Freakin' Delicious!

I don’t know what happened to this post…

I had written a lot about the whole experience of making this recipe, along with the recipe itself of course.

I’m so pissed that it got messed up and completely blanked out on everything that I wrote!

So I’m just going to keep this simple.

These are my chocolate mallows that I made for the July Daring Bakers Challenge.

For the July challenge we had the choice of making either one recipe or two.

The Chocolate Mallows and Milano Cookies.

I chose to make both of course. My mallows turned out really well, a success.

They were soooooo good, the marshmallow inside stayed fluffy and creamy, while the chocolate outside stayed dry and yet shinny.

The cookies to my chocolate mallows’ base are like shortbread cookies, they have crunchy layers inside and must go

really well plain with some tea, or you can simply take your cookie and dip it half way in the chocolate sauce. I used

dark chocolate to cover my mallows and would always add milk into it as the liquid in the sauce evaporated in the

broiler.

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Chocolate Mallows

INGREDIENTS:

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Cookie base:

3 cups (375g) all purpose flour

1/2 cup (112.5g) white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/8 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

12 tbsp (170g) unsalted butter

3 eggs, whisked together

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Homemade marshmallows:

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup light corn syrup (I used glucose, works just as well)

3/4 cup (168.76 g) sugar

1 tsp powdered gelatin

2 tbsp cold water

2 egg whites , room temperature

1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

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Chocolate glaze:

12 ounces semisweet chocolate

2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

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DIRECTIONS:

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Cookie base:

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.

2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.

3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.

4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.

5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.

6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches

cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.

8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.

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Homemade marshmallows:

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage,

or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.

2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.

3. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.

4. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.

5. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.

6. Transfer to a pastry bag

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Chocolate glaze:

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

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Putting it all together:

1. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let it set at room temperature for 2 hours.

2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.

3. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.

4. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.

5. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

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The Milano Cookies were the first ones to be made and they turned out great, except for the part where the cookie

stuck to the parchment paper and would NOT peel out.

So guess what?

They were eaten with the paper stuck to them, no one noticed, because of the chocolate filling inside.

So next time, I’ll have to butter my parchment paper and so should you, if you ever plan on making them.

Now don’t get the sticky parchment paper get to you, the cookies are very tasty and worth making,

just remember about buttering your pan or parchment paper!

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Milano Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

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Cookies:

12 tablespoons (170 g) unsalted butter, softened

2 1/2 cups (312.5 g) powdered sugar

7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons lemon extract

1 1/2 cups (187.5 g) all purpose flour

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Filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 orange, zested

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DIRECTIONS:

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Cookies:

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.

2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.

3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.

4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan,

spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.

5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges.

Let cool on the pan.

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Filling:

1. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.

2. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.

3. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).

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Putting it all together:

1. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and

press the flat side of a second cookie on top.

2. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.