Monday, July 27, 2009

Daring bakers tackle Chocolate covered marshmallows

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.


What a fun challenge. This month has been totally insane crazy, so I very much appreciated a less technical challenge, but I did try something new with making marshmallows from scratch.

We started with a little cookie, I used my new vietnamese cinnamon in them from KA flour, which gave them quite a kick, very different to the regular cinnamon in the store, cant wait to give it a try in something chocolatey. I divided the recipe by 3 since I didnt have a specific destination for them.

Marshmallows were made by whipping up egg whites and adding a hot syrup that was mixed with gelatin. I found that they didnt set up as much as I expected, so I really worried I'd made a mistake, but in the finished product they were little pillows of soft goodness. They piped very nicely onto the cookies

The cookies were left to set for a couple of hours, then I melted some chocolate with a little coconut oil and then dipped them in.

The verdict on the finished product. Meh. Marshmallows are really not my thing, the cookies were a little soft and cakey. Although they dissapeared very quickly at work, my discerning friend told me they were like chewing on a soggy wagon wheel (a confection he remembers fondly from the UK). Ouch. Always brutally honest, I appreciate his opinion, but sometimes the critique hurts a little, even if its not my own recipe!!
After a few days in the fridge these improved a lot as the cookie had a little more crunch to it.
Thanks for the opportunity to try new things as always, daring bakers, and thanks, Nicole for the perfect bite sized treat! Also thanks to my lovely husband for the photos.

6 comments:

SweetThingsTO said...

They still look wonderful!

Deeba PAB said...

Just awesome...I love the good looking & delicous soft pillows you created. Perfect & oh-so-pretty! Well done on the challenge indeed!

Jackie at PhamFatale.com said...

oh wow they are so professional looking. Love the little pick on top.

Darlene said...

Regardless of the taste, they do look wonderfully delicious.

Almost Vegetarian said...

You know, they are sweet looking. I'm not a big fan of marshmallows, but my husband is and I bet he really would love these.

And I bet these display oh so prettily on a plate.

Cheers!

Vera said...

They certainly look adorable!