Edit: Ugh! I set this to automatically post while I was in Europe and it didn’t. Wordpress must hate me.

It’s the end of the month and what does that mean for baker blog world!? The Daring Bakers challenge is due of course and for once I remembered to get it done on time! Since I lost track of time and missed the last two challenges I MADE SURE I had this one done early! Oh and it doesn’t stop there! Not only did I finish this challenge within the first week of July, but I also made it THREE times! I would have made these bad boys a fourth if I hadn’t run out of gelatin because the recipe is just that amazing. My family went through these so fast that they would be completely gone by day two. It was insane.

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.

Oh and I have decided that I’m going to try and start this new thing. You see, my favorite types of food blogs are the ones that try to capture as many steps as possible. I’m a very visual person so I love being able to see how everything is supposed to look as you go along. As fantastic as a final picture looks, I really love being able to tell if my mix looks correct and to see what kind of techniques others use so I want to try and do this as well. Beware, this blog is about to get rather picture heavy!

Begin by blending all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then add the butter.

At a low speed, mix until it has a sandy look!

Add the eggs and mix until well combined!

Mold the dough into a disk-like shape (it really doesn’t matter), wrap in clingform, and chill for 1 hour up to 3 days.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease or line a cookie sheet. Lightly flour your surface and roll out the dough to around a 1/8th inch thickness.

Find a cookie cutter that’s about 1 to 1-21/2 inches and cut away! I actually found that I liked the cookies more when I used a 1 inch cookie cutter. They felt really big when I used a larger one, but whatever works for you!

Place you’re lovely little dough pieces on your prepared sheet and bake for ten minutes (or until golden brown).

Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature. On my second and third batch I spread a layer of peanut butter on each cookie. It made them taste even better!

Anyway, begin to prepare your marshmallow! I’d like to note that I found THIS video very helpful when making marshmallows if it’s your first time.

Now, in a saucepan combine water, corn syrup, and sugar. Allow to boil to the soft ball stage or until it’s around 235 degrees.

Dissolve gelatin in cold water. Remove your syrup from the heat and mix in the gelatin.

Whip the egg whites into soft peaks form! This should take a couple minutes.

Pour the syrup mixture into the egg whites and add vanilla extract.

Continue whipping until stiff and when it gets that fantastic shine. It’ll be slightly runny, but not too runny. It should be able to hold some sort of shape without turning back into a blob. Transfer to a piping bag.

Pipe a kiss on top of each cookie.

If you want a more uniform look there was another method suggested by Audax Artifex, which I tried on my second batch.

You can fill a tray with flour, icing sugar, or even cornstarch and loosely stamp your marshmallow shape into it. Then fill the holes with marshmallow and allow to sit for up to 2 hours or until stiff enough to move.

I found this method helpful to get a perfect dome shape, but I sort of sucked at getting the bottom flat so my second batch was still kind of funky. On my third try I used an open star piping tip and piped the marshmallows in a swirl.

Create your chocolate glaze. Line a cookie sheet with parchment and begin to dip your marshmallow cookies into the glaze one at a time. Use a fork to scoop them out and to allow any excess chocolate to fall off. The marshmallow shouldn’t melt. I did find that when I accidentally burned the chocolate the marshmallows melted almost instantly, but when done correctly they were fine.

Let set until the coating is firm (about 1-2 hours). I put mine in the fridge overnight because I happened to finish mine at around midnight each time. It was also insanely humid where I live so there was no way the chocolate would ever fully set at room temperature.

All done and boy were they delicious! I swear to you, that layer of peanut butter did wonders. Somehow marshmallow, cinnamon cookie, peanut butter, and chocolate all go so well together. I would never have known! I really want to try other combinations now!

Here’s the inside of the first batch without that fantastic peanut butter layer. I also made the mistake of making my cookies too thick. Woops! Still very delicious though.

In all, this challenge was fantastic. It’s not too hard, but surprisingly incredibly delicious and addictive. Your family won’t be able to keep their hands off these little cookies! Oh and don’t forget about the Milan cookies too! I never got a chance to make them, but from everyone elses pictures they looked amaazzzinnggg. Mmm. God I love cookies.

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies

• 3 cups (375 grams/13.23 oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cups (112.5 grams/3.97 oz) granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 Tablespoons (170 grams/6 oz) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, whisked together
• Homemade marshmallows (recipe follows)
• Chocolate glaze (recipe follows)

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.
9. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
11. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.
12. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
13. 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 Marshmallow

• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar
• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 egg whites , room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

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.

Chocolate Glaze

• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

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

Milan Cookies

• • 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested

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.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. 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.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.