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I currently live in Charlotte, NC and after spending 7 years as a personal chef and caterer, I am now happy to share my love of cooking with friends and family. My heart is in the kitchen, but my soul is in the stars!

Procrastination at its finest

Call me a procrastinator. Go ahead....I'm a big girl and can take it when people call me names. Especially when they're true. Give me any amount of time to complete a project and you'll find me in the 11th hour trying to put the finishing touches on it. True to form, here I sit finalizing this post for the July Daring Bakers' Challenge on the eve of it's due date even though I've had an entire month to complete the project. I'm not ashamed of my procrastination habit ~ I'm quite proud of it, actually, because I work better under pressure. When time is of the essence, I can turn out some fabulous results.

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.

The pressure was on this morning when I finally rolled out of bed at nearly 10am to get these cookies done. Each individual component was easy enough on its own but like most DB challenges, the time involved was rather extensive. We had a choice of making one of the cookies or both and since I was already under the gun, I chose to only make the chocolate marshmallow cookies. It was an all-day project and the results turned out great even though I wasn't overly impressed with the finished product. I'm more of an ooey-gooey, warm, slightly under baked chocolate chip cookie kinda girl myself but I think the guys at work will lay waste to these little chocolate dipped treats in no time.

The recipe said it yielded 2 dozen cookies so can anyone tell me how I wound up with 4 dozen cookies?? And exactly enough marshmallow to pipe on all 48 cookies? And just enough chocolate for dipping all of them? The longer I worked, the more they multiplied....it was like rabbits! The only problem I ran into is that, nearly 4 hours after they were dipped, my chocolate still has not set up. That may only be because I chose to use what I had on hand and combined 3 different types of chocolate. I wound up being 1 ounce short so I shorted the vegetable oil just slightly. I'm currently financially embarrassed thanks to a busted air conditioner and a trip to the beach, so it was nice to not have to add to my already exorbitant grocery bill for this challenge.
The real treat in this challenge was the homemade marshmallows. I've never made them before and I'm already thinking of other projects that I want to do with them and these will be at the top of my list!

Thank you Nicole for a great Daring Bakers' challenge and for giving me the inspiration for yet another project!





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 (I actually balanced my cookie on the fork and used a spoon to drizzle the chocolate over the cookie).
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 (the recipe didn't state how long it would take but I found it took nearly 15 minutes to achieve a stiff consistency).
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.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL -- I'm a procrastinator, too. No matter how many promises I make myself after we get the challenge at the first of the month, you'll always find me working feverishly on trying to get it done at the end of the month. :)

You absolutely turned out some beautiful cookies under pressure. Way to go!!

Julie (Willow Bird Baking) said...

Alison, Just saw your "On the Spot" spotlight on the Daring Bakers website and wanted to say hi! I'm from Charlotte as well!

Your mallows came out beautifully, by the way!