Daring Bakers - Milan Cookies and Mallows

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge really did end up being a tale of two cookies for me, with vastly different outcomes, and tested my determination in the face of adversity.

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.

We could choose to make just one or other of the cookies if we didn't want to do both, and I almost skipped the Milan cookies. However, I changed my mind on the day before posting day and decided to make them as well (I had made the mallows a couple of weeks earlier).

Hmmm ... I began to think that I was wise not to have made the Milan cookies, as my first batch looked lumpy and ugly:

My first thoughts were to abandon the Milan cookies, throw them out and pretend I never attempted them. However, on reconsideration, I thought that it did not show much Daring Baker spirit to opt out like that, so I had another go.

Luckily, I had only made a half batch the first time around, so I could make the other half without feeling so bad about wasting ingredients. For my second effort on the Milan cookies, featured at the top of this post, I changed a number of things - first, I measured all of my ingredients by weight instead of using volume. Second, I used three egg whites instead of the 4 that I accidentally used the first time. Third, I substituted orange essence (I had no lemon essence) for the lemon juice I used the first time. Fourth, I beat in the egg whites for longer. And finally, borrowing for Audax's idea of shaping the cookies in mini tart pans, I spooned tablespoons of mixture into muffin pans lined with muffin papers.

I still can't say that I was excited by the result - I ended up with what looked and tasted like mini cakes filled with ganache, and it really wasn't my thing. I don't think I would have changed my mind even if I had repiped these cookies and allowed them to spread more thinly, because I tasted the fugly batch and the taste was similarly cakey. I like a crunchy cookie rather than a cakey cookie. I know that a lot of other Daring Bakers loved these and preferred them over the mallows, but as for me, I will pass on these in the future.

The mallows on the other hand were another story:

I adored these, and they turned out well for me. I love the commercial version of these cookies, and if possible, these mallows tasted even better, although messy and time consuming to make.

Like most of the Daring Bakers, I ended up with way more cookies than marshmallow and chocolate coating (54 to be exact, despite mine being larger in diameter than the recipe recommended):

Here are my mallows just after being topped with marshmallow. I had no difficulty with the marshmallow not setting - in fact, I had the reverse issue in that the last of my marshmallow started to set before I could pipe it, so I had to spoon it roughly onto the cookies:

I didn't use vegetable oil or cocoa butter or shortening in my chocolate coating - I just used melted chocolate spooned over the top, and it worked like a dream. My coating set and stayed set, so I could store them outside the fridge.

With the leftover cookies, I sandwiched them together with cherry jam and iced them:

Here is a peek inside one of the mallows:

Some of the Daring Bakers came up with truly amazing variations on the original recipe, so for some fun, check out their efforts at the Daring Bakers blogroll. Thanks to Nicole for being our host this month. She will have the recipes on her site if you are interested.