I had every intention of making pumpkin waffles for this blog post. Then I saw a box of Mallomars in Costco. I do not know how many years it has been since I had a Mallomar. I had been musing about making some GF ones for many years. I guess it slipped my mind until that box jarred my memory. It took hours to make these, but they are incredibly delicious and well worth the effort.
Mallomars are only sold in the cooler months so that the chocolate coating does not melt. In case any of you are not familiar with these cookies I will describe them. There is a round graham cracker-like cookie topped with a fluffy mound of marshmallow and then the entire thing is coated in dark chocolate. All the components are great on their own and all together they make a delightfully harmonious combination of textures and tastes. They are very much like a refined S’more. A S’more is a treat that Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and every chocolate loving camper would make by the campfire. Fire toasted marshmallows are sandwiched between two graham crackers along with a piece of a Hershey’s milk chocolate candy bar. The hot marshmallow melts the chocolate and then you eat this melty gooey treat. The little ones would always want seconds so “Can I please have some more?” became the cookie’s name S’more (some more).
 |
| S'mores made with this graham cracker recipe. |
I looked for recipes on line. I used the marshmallow and chocolate coating recipes from the Tartlette blog. I followed the gf graham cracker recipe by Rebecca Reilly that was on the Living Without website. I have made these graham crackers before (naturally changing the flours...I just can’t help myself...and omitting the cinnamon). The recipe is really good and tastes exactly like a ‘real’ graham cracker, maybe even better as I used real butter. For this recipe I made small round cookies not the traditional rectangular ones.
I had been hesitating about making this cookie because I am not comfortable making candy. I have tried to make various kinds (licorice, candy coating for apples, caramel, etc.) with, to put it politely, inedible results. It was with much trepidation that I made the marshmallow. I did not want to use corn syrup (GMO, high fructose) so I replaced it with Golden Syrup. I bought some to make a British recipe that never got made so I had some in the house. Golden Syrup is made from cane sugar and a quick Google search encouraged me with the information that it can be used interchangeably in a recipe that calls for light corn syrup. I was concerned about the marshmallow being a bit dark as the golden syrup is much darker than corn syrup, but the marshmallow was white enough for me and definitely not beige.
The recipe I followed had me dissolving the gelatin in the 2 tablespoons of water while getting the sugar and golden syrup mixture up to 235 degrees. I have no real candy making experience and had no idea how long it would take to get the mixture to that temperature and no idea of how high to keep the heat. I was afraid of burning it and kept the flame on the low side, but it was taking forever so I bravely (or was it impatiently) turned up the flame to medium high and boiled it another “forever” until it reached the correct temperature. Meanwhile, the gelatin I had melted had congealed into a solid silicone like disk that I was not going to chance using and then ruining the syrup. So, when the syrup FINALLY reached 230 degrees I melted a new package of gelatin in the water and it was still slightly soupy by the 235 degree mark. Just a warning, when I added the gelatin to the hot syrup it boiled up and almost over the top of the pot. Next time I will put the pot into the sink and then add the gelatin to prevent panic, breath holding and possible clean up.
 |
| Gelatin that congealed into a solid disk after sitting too long. |
Before dipping the cookies into chocolate I watched a video by Mark Bittman about how to temper the chocolate so the sugar does not crystalize or get grey streaks. The technique is simple and easy to do at home. I could tell, in hindsight, the chocolate had gotten too cool with some of the cookies I dipped last, so there was slight marbleizing. It actually looks very delicate and kind of cool and artistic.
 |
| Chocolate with some streaks. |
For vegan or vegetarian marshmallow I could have made some with agar, but I choose the easy way out and melted some vegan marshmallows on top of some of the cookies and dipped these first.
 |
| Store made vegan marshmallows on top of each cookie & melted in the oven. |
GLUTEN FREE MALLOMARS
Makes about 60 2-inch round cookies.
Ingredients
| 1 1/4 cup | Sorghum Flour |
| 1/2 cup | Chickpea Flour |
| 1/2 cup | Tapioca Flour |
| 1/2 tsp. | Xanthan Gum |
| 1 tsp. | GF Baking Powder |
| 1/2 tsp. | Baking Soda |
| 1/2 tsp. | Sea Salt |
| 7 Tbs. | Unsalted Butter or for Dairy Free or Vegan use non dairy Margarine that is not hydrogenated such as Earth Balance Buttery Sticks (It now comes soy free too! Yay!) |
| 1/2 cup | Brown Sugar - packed |
| 3 Tbs. | Cold Water |
| 3 Tbs. | Honey or for Vegan use Agave |
| 1 tsp. | Vanilla Extract |
Directions
- In a bowl add the flours, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix together until well combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter and sugar and cream together well.
- Add the water, vanilla, honey or agave and mix together.
- Add the flour mixture all at once and mix well.
- If the dough is very sticky, put in the refrigerator for an hour. If not too sticky, place between two sheets of plastic wrap and roll out to 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thickness, depending upon how thick you like your graham crackers. Place the rolled out dough, still between the plastic wrap onto a flat baking sheet and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
- Take the dough out of the fridge. Remove the top plastic sheet and use a 2-inch round cutter to cut out as many circles as you can. If the dough gets soft again put it back in the fridge or freezer until you can take out the dough circles without them losing their shape. I like to freeze the dough, it is easier to get crisp shapes. Re-roll the scraps and cut out more shapes.
Rolled out dough cut into circles with round pastry cutters. - Place the cookies 2-inches apart on a silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Prick each cookie a few times with a fork.
Raw cookies on lined baking sheet.
Each cookie is pricked with a fork. - Bake 10-13 minutes until golden brown.
Baked cookies cooling on rack. - Cool in the pan for 2-3 minutes before transferring them to a baking rack to cool completely.
Enough for 2 dozen cookies.
Ingredients
| 1/4 cup | Water |
| 1/4 cup | Corn Syrup or Golden Syrup |
| 3/4 cup | Sugar (I used the evaporated cane juice crystals.) |
| 1 Tbs./1Pkg. | Unflavored Gelatin Powder or Kosher Gelatin |
| 2 Large | Egg whites at room temperature |
| 1/4 tsp. | Vanilla Extract |
 |
| GF Mallomars with Vegan marshmallow centers. |
- Line baking sheets with wax paper and place the cookies out on the baking sheets. It is necessary to have everything set up to pipe out the marshmallow cream quickly, as soon as you finish beating it. The marshmallow will set as it cools and become impossible to pipe out.
- In a small or medium saucepan combine the water, sugar and corn or golden syrup.
- Bring to a boil and continue stirring and heating the mixture until it reaches the temperature of 235 degrees or the ‘soft-ball stage’. Use a candy thermometer or an instant read thermometer to check the temperature.
Sugar mixture boiling. - When the mixture is nearing the 235 degrees temperature, melt the gelatin in the 2 Tbs. of water.
Gelatin melted in water just before going into the hot syrup. - When the hot sugar mixture reaches 235 degrees remove the pan from the heat and place into the sink.
- Add the melted gelatin to the hot sugar mixture and stir. It will foam up and then subside. Set aside.
Syrup after gelatin added. - Beat the egg whites to the soft peak stage in a stand mixer or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer.
Egg whites whipped to soft peak stage. - Add the hot sugar and gelatin mixture to the whipped eggs and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
Hot syrup and egg whites whipped together until they formed stiff peaks. - Transfer the marshmallow cream to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip. You will probably have to refill the bag at least once to use all the cream.
- Pipe out mounds of the marshmallow onto each cookie. I made “kiss” shaped mounds with a cute pointy tip.
Mounds of warm marshmallow cream pipped onto each cookie. - Leave the marshmallow topped cookies to set at room temperature for at least 2 hours. Avoid touching the marshmallow as it will stick to you and anything in its path.
One batch covered about 18-20 cookies.
(I ended up making 2 batches and made chocolate covered graham crackers with the extra chocolate and cookies.)
Ingredients
| 12 0unces | Semisweet or Dark Chocolate (I used 16 oz.) - for Dairy Free or Vegan use dairy free or vegan chips. |
| 2 Tbs. | Vegetable Shortening (not hydrogenated such as Spectrum brand), Cocoa Butter or Oil (I used 1 Tbs.) |
- On top of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over (not touching) boiling water melt 2/3 of the chocolate with the shortening.
- Continue stirring and heating the chocolate until it reaches the temperature of 115 degrees. Watch the video by Mark Bittman about tempering chocolate.
- Remove the bowl from the pan with the boiling water.
- Add the rest of the chocolate pieces and continue to stir until the mixture reaches 91 degrees.
- Line baking sheets with wax paper.
- Dip the cookies into the chocolate. I used a chocolate dipping fork set for dipping. I think a regular fork or two would also suffice. It was easier to put the cookie into the chocolate with the marshmallow side down first and then flip it over to coat the bottom. Shake or scrape off excess chocolate from the bottom with a knife or spreading spatula. I found scraping was easier and prevented the shaken cookie from falling back into the chocolate.
Cookie dropped into the chocolate marshmallow side down.
Cookie flipped over with the two chocolate making tools.
Cookie lifted out of the chocolate with a fork. - Place the dipped cookie onto the wax paper. Repeat until all the cookies are coated.
Cookies with wet chocolate. - After every 6-8 cookies check the chocolate temperature with an instant read thermometer. If the temperature goes down to 88 degrees or below return the bowl to the pan with the hot water and heat and stir the chocolate until the temperature reaches 91 degrees again. Then continue dipping the chocolate.
- Allow the chocolate coated cookies to set until dry. You can speed up the process in the fridge.
Cookies with the chocolate all set and dry. - Store the coated cookies in an airtight container between pieces of wax paper.
Close up of the marshmallow center.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment. I love to hear what you think about the blog and the recipe.