Daring Bakers' Mallows

It is a blend of 3 different elements: baking butter cookies, preparing marshmallows and coating chocolate truffles! For those who are up to a more complicated challenge, this is what you are looking for. I found it quite a hassle having to wait 2 hours to get the marshmallow to dry prior to coating the cookies with chocolate, but totally loved decorating the cookies with patterns of marshmallow.

Another thing is I couldn’t figure out what I was going to do with the leftover marshmallows. So I piped them on the parchment paper, but then they were all glued to it once they were dried. Couldn’t seem to be possible to separate them from the paper. Should I bake them first??? The only solution I saw was that I should just prepare less portion of the marshmallow recipe, afterall I am not really a marshmallow fan.



This particular challenge just gave me the thrill to play around with different shapes of cookie cutters. While deciding on the shape of the cookies, think in advance what kind of marshmallow pattern would be nice on it. This will save time during the marshmallow piping process. Out of my curiosity I also played around with different kinds of spices for the cookies: cinnamon, cloves, mocca, and Chinese five spices. My preference is cloves!

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.

This recipe is courtesy of Gale Gand. Have made some adjustments for my own convenience. The original recipe can be found here.

MALLOWS – CHOCOLATE COVERED MARSHMALLOW COOKIES
Makes 300 pieces



1. Cookies
Prepare : cookie cutters in various shapes, sizes range 1 - 1.25 inches

Ingredients:
- All purpose flour > 188 grams
- Granulated sugar > 56 grams
- Salt > 1/4 teaspoon
- Baking powder > 1/2 teaspoon
- Baking soda > 1/4 tablespoon
- Salted butter > 85 grams
- Eggs - whisk together >1.5
- Ground cinnamon > 1 teaspoon
- Ground cloves > 1 teaspoon
- Mocca paste > 1 teaspoon
- Chinese five spices > 1 teaspoon

Method:
- In a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
- On low speed, add butter and mix until sandy.
- Add eggs and mix well.
- Divide dough into 4 portions. Fold in different flavoring in each portion - ground cinnamon, ground cloves, mocca, and Chinese five spices.
- Form dough into 4 disks, wrap with cling film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
- When ready, line baking tray with parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to 190C.
- Roll dough into 3mm thickness on a floured surface. Use cookie cutter to cut out pieces of dough. Use different shape for different flavor.
- Transfer to tray and bake for 5 minutes. Rotate tray 180 degrees and continue baking for 5 more minutes until the cookies are light golden brown.
- Leave to cool.

2. Marshmallow



Ingredients:
- Water > 23 grams or 1/8 cup
- Light corn syrup > 33 grams or 1/8 cup
- Sugar > 84 grams
- Powdered gelatine > 4 grams or ½ tablespoon
- Cold water > 9 grams or 1 tablespoon
- Egg white – room temperature > 1
- Vanilla essence > ¼ teaspoon



Method:
- Sprinkle gelatine over cold water and let dissolve.
- In a saucepan combine water, corn syrup, and sugar and bring to boil at “soft boll” stage or 115C.
- Remove syrup from heat and add gelatine. Mix well.
- Beat egg white until soft peaks form. While stir beating pour hot syrup into the whites.
- Add vanilla essence and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Transfer to a piping bag and cut very little at the tip.
- Pipe pattern on the cool cookies. Let set in room temperature for 2 hours.



3. Chocolate Coating

Ingredients:
- Semi sweet chocolate > 180 grams
- Cocoa butter or vegetable oil > 30 grams

Method:
- Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water. Stir constantly.
- Line a tray with parchment paper.
- One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate coating.
- Lift out with a fork and let excessive chocolate drip back into the bowl.
- Place on tray and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.