In the past 15 minutes I just came across a wire story about the woman who won the $1 million Pillsbury prize for a cookie recipe that starts with refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough, and ran across the article about Baltimore’s Berger cookies in the May issue of Saveur.
I’ve never been tempted by a peanut butter cookie, although I surely wish I’d created this one. But the Berger cookie is another matter. It’s a vanilla cookie topped with a fudgy icing and looks dee-vine. What I miss the most about Seessel’s is the turtle cookies. I loved them from when I was a kid until they served the last one–and I would love them still if I could get my hands on one. What’s your idea of the quentessential Memphis cookie? We get many requests for the Memphis City Schools butter cookies, and Makeda’s makes one that’s nearly a deadringer.
I found a recipe online for what might be the turtle cookies from McKenzie’s Bakeries in New Orleans, which were nearly as good as Seessel’s. Here’s the link, if you want to take a look: http://herbsaint.wordpress.com/2006/01/13/turtle-cookies/ (here’s the picture, above). I’ll let you know if I try the recipe.
Responses to “Cookies”
April 29th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Makeda’s chocolate chip cookies are very good as well. If any of you remember the MCS chocolate chip cookies, these are very close as well. I just wish I could get to the shop when they are coming out of the oven!
As far as MCS butter cookies, if memory serves, there are really only 3 ingredients and you must use stick margarine or it won’t taste right. The salt and artificial buttery flavor are absolutely necessary. Using real butter will give you a fair clone of Walker’s Shortbread, and either one if fine in my book. I’ve never met a cookie I didn’t like. 
April 29th, 2008 at 9:58 am
I used to love the fruit mounds from Radefeld’s Bakery when they were downtown in the old Lowenstein’s location. But those butter cookies are wonderful too. Front Street Deli used to keep a basket of them (and may still) & I couldn’t leave there w/o a plastic wrapped stack of them. I also miss the old Seessel’s turtle cookies & the sliced cookies that had cherries in the dough. I’ve been meaning to try Paula Deen’s recipe where she wraps a Thin Mint/Grasshopper type cookie between two layers of slice & bake dough & bakes it so the chocolate gets melty in the center. That could be done with peanut butter slice & bake cookies as easily as sugar cookies. Truthfully, I’ve never met a cookie I didn’t like, but I’m particularly fond of snickerdoodles.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I’ve been looking for cookie from my childhood called a “Hello Dolly” cookie. Any ideas on where to get these or a recipe? It had several layers including coconut, chocolate chips and a lot of other stuff. We had them at bakesales around here all the time.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Let’s all try to think cookies, they are cookies, fancy cookies although they taste great are still cookies. The best cookies in my opion are the cookies I make at home with my two children, they are the best sous chefs you could dream up. They are chocolate chip cookie recipe straight from Betty Crocker, Old School but sitting on the patio with a glass of milk and your kids covered in chocolate is priceless, those are my favorite not perfect but the best cookies in town
April 29th, 2008 at 11:44 am
LBB,
Here’s the recipe for “Hello, Dolly’s”
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 stick melted butter
8 oz. chocolate chips
8 oz. coconut
8 oz. chopped pecans or walnut
8 oz. seedless raisins or dates
8 oz. butterscotch chips
1 can Eagle Brand milk
Mix melted butter and graham crackers to create a crust in a 9×13 baking pans. Layer, in order, the chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, raisins and butterscotch chips. Top with the can of Eagle Brand milk. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, til golden brown.
Enjoy with a glass of ice, cold milk!!!
April 29th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I used to love the Christies’s cookies when they were at Saddlecreek many years ago. Now I have to wait until I go to Nashville.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I used to love the sweet potato cookies I could buy at the French Market in New Orleans. Does anyone in Memphis make these?
April 29th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
tried the recipe for hello dolly cookies and they did not come out right……..Too gooey. Aren’t they supposed to be more cake like? what did i do wrong?
April 29th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
LBB, I re-checked my recipe, and it’s correct. Do you think they might be less gooey if you cooked them a little longer? Mine have never been cake-like, though. Sorry it didn’t work out!
April 30th, 2008 at 8:58 am
It might be sentimental, but some of my fondest cookie memories were of the cookies sold out of the door of the Bartlett High School hospitality/foodservice class at lunch time. They may not do it any more, but every Friday, the students in the class - who were learning how to cook in a restaurant environment and how to run a foodservice establishment - would sell bags of 4 or 5 hot, fresh chocolate chip cookies for $1 out of their classroom. I remember hoarding my change for those cookies, or trying to talk my dad out of an extra buck before I left for school. They were so good even my diabetic best friend sometimes got a little naughty and had one of mine.
Heck, I don’t even know if they were made from scratch or not, but they were darn tasty, and to this day I crave them.
April 30th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I really like the store brand refrigerated Oatmeal, Cranberry and Walnut cookies at the Piggly Wiggly. (They are found near the dairy case.) They have a very nice buttery flavor and are pretty generous with the nuts.
I have also tried the Kroger brand of the same variety thinking they would be the same, but they weren’t as good. Go figure.
April 30th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Being from New Orleans…I can tell you that, the picture you’re showing, as well as the recipe, I believe, is from Angelo’s Bakery in New Orleans(a fave bakery of mine for Italian fig cookies).
McKenzie’s was a favorite of mine for the Turtle cookies and the Turkish Macaroons. They’re Turtle Cookies were made with the cookie base with pecan pieces in it (I believe), a dollop of chocolate icing on top and then a pecan half placed on it for garnish.
Is there anyone out there that knows where to get or how to make Italian Fig Cookies (Cucidati)?
April 30th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Oh my gosh, I know that “They’re” should have been “Their” in my post. Sorry about the typo.
April 30th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I grew up in Annapolis, MD, and Berger cookies are amazing. Since moving to Memphis, I really miss seeing them on supermarket shelves. I would always take a box back to college with me, and my family still serves them on Christmas Eve - probably the only non-homemade food on the table. They do mail orders if I recall correctly, and would recommend them to anyone who loves chocolate. My dad loves them refrigerated!
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:27 am
1) The Hello Dolly bars (also known as Magic bars to my friends) are amazing - I’ve been trying to learn how to make them lately. First attempt very very gooey so the next time, I made them and set them in the fridge for one day. Then, took them out and let them sit and get to warm temp. for half a day. By the time I cut them into bars they were PERFECT. That is my suggestion.
2) I was little when Seesel’s closed and I miss the carnival cookies they had. I’m pretty sure they were just sugar cookies with M%M’s on them but I hate sugar cookies so these had more of a butter taste to them. Plus the M&M’s were larger and sweeter. Does anyone remember these? It was always the “free cookie” you’d get from the counter if you were a kid.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:43 pm
If you have never had Berger cookies, I highly recommend getting on a plane to Baltimore and getting some. I grew up in B’more and they are the BEST. I have regular Berger cookie cravings.
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