I'm Late But I'm Still Eating For England

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.

For the first time ever I’m late posting my Daring Bakers entry (sorry folks)! We had the option to make either the Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies or the Milan Cookies, or even both if we were feeling ultra daring. I wasn’t and went for the marshmallow cookies only. I have however, bookmarked the Milan Cookies to make another day as they sound and look superb.

I chose the chocolate covered marshmallow cookies simply because they reminded me so much of my much beloved Tunnock’s Tea Cake; the difference only being that with these cookies the marshmallow is gelatine based and in a Tunnock’s it isn’t.

What’s not to love about a buttery biscuit base, creamy gooey marshmallow and silky chocolate? As always home made is better, especially when home made is so simple too.

I knew the cookie base would be easy enough, just basic almost shortbread style cookie dough and you can’t really go wrong with a chocolate glaze but marshmallows? I really did think they’d be a little tricky but I had to problems at all. A sugar thermometer is a vital piece of kit for this though and a free standing mixer such as my much loved KitchenAid is beneficial too, although the process could be completed by hand with very minimal effort. Light corn syrup was specified in the recipe but that is really difficult to obtain in the UK so after deliberating between using golden syrup or agave syrup I plumed for the light agave syrup and it worked wonderfully.

For the chocolate coating I used milk chocolate, in order to satisfy my craving for this to be as like my childhood memories of Tunnock’s Teacakes as possible this was the only route open to me. Dark chocolate would work wonderfully well too, giving a more ‘grown up’ taste. White chocolate I think would be sickly sweet and is best avoided here.

I only turned half the cookies into marshmallow cookies, saving the rest to be nibbled with a cup of tea as a pick me up throughout the day (not all in the same day I dare add).

So I suppose the ultimate question is did the cookies live up to past memories/expectations? Well they passed with flying colours, a crisper yet more meltingly tender biscuit base and a softer, lighter mallow; oh yes a recipe to file for frequent use indeed.