oz) evaporated milk

1 1/2 pkgs (12 squares) Bakers Semi-Sweet Baking chocolate, chopped

1 jar (7 oz) Jet-Puffed marshmallow creme

1 tsp vanilla

Place sugar, butter and evaporated milk in large heavy saucepan and bring to full rolling boil on medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 4 min, or until candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees. Stirring constantly to prevent scorching, remove from heat.

Add chocolate and marshmallow creme, stir until completely melted. Add vanilla, mix well.

Pour into bowl, and immediately spread on cookies.

- notes-

I might try cooking the fudge a little less next time. Also, it started to separate while I was "frosting" the cookies. I think that's normal, I'd just mix it back up, but I think several hands helping out with the frosting the cookies part would help.