Daring Bakers' Milan Cookies

This particular challenge reminded me of baking macaron. Well, the piped batter looked like macaron but the flattening effect and final result resembled baking lady finger.

Despite the early thought of baking just Mallows recipe, I ended baking both and felt totally pleased making the decision to bake this very special Milan cookies. The recipe is easy to follow and the process is straight forward. Don’t know whether anyone of you ever baked Hokkaido Snow White Cookies which are 2 very thin pieces of butter cookies sandwiched with a layer of white chocolate. The outcome is pretty close even though the latter is done by rolling and cutting dough instead of piping.



The blend of vanilla and lemon extract brought the best out of this cookies. Having said that I think you shouldn’t miss trying out this recipe if you ever think about baking for an afternoon tea. Thanks to Nicole from Sweet Tooth for selecting this simple yet fabulous recipe!

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.



MILAN COOKIES
Makes 47 pieces

1. Cookies

Ingredients:
- Salted butter – soften in room temperature > 85 grams
- Icing sugar > 130 grams
- Egg whites > 3
- Vanilla essence > 1 tablespoon
- Lemon essence > 1 tablespoon
- All purpose flour > 94 grams



Method:
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Cream butter and icing sugar until pale.
- Add egg white gradually and then mix in vanilla and lemon essence.
- Fold in flour and mix well.
- With a small (1/4 inch) plain tip, pipe 1 inch sections of batter onto parchment-lined tray, spacing them 1.5 inches apart as they spread.
- Bake at 180C for 8 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on tray.



2. Chocolate Filling

Ingredients:
- Semi sweet chocolate – chop > 120 grams
- Whipping cream > 54 grams
- Orange zest > ½ orange



Method:
- Prepare chocolate in a bowl.
- In a small saucepan scald cream over medium fire.
- Pour hot cream into chocolate bowl. Whisk to melt chocolate. Add zest and mix well.
- Set aside to cool. The mixture will be thick.



3. Assembly

- Spread a thin amount of chocolate filling onto the flat side of a cookie.
- Press the flat side of the second cookie on top of filling.