Monday, July 27, 2009

Daring Bakers challenge~ Milan cookies


The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

I'm not one for store bought cookies. Besides the occasional oreo, they are rarely purchased. When I saw the challenge for this month I thought, I'm not sure when the last time I had a Milano cookie (Pepperidge farm) was? I love baking cookies though and I love Gale Gand, so I was happy to try.

The recipe really isn't difficult, but it is a little putsy. It was fun to pull out my pastry bag (I rarely use it). Although I love the combination of chocolate and orange. I have a recipe for a shortbread cookie that has orange zest in it. You make a small indentation in the cookie and place in orange marmalade. After the cookies are done baking you dip half of each cookie in chocolate. These cookies are sooo good! I like the recipe I have better for this type of flavor.

I wasn't crazy about the lemon flavor in these cookies, I would add orange extract or orange zest instead. Everyone in my family liked these though...so maybe it's a keeper.

We had the option of making one or both cookies, I choose just one due to time constraints. I would like to try the chocolate marshmallow cookies though...I'm sure my kids would love them!

Milan Cookies

Ingredients
12 tablespoons butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon extract
1 1/2 cups flour
Cookie filling, recipe follows
Cookie filling:
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 orange, zested
Directions
Cream the butter with a paddle attachment then mix in the sugar. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated. 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. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
Cookie Filling: In a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl. Whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools). 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. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Chocolate covered marshmallow cookies

3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
12 tablespoons butter
3 eggs, whisked together
Homemade marshmallows, recipe follows
Chocolate glaze, recipe follows
Directions
Blend the dry ingredients in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed until sandy. Add the eggs and mix to combine. Form the dough into a disk, wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough, 1 to 1 1/2 inches. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake until light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
Pipe a ?kiss? of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a nonstick baking mat. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.
Note: if you don?t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.
Homemade marshmallows:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Homemade Marshmallows: Combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil until ?soft-ball? stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer. Meanwhile, sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff. Transfer to a pastry bag.
Chocolate glaze:
12 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil
Chocolate Glaze: Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

3 comments:

Bakelist said...

Oh my god! I just finished making coffee ice cream with my leftover yolks last night! Delicious.... These look great

Lucy said...

These cookies look fabulous, I too adore the chocolate-orange combination :)

creampuff said...

Growing up we almost never had store-bought cookies either! Nicely done!

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