So I admit it.. I subscribe to a number of RSS feeds for food blogs.. primarily baking related, though not all. I haven’t been game enough to sign up to any of the challenges / monthly bake events etc etc that are floating around out there but I do read many of them.
Recently the daring bakers challenge chose to do Chocolate Marshmallow Biscuits (as per the recipe provided on the food network website by Gayle Gand). Now anyone who has seen me look longingly at a packet of chocolate royales just before devouring the entire thing will know that there is no way I could let this recipe go untried. So after a weekend of misadventures where I always had to leave my baking to go attend to something else I eventually finished about 46 of these little temptresses. Which of course resulted in me handing them out to all and sundry as I could NOT be trusted with that many little chocolate pillowy temptresses of doom.
Of course I have no decent photos or in progress shots for various reasons… the progress shots were more or less impossible sue to my frequent state of being covered in sticky marshmallow stuffs and the bad final shots because my ever present lack of organisation meant they were hastily snapped before giving away the majority of what I had left late one evening. They were tasty though and I managed to make three varieties due to lack of commitment to just one flavour. There were plain, ones with raspberry jam between bikkie and marshmallow and ones with caramel between bikkie and marshmallow. All in all I think it went rather well with satisfactory devastation of the kitchen and surrounds achieved. I even eventually got Francois (My Kitchen Aid) free of the last vestiges of marshmallow doom.
Onward to the Recipe!
Biscuit Base
3 Cups all purpose flour
1/2 a cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 of a teaspoon baking powder
3/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 a teaspoon cinnamon (or in my case at least one teaspoon but cinnamon is not somehting we are afraid if our house)
12 tablespoons (170g) unsalted butter
3 eggs whisked together
Method
In a mixer add butter to the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed until the mixture is sandy.
Add eggs and mix until just combined.
Form dough into a disk and wrap with cling wrap before refrigerating for at least one hour (or up to three days)
When ready to bake roll out the dough to approximately 1/8 of an inch thick and cut dough into small rounds using a 1 to 1 1/2 inch round cookie cutter.
Place rounds onto lined biscuit tray and bake in a pre-heated oven (375F) for 10minutes or until golden brown.
Cool biscuits completely to room temperature before adding marshmallow.
Home made Marshmallow
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup ( although seeing corn syrup in numerous shops since being in Melbourne do you think I could find it when I needed it.. the one shop I was sure had it was closed by the time I got there on three attempts… so I substituted glucose syrup / liquid glucose and this seemed to work fine)
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs powdered gelatin and 2tbs water or 1 sheet leaf gelatin (I am sure you could sub this with the vegetarian friendly agar substance if you wanted)
2 egg whites room temperature
1/4 tsp vanilla (or how it happens to come out of the bottle in a ‘sploosh’ which is how I do it)
Method
In a saucepan, combine the water, glucose (corn syrup) and sugar and bring to the boil until ‘soft-ball’ stage (235F.. note not Celsius I almost messed this up woops)
Sprinkle the powdered gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve or soak.
Remove the syrup from the heat and add the gelatin, mixing well. Set mixture aside to cool slightly while whipping your egg whites.
Whip the whites until soft peaks form then slowly add the syrup to the whites.
Add the vanilla and continue whipping the mixture until stiff (not too stiff though as the mixture will continue to thicken as it cools which can make it hard to pipe) The mixture should be stiff enough to pipe and hold its shape.
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe a mound onto each biscuit base.
** Before piping on the marshmallow I placed a layer of jam or caramel on the base of the biscuit for an extra flavour kick
Chocolate Glaze
360 grams semisweet chocolate (you may need more depending on how many biscuits you end up with)
60g cocoa butter or vegetable oil
Melt the chocolate and oil together in the top of a double boiler until the chocolate runs fluidly.
Dip the marshmallow biscuits into the hot glaze one at a time lifting out with a fork and allowing the excess chocolate to run off. Place the coated biscuits on a tray lined with parchment paper until set (about 1-2 hours)
