Day 11 … Holiday Mallomars

Alrighty folks! It’s Day 11 of these 12 Days of Chocolate Cookies and I’ve got a project for you. Mallomars. Yes, indeed. It’s the week before Christmas; I think we’re ready for a project. Or perhaps a distraction. A chocolate cookie is topped with marshmallow, dipped in a chocolate glaze and topped with some sprinkles. Making this one is a sticky messy affair but it’s so delicious I think it’s worth it. Some form of this confection is available all over the world as the combination of cookie-marshmallow-chocolate is irresistible (I looked it up; fascinating) so let’s make our own. Technically, mallomars have a graham base but we’re using chocolate (obviously) and just going with it. 

The cookie dough is simple enough, a few additional ingredients to the base dough including a little extra espresso powder to kick that flavor up a notch. I like these on the smaller side – 1 ½” rounds – baked nice and crisp as they’ll soften up over time due to the marshmallow. Now then, we’re back into persnickety territory on these marshmallows. It seems like a lot of ingredients, weird quantities and if you’re making the largest batch with a ½ batch of dough, I recommend making the marshmallow twice; don’t attempt a double batch.  If you’ve topped all your cookies and have extra fluff, pipe it onto a sheet of parchment that’s been lightly sprayed with cooking spray and make some marshmallows for your hot chocolate. A helpful tip: this stuff is sticky. Once piped, let the marshmallow set for a few hours to firm up a bit. They’ll become less sticky and easier to handle with a little time.

Then we’ve got the glaze. I wanted to avoid tempering chocolate, because while ideal, I’m not sure who has time right now to muscle through that. Maybe we’ll get to that post holiday. Anyway, I have a simple glaze of chopped chocolate and vegetable oil that works very well if you take care. Use a higher quality bar chocolate and avoid chocolate chips (the ingredients that make the chips hold that shape tend to screw things up). Melt the chocolate slowly; I use a microwave on 50% power and melt in slow bursts stopping just before the chocolate is fully melted and stirring until smooth. Give the glaze time to set up – like overnight. Let it cool slowly and gently. I tried to rush things and got some streaky blooms which is a bummer but doesn’t affect the flavor in any way.

36 One Dough/Many Cookies from years past:

Fruity: Jam Thumbprints, Jam Streusel Tarts, Raspberry Linzer Squares, Lemon Poppyseed Buttons, Orange Sesame Crisps, Cranberry Pistachio Coins, Almond Raspberry Strips, Orange Sandwich Cookies, Apricot Rosemary Shortbread, Coconut Lime Sticks, Bourbon Glazed Fruitcake Buttons, Lemon Cornmeal Biscotti, Blueberry Lime Buttons, Date Swirls

Nutty: Mexican Wedding Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, Pecan Tassies, Maple Black Walnut Cookies, PB&J Sandwich Cookies, Pecan Triangles, 

Spiced: Cinnamon Sugar Pinwheels, Candied Ginger Spice Buttons, Cardamom Rose Coins, Brown Sugar Wafers with Lemon Lavender Glaze

Chocolate: Mexican Chocolate Crinkles, Chocolate Cocoa Nib Wafers, Raspberry Chocolate Drops, Chocolate Hazelnut Buttons, Dark Mocha Sandwich Cookies, Espresso Crinkles, 

Bars: Rum Butter Bars, Peppermint Brownie Bars, Banana Walnut Bars

Holiday Classics: Cream Cheese Wreaths, Classic Molasses Cookies, Peppermint Candy Canes

2020 12 Days of Cookies line up to date:

Basic Chocolate Butter Cookie Dough

Day 1: Cranberry Cocoa Nib Wafers

Day 2: Chocolate Banana Petit Four

Day 3: Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies

Day 4: Andes Mint Chip Cookies

Day 5: Chocolate Lebkuchen

Day 6: Fudge Tarts

Day 7: Chocolate Marzipan Cookies

Day 8: Coconut Bullseyes

Day 9: Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Day 10: Chocolate Almond Crescents

DAY 11: HOLIDAY MALLOMARS

Start with the base chocolate dough – recipe here. I used a dutched cocoa powder for this one. If you have a scale, now is the time to use it. FYI, one standard package of Knox gelatin = 7g. Marshmallow were adapted from this recipe.

1. For the cookies: In the bowl of a standing mixer combine the water and espresso powder until dissolved.
2. Add the room temperature cookie dough, cocoa, sugar and baking soda and mix with the paddle attachment until well combined.
3. Divide the dough into four/two/one piece(s) and roll each between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper to a flat sheet about 1/8” thick.
4. Stack the sheets on a sheet pan and refrigerate at least an hour or overnight. The dough sheets can be refrigerated up to 3 days (or frozen up to 3 months) but tightly wrap first to make sure the edges do not dry out.  
5. When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350°F and line two sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking liners.
6. Remove one sheet of dough from the refrigerator and remove the top sheet of plastic wrap or parchment.
7. With a 1 ½” round cutter, stamp out as many circles as possible and transfer to the prepared baking sheets, ¾” apart.
8. Continue with the remaining dough sheets, rerolling/chilling the scraps as you go.
9. Bake 8-10 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until baked through and firm to the touch. Ideally this cookie should be on the crispier side.
10. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
11. For the marshmallow: Combine gelatin with the water and let sit 5 minutes to bloom (aka rehydrate). 
12. Combine corn syrup, honey, sugar, and water in a heavy saucepan; cook until mixture reaches 245°F on a candy thermometer. 
13. Take off heat let cool down to 225°F, about 5 minutes.
14. Add the gelatin and stir until dissolved. 
15. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg white(s) until stiff peaks form.
16. Slowly stream the syrup down the side of bowl into egg whites while beating on low, avoiding the whisk. 
17. Increase the speed to high and continue beating until stiff peaks form and meringue is cool to the touch, about 5 minutes. The mixer will sound noticeably different when the marshmallow is at its proper consistency, almost as if its straining just a bit.
18. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.
19. Transfer mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a 1” open round plain pastry tip (spray a spatula with cooking spray to make this a bit less messy). 
20. Pipe 1 Tablespoon dollops onto all of the cookies as quickly as you can. Place the piping tip upright on the cookie, squeeze to release the marshmallow as you slowly pull up, then stop squeezing and quickly pull straight up. You may need to give the bag a little flick to release. this takes a little practice so don’t fret if the first few look a little odd; they’ll look fine glazed and sprinkled. Try to avoid touching the piped marshmallows as you go as it is sticky as all get out; use a few sheet pans if needed. (Leftover marshmallow filling can be piped into more kisses onto a piece of parchment lightly sprayed with cooking spray.)
21. Let rest for 2-4 hours to set completely. The marshmallow is quite sticky when freshly piped but will dry out a bit over time and is much easier to handle at that point.
22. For the glaze: combine chocolate and vegetable oil in a heatproof glass bowl over a double boiler or my preferable method of the microwave at 50% power in 60-45 second bursts, stirring between, until the chocolate is not quite melted. Stir until smooth.
23. Add the vegetable oil and stir until fully combined. 
24. To glaze and decorate: Line a sheet pan with a clean piece of parchment paper.
25. If needed, transfer the glaze to a narrow deep bowl, deep enough to accommodate the mallomars. 
26. Grabbing a mallomar by the cookie bottom, dip into the glaze to the cookie edge. Lift up and let excess glaze drip back into the bowl, giving a little shake to help it along.
27. Quickly flip upright and place on the prepared pan, trying not to touch any freshly glazed cookies.
28. Let sit several minutes to allow the glaze to set then decorate with holiday sprinkles, jimmies or very finely crushed/chopped peppermints. Avoid decorations that are a little too large or heavy as they have a tendency to slide right off. The glaze will stay wet for quite a while so there’s no hurry to get those sprinkles on. Give it a little time.
29. Let set, slowly in a moderately cool place, until the glaze is set. Overnight is best.
30. Cookies will keep several days tightly wrapped.
31. Cleaning hints: marshmallow is incredibly sticky so the best approach to cleaning your bowl/tools is to soak them in warm water for a while to dissolve the goo then wash. For the sugar syrup pot, fill with water and bring to a boil to dissolve.