From Max's Opera House in San Francisco

[OldLeftieLawyer]

I just came across this when I was looking up another recipe.

They're not unlike layer cookies from forever, but these are really good, and now, I must go assemble ingredients and learn how to purge.

SEVEN LAYER COOKIES
MAX’S OPERA CAFÉ, SAN FRANCISCO

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt ¼ cup butter and spread in a 13 x 9 baking pan. Spread 1 cup graham cracked crumbs on top. Layer evenly with 1 cup each butterscotch chips, semisweet chocolate chips, chopped, walnuts and shredded coconut. Drizzle one can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk on top. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, just until barely golden. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into 2 x ½ inch squares. Make 3 dozen.

Good served plain. Also quite memorable if topped with ice cream, marshmallow crème, hot fudge sauce, and a nice sprinkling of crushed salted peanuts.

That reminds of James Beard's brilliant fudge sauce:

BEARD’S FUDGE SAUCE

12 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
3 Tbs. strong coffee
½ pint heavy cream
2 Tbs. cognac or rum

Melt the chocolates and coffee in a double boiler, add cream and cognac and stir until smooth. This sauce is simplicity itself, keeps indefinitely in the refrigerator, and tastes like heaven.

[The empressof all]

1. Those bars are killers

I make those on special occasions except I double the recipe and make them thicker. I prefer Pecans to Walnuts but it's just a matter of taste. If you've never had them.....Run away now....They are bad....very bad..... :hi:

[NMDemDist2]

2. that's what I was afraid of, just reading the recipe

made me gain another 5 pounds :rofl:

[OldLeftieLawyer]

3. This is why

I'm practicing my purging.

Pecans, eh? I made them once with cashews.

:::: sobbing :::::

[The empressof all]

4. Lets do them with macademias!

That'll guild this lilly!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. I am staring at this monitor

I can see we're going to have to add some Fibercon - twenty or thirty should do it - after the purging.

That would be the perfect cookie, wouldn't it?

I'm making them tomorrow.

Seriously.

[The empressof all]

6. I hear your arteries hardening all the way over here

Let me know how they come out. I'll do them for Christmas!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

9. I love your optimism

I'll be dead by tomorrow night. That's not hardening you hear - it's cracking.

Now, since we're on Christmas cookies, let me ask you about a cookie my mother used to make, and she's gone now, the recipe forever lost. It was a rolled cookie, a cream cheese crust (for want of a better word) with a date and nut filling inside. They were about the size of an index finger. And they were fabulous.

Mom didn't always get all the nutshells out of the nuts, so the memories of biting down can be painful, but they were absolutely wonderful.

I'm not a cookie baker, so I'm axin' here, since you, O TEOA, seem to know yer cookies.

Mercy.

[The empressof all]

10. Sounds like a ruggelah

Yummy stuffed jewish cream cheese cookie. I think I have the spelling down. They can be stuffed with all kinds of good stuff. My mom did one with walnuts, honey and dates, as well as prune, apricot and rasberry. I've even had poppy seed ones which were very yummo.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

11. Oh. My. doG.

I never put the two together. I absolutely LOVE rugelah, ruggelah. Costco makes GREAT ruggelah, and you know what?

I think you're dead right on.

The crust, though, that my mother made was creamier. Maybe she just used more cream cheese?

Poppy seed ruggelah? Sure you're not thinking of hamentaschen?

Thank you SO much.

[The empressof all]

12. Nope Not Hamentashen

Love them though. Poppy seed ruggelah. Yum. The baker used the pasty poppy seed filling you see in some pastrys. The goopy one. I've tried the one that comes in a can but it's not very authentic IMO. I should google around some day and look for a recipe. Now I've got a serious hankering for ruggehach. I've been toying with the idea of doing a major project for Thanksgiving but was leaning towards making pierogi. I've never done them before. I have made ruggelach. Now I have a decision to make. Damn you OLL. :)

[OldLeftieLawyer]

13. What kind of pierogi?

Because if you're talking about the good old Polish kinds that all my girlfriends' mothers made when I was growing up - and I bet you are - you might want to check here - http://coalregion.com/ - and go to the Recipes section (on the left) for the definitive recipe.

Mrs. T's, by the way, is owned by a friend of mine. They're not bad, in a pinch - http://www.pierogies.com/

I'm still going to make those cookies tomorrow. I am.

There will be photos.

There will be macadamias.

So there!

[The empressof all]

14. Thanks for the link

I'm hoping to make cheese, potato, and the sauerkraut. I have a hard time finding farmers cheese out here in PNW which is what I remember my grandmother using. I've never made them but I've seen them made many times. (Yes we are talking about the Polish ones or in my case the Ukrainian ones---same thing with pirogi I think).

You are right Ms T's will do but I also don't mind the ones I get at Trader Joes. But coming from such a traditionally "ethnic" family as I do---there really is nothing like Grandma's. I'll look around your link. I haven't decided on a recipe yet so I'm still on the look out for something that appears to be close to what I remember watching them do.

Can't wait for the cookie report. I've always known them as goodie bars. My daughter begs me to make them every time she sees Sweetened Condensed milk in the Pantry. I've never told her how easy they are to make. I don't want her to make them because I don't want them in the house....

They are EVIL.........Have fun

[Neecy]

21. hmmm.....

The cookie your mother made sounds like a kotlachky. There's more cream cheese in the shell recipe and the filling you described is very common with this cookie (although my mother always made it with apricot filling, and it was delicious).

[OldLeftieLawyer]

22. Well, now!

Yes,the shell was really creamy, remarkably so. They were great cookies.

Do you possibly have a recipe? Thank you........

[Neecy]

23. yep, sure do

This recipe sounds strange because there's no leavening in the cookie, but hey, it's always worked and it's simple. The cookie itself is more of a pastry recipe than a cookie recipe. The shell of the cookie sounds just like your moms - very creamy and with a distinct cream cheese flavor.

4 sticks (1 lb) butter or margarine
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted all purpose flour

filling

Mix half of the ingredients at a time for easier mixing. Blend 1/2 package cream cheese and 2 sticks of butter/magarine until smooth. Add 2 cups of flour, a little at a time, and mix well. Form into ball and wrap in wax paper and store in the refrigerator for about 6 hours or overnight. Mix second batch as above and refrigerate.

Use a filling of your choice - my mom always used Solo apricot filling.

Roll out dough 1/8" thick. Use a glass to cut out circles. Put a small amount (about half a teaspoon) of filling into the center and fold the dough over to form a half-circle. Crimp edges with a fork and lightly prick the top of the cookie with the fork. (You can do this a little more quickly by simply making a thumbprint in the center of the dough circle and putting your filling in the depression and baking this way, but I'm a creature of habit and I always make them like mom did!). Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until light brown. Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

24. YOU TOTAL DOLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your kindness and generosity have won you - yes - THE PUSSYCAT!!!!!!




Thanks so much!!! How nice of you .............

[Neecy]

25. Always welcome.

It was worth typing out for the cat :)

[wryter2000]

7. That sounds great

And easy, too. Thanks.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

8. I haven't seen that recipe in

probably 35 years. We used to call them 'hello dolly's'. I have no idea why.

edit for typos

[Shakespeare]

15. That's what they called them in the movie "Dick"

And any DUer who hasn't seen that movie should go rent it NOW. One of the most bitingly funny movies I've seen in years.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

16. These are the "Dick" cookies?

They ARE?

That was one of the funniest, smartest, oh, god, was it funny, movies ever made.

You have to be a certain age to appreciate it fully, though, I do believe.

These are them?

<smacking forehead>

[Shakespeare]

17. Yup, those are them.

Dan Hedaya did Nixon better than NIXON did Nixon! And Dave Foley was hilarious as Haldeman. I was 9 when the hearings were going on, but was apparently born a complete political geek, and actually spent my summer watching them (my mom wrote it off as general weirdness on my part).

I need to watch that one again.

[grasswire]

18. cookies and movies

This is a real house party now. Isn't the Internet amazing?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

19. Now I'm serious

Tomorrow, I make it to the market, get the fixings and bake those damn cookies.

Pics forthcoming. Be warned.

[NMDemDist2]

20. ..

:scared: