Milanos Milan Cookies • 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened Cookie filling: 1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar. Mallows(Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies) • 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour 1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients. 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. 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. Chocolate glaze: 1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water. I had lots of chocolate glaze leftover so anything that was close at hand got dipped. The few extra shortbread cookies, some of the milanos, and my sons animal crackers.
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.
So cookies eh? Not exactly what I was expecting for this month's challenge. Don't get me wrong, I love cookies but I make cookies all the time. I just found these to be a little more time consuming than I usually make. The milanos pull together fairly quickly, but I found the results to be just so-so. Not exactly like the packaged Peppridge Farm cookies that I absolutely love, they are more cake-like and chewy. Ah well, it was nice to be able to make my own flavor. I deviated a little from the posted recipe to add lavender while heating the cream for the filling. So they ended up being lavender orange milanos.
On the other hand I LOVED the mallows. Time well spent on a very tasty cookie. Sadly I don't think this will be a cookie I make very often as it is a pretty involved recipe- there is a cookie base, the marshmallow inside, and then the chocolate coating. The part that I couldn't quite get to work right with this recipe was the chocolate coating. The recipe suggests adding cocoa buttter or shortening to the chocolate but I couldn't find cocoa butter, and adding shortening really rubs me wrong, so I took the suggestion of one daring baker and added ghee (clarified butter). Well, long story short, the chocolate never set up. So into the fridge they went. What to do differently when I finally do this again? I'll have to look into this a little more so I can get a harder chocolate shell on my cookies.
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website
Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: 0 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. 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.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the 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
• 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
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.
• 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
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.
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil
Monday, July 27, 2009
Milanos and Mallows
Friday, July 24, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
July 2009 Daring Cooks Challenge
* For green beans, slice each beans into very thin rounds (2 mm) Powders - prepare ahead of time Powders citrus powder zest 300g of lemons (10.6 oz), remove the pith from the zest and poach in the simple syrup three times. dry with paper towels and move to a dehydrating tray. 130 for 12 hours. pulse the zest in a coffee grinder, pass through chinois, and mix with citric acid/vitamin C powder. If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 8 to 10 minutes at medium powder. Once dried, follow the other instructions. cilantro/parsley powder blanch the parsley in boiling saltwater for 1 second, submerge the leaves in ice water for 3 minutes. Dry on paper towels and place on dehydrator tray. 130 for 12 hours. grind and pass through chinois. If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 30 seconds, turn over leaves and microwave for another thirty seconds. They should be dry by now, pulse in coffee grinder, pass through chinois and reserve. onion powder dehydrator - 130 for 12 hours pulse in grinder, pass through chinois Caper powder run the capers under cold water for two minutes to remove some of the brine. Once dry, pulse and sift the powder. Mix it with the onion powder. Brown Butter powder 100g Dried banana chips (unsweetened if possible - many are coated in honey - the freeze dried ones would be brilliant) If you cannot find the cream powder, you can substitute Bob's red mill non fat dry milk powder, or even carnation instant milk powder. The substitutions will alter the flavor a little, but you will still get the general idea. preheat the oven to 350 degrees, sift the cream powder into a fine layer on a silpat or on parchment. bake for 4 minutes, then remove for heat. If it bakes for too long, it will burn. Be very cautious with all powders in the oven. They all go from browned to burnt in a few seconds. grind the banana chips in a coffee grinder and mix with the toasted cream powder. Pass this through a chinois and reserve. Skate bring 300g water and 300g beurre monte to simmer over medium heat, add skate wings and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and flip the wing over and let rest in pan for two more minutes. Transfer to warming tray lined with parchment and season with 5 grams of fine sea salt. Plating peel the remaining banana into very think slices (3mm) fan three slices on the plate, place green beans on top and place skate wing portion on top. On the tall edge, sprinkle the brown butter powder. The powdered cream can be omitted completely, just replace it with more banana powder, or pineapple powder. Possibly non dairy creamer, but I have NO idea what would happen if you tried to brown it. The poaching liquid is pretty much butter - it could be replaced with other poaching methods. Water, wine, bay leaf, garlic clove, pepper, etc. Try to go easy on the salt in the liquid if you use a replacement.And here is the rest of it.
This is a dish from Grant Achatz, found in the Alinea cookbook
I am grateful for the introduction, but way intimidated. I nearly sat this challenge out. But finally decided to go for it- after all that is what being a Daring Cook is all about- trying new things. I can honestly say that I will probably never make this dish again but it is an experience I won't forget. It took me a couple of days to make my powders-I tried the microwave method for dehydrating hoping it would be the quick ticket. And it was successful for the parsley and cilantro, but I started a fire when I tried to do the red onion. Hmm..don't recommend that. So the rest of the ingredients were dehydrated in the oven. The thing that I will take from this dish for the future, is the combination of flavors. It seems like such a far fetched combination- fish, beans, bananas, capers, lemon...But the way they combine is just amazing. Skate, Traditional Flavors Powdered
* Beurre Monte - 454g butter (4 sticks, 1 pound) cubed and cold, 60g water. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1 cube at a time. This should from an emulsion. Keep this heated, but under 195 degrees. The emulsion will not break - this is your poaching liquid.
caper / onion
lemon powder
cilantro/parsley powder
'brown butter' powder
once dried, all powders should be pulsed in a coffee grinder/spice mill/morter and pestle then passed through a chinois or fine mesh strainer.
300g lemons
1000g simple syrup
5g citric acid/vitamin c tablet
150g cilantro
150g parsley
100g cup minced red onions
microwave at medium power for 20 minutes.
200g capers (get the ones packed in brine/vinegar)
dry on paper towels and dehydrate for 12 hours at 130 degrees.
microwave instructions are unclear. Dry them as much a possible with paper towels, the microwave on medium for 1 minute. Check the moisture content and stir them. repeat for 30 second intervals until they are dry. If you use this method, pleas post the time needed to dry the capers.
300g spray dried cream powder
* For green beans, slice each beans into very thin rounds (2 mm)
* Beurre Monte - 454g butter (4 sticks, 1 pound) cubed and cold, 60g water. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1 cube at a time. This should from an emulsion. Keep this heated, but under 195 degrees. The emulsion will not break - this is your poaching liquid.
Prepare the skate - 50G v shaped cuts are recommended
Bring 100g water, 100g beurre monte, and green bean rounds to a boil over high heat. Cook until the water has evaporated (about 3 minutes), when the pan is almost dry, remove it from heat and season with 3g salt
Take the tip of a small spoon and make a small mound of the citrus powder, the onion-caper powder, and the cilantro parsley-powder. Swirl these around in a hurricane type pattern. I found that it is easier, and you get finer lines if you lightly shake the plate to flatten out the mounds, then swirl the spoon through it to get the pattern.
Substitutions
The Skate can be replaced with flounder or cod.
If you can get skate that is not 'prepared' IE - Skinned- get the fish monger to prepare it for you.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Longwood
And now for the much anticipated (I'm sure) pics from our trip to Longwood Gardens from, oh, way back in May. Playing the old game of catch-up.
Pics after the jump.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
I heart GW
Our goodwill has just had some great furniture lately and I couldn't pass these ones up. The chair will be a project far down the road. It is in good enough shape and works well in my living room. The bench, on the other hand, will soon be gutted and totally re-done.
