In November, my friend
Amie posted a link on Facebook to an article from the
North Baltimore Patch website about how the FDA's proposed ban on trans fats would destroy the beloved Baltimore tradition: The Berger Cookie.
For those of you who didn't grow up in Maryland, a Berger Cookie is a big, soft sugar cookie topped with a thick layer of fudge. And yes, they are delicious. It would be a shame if they disappeared.
The article states:
Berger Cookies, cake-like cookies topped with a thick slab of fudge, have been prepared with the same basic recipe since the 1800s in Baltimore.
But two of the cookies’ key ingredients—margarine and fudge—contain partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, a source of trans fat.
And then we have this quote from owner and president Charles DeBaufre Jr.:
“We’ve tried it and trust me, it is nasty. It doesn’t taste right,” DeBaufre said. “The texture’s not there. It’s an entirely different product.”
But wait: If they've been using the same basic recipe since the 1800s, wouldn't they already have somewhere in the archives a solution to the trans fat dilemma? As far as I know, cooks weren't using partially-hydrogenated oils in their baked goods 200 years ago. But I'm not a food historian, so I might be wrong. It's entirely possible that trans fats have always been a part of the recipe. Still, I wasn't convinced that the trans fat ban (if passed - anyone know if it actually went through??) would spell doom for this decadent dessert. And to prove my point, I made my own Berger Cookies, which I believe are even better than the cookies I used to buy at the grocery store when I lived in Maryland.
*Note: The following recipe is not entirely my own. I combined my mom's recipes for Sugar Cookies and Fudge, with just a few minor tweaks.
Better than Berger Cookies
