July Daring Bakers' Challenge

COOKIES!

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. Both recipes were demonstrated on Gand's show Sweet Dreams, in episode "Better Than Store Bought." The cookies are her versions of some Pepperidge Farm classics.

To complete the challenge, Daring Bakers could bake each recipe or choose just one. Well, I absolutely detest those store-bought marshmallow cookies. As a kid, my grandma thought my sisters and I would really like them. So to treat us she bought a package before going on a road trip to Glacier National Park. Driving and mallows are NOT a pair. Incidentally, I haven't like them since. Nevertheless, the Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies are simply wonderful--basically heaven to your taste buds. Consequently, I decided to bake only the Milan Cookies.

However, because I am sensitive to almost every ingredient on the list, I couldn't taste-test. AT ALL! I was a little skeptical about the finished product. After eating a cookie, my roommate claimed they were better than Pepperidge Farm's, but I am still skeptical. Can any homemade, milano-mumbo-jumbo really be as good as those? I doubt it.

Let me share Gand's recipe followed by my adaptations and more pictures.

Milan Cookies

Recipe courtesy Gale Gand

Ingredients:

12 Tablespoons butter, softened

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons lemon extract

1 1/2 cups flour

Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1 orange, zested

Directions:

Cream the butter with a paddle attachment then mix in the sugar. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pip 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.

Cookie Filling: In a small saucepan over medium flare, scald cream. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl. Whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools). 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. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Sound good? I was told they were very good, although I made a few, cost-related adaptations. If you are a poor, college student like myself, these changes may come in handy. First, instead of using lemon extract and orange-zest, I used 2 TBS of orange extract in the cookie dough and a touch of orange extract in the cookie-filling. Second, I didn't have anything with which to pipe the cookie mixture onto the parchment paper. Instead, I spread all the dough onto the parchment to about a 1/4 inch thickness (1/8 would probably be better). Then, I let it bake for about 11-12 minutes. When the cookie cooled, I cut it into several squares. Also, I used chopped Hershey's milk chocolate bars for the filling. Not great chocolate, but much cheaper.

After trying the cookies, my slew of taste-testers claimed the Milan cookies were good--"crunchy but with a nice and little give"," flavorful", "better than Pepperidge Farm", and my favorites: "yummm," and "mmmm." I was also told that the homemade chocolate was good. Ha! They couldn't even tell I used fake, full-of-wax Hershey's.

Obviously, this month's challenge presented me with a few difficulties because of a lack of equipment, etc. Honestly? I think I would prefer a simple, less time-consuming, boring, old-fashioned chocolate chip/oatmeal cookie--if I could eat sugar, of course. However, the Milan Cookies were still fun to bake, photograph, and share. Thank you Nicole!

I didn't have time to take and develop pictures with my SLR, so I used my point-and-shoot. Subsequently, the resolution is pretty poor. I'll post the pictures anyhow. If you would like the recipe for the Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies you can find it at the Daring Kitchen.