BALTIMORE'S BERGER FINEST COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400°F
• Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
• To make the cookies: In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, salt, vanilla, and baking powder.
• Beat in the sugar, then the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• 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 muffin scoop, or a 1/4-cup measure, drop the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets.
• Flatten each mound of dough to a circle about 3" 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 ½" between each cookie, for expansion.
• Bake the cookies for about 11 minutes, 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.
• To make the icing: Place the chocolate chips, baking chocolate, corn syrup, butter, and cream into a large microwave-safe bowl, or into a large saucepan.
• Heat the mixture till it's very hot; the cream will start to form bubbles.
• Remove from the heat, and stir until smooth.
• Let cool to room temperature; this will take at least a couple of hours, so plan accordingly.
• When completely cool, beat with an electric mixer for 6 to 7 minutes, until the icing lightens in color just a bit, and thickens just slightly.
• Spread each cookie with a generous 3 tablespoons icing (about 42g, about 1 1/2 ounces), leaving ¼" bare around the outside edge of each cookie.
• A heaped tablespoon cookie scoop works very well here.
• It'll feel like you're piling on a lot of icing; that's precisely the point!
• Allow to set, then store airtight in a single layer.
• Yield: 2 dozen 3 ½" cookies.