Homemade Berger Cookies

To go along with our celebratory jumbo crabs this past weekend, I commissioned my sister Genevieve to make Josh and I some of her homemade Berger Cookies for dessert. And, your either gonna love me or hate me for sharing, cuz these babies are the death of any diet...

Cookies
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cups sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups unbleached All-Purpose flour
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400°. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, salt, vanilla, and baking powder. Beat in the sugar, then the egg.

Add the flour to the wet ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Do this gently; there’s no need to beat the batter.

Using a teaspoon cookie scoop, drop the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten each mound of dough to a circle about 1 ½" 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 1⁄2" between each cookie, for expansion.

Bake the cookies for 11 to 12 minutes at 400°, or until they’re a mottled brown on the bottom (carefully tilt one up to look), but not colored on top. 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.

Great Aunt Mary's Icing
12 squares (6 oz) Ghiradelli unsweetened chocolate
6 tablespoons butter
10 tablespoons milk
4 cups Confectioner's Sugar
2 pinches salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt chocolate and butter together over double boiler. Add remaining ingredients blending til smooth and all lumps gone.

*Genevieve substituted our Great Aunt Mary's yummy chocolate icing recipe for the one she found online.

Set cookies on a rack. Spread icing evenly atop the cookies. Allow to set, then store airtight in a single layer.

Yield: Twenty-eight 2 ¼" cookies.

See? That's right. Death to any diet...

Yup, those same hands that were shoveling in Berger Cookies faster than my sister could spread the icing paid the piper on Monday when they met the carpet for countless, grueling penance push ups...

Kindness of everyone for just accepting the fact that every picture til Labor Day will have me sporting my post, swimming in the ocean all day, Simba doo, aka, the golden helmet. Both id's coined by Babe. Once a swimmer, always a swimmer...XXOO