Mallow Cookies Three Ways

I’ve consigned myself to being late and promising not ever to say that I’ll reform my ways when it comes to our monthly Daring Bakers challenges.  It seems not to matter what the excuse is, I’ll have one, and having been a teacher for many years, I’d say my excuses rank with the top excuses that my students used to explain why they didn’t have their homework. In fact, their excuses are superior to mine.  It’s pathetic, but at least I have good company in the form of Judy of No Fear Entertaining.   She manages, however, to not only pull off her challenge at the 11th hour — she completes her post on time.  Me?  It’s 6:15 pm, and I’m just beginning this post.  In fact, my husband will arrive home, collect our son, head to the gym to work out, and make dinner, and I’ll still be writing this post.

But I’m posting, right?

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.

If you’re someone who loves particular brands of store-bought cookies and have wondered how they’re made, then these Mallows are for you.

We had a choice to make one or both recipes for Mallows and Milan cookies and I decided to make only the Mallows but altered the filling to include crunchy peanut butter and a slice of banana.  It worked!

Here’s the recipe we were asked to work from:

Mallows (Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 10 min
Inactive Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Serves: about 2 dozen cookies

• 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (112.5grams/3.97oz) white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 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 marshmallows:

• 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.

My Notes:

• I have made marshmallows before — ironically for a store-bought “cookie”I was trying to reproduce from scratch:  Moon Pies. I made every aspect of those lovely morsels myself — even the graham crackers.  Talk about a challenge?  Definitely — but only in the patience and time management categories.
• This Mallow recipe makes quite a bit of  cookie dough.  I chose to use 2″ cookie cutters instead of the recommended 1 to 1-1/2″, cut 40 cookies and still had 13 oz. of dough left.  I’m currently looking for a reason to use the remaining dough.  Tart crust, ice cream sandwich cookies, wall paper my bedroom…suggestions?
• On the marshmallow — double the recipe if you plan to use all the cookie dough.  A single recipe pipes 40 cookies and if you’d like nice peaks on your cookies, then you won’t have enough.
• On the dough — split it in half, press into disks between plastic wrap, then chill.  Chilling a huge piece of chilled dough is challenging at best and truly a test of patience.  The dough is very soft and performs better when it’s cold.
• I used bittersweet chocolate  and canola oil for the glaze because that’s what I had on hand.  I dropped one cookie at a time into the warm chocolate, spooned chocolate over the top of the cookie until coated.  I used a large two-pronged fork to remove the cookie and placed on a baking rack to drip.  When a tray was full, I removed them to the fridge to set.
• I chose to make three kinds of cookies:  1 as called for with only marshmallow; 1 with crunchy peanut butter and marshmallow; and 1 with crunchy peanut butter, a slice of banana, and marshmallow.  If you’re someone who grew up eating marshmallow, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, then the last version is something you’ll love.  Go easy on the peanut butter, however, as it can be over-powering.
• They do very nicely in the fridge if you’re going to take them somewhere like I did.  Then put them in a sealable plastic container and place them in your cooler.  They’ll do fine until you’re ready to enjoy them.

If you have hours and hours of time to languish on the web, then by all means, please check out the other Daring Bakers who most likely completed their challenge long before I did.