Well, Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a safe, yet wild, New Years Eve! ;) The year of 2010 was full of events for me, personally. From un-deciding and deciding on a major, to starting this blog, to entering Project Food Blog, doing giveaways for you loyal followers and so much more. I definitely had a great time doing it all. If this was the "past" I can't wait for what the future holds! 2010 was great but 2011 is about to be so much better!
So, what is my New Year's Resolution? Spending less time stressing and more time enjoying. Especially in regards to everything school related, I definitely need to "stop and smell the roses" instead of constantly thinking of every step I need to do, to get somewhere. What's your resolution?
With my blog, my resolution for this year is to try and recreate favorite foods that everyone loves. This is why today's blog post is about a favorite, Milano cookies. There's just something about how the cookie crumbles in your mouth and that taste of the dark chocolate that keeps one wanting more. Aren't they so addictive?! So, how did these cookie fare with the original? Well, you'll find out. Once again, Happy New Year everyone! Let's make it a fantastic one! :)
Tips
-I used a pastry bag with a Wilton 22 tip to pipe out the cookies
-I ended up baking the cookie for about 17 min instead of the 15 min
-I wanted the classic Milano Cookie so I decided not to make the mint cream
Results
Taste: Pretty similar to a real Milano cookie. A slightly sweet cookie with a contrast from the bittersweet chocolate in between.
Texture: Extremely crunchy cookie with layers of chocolate. Not exactly the iconic "crunch" of a real Milano cookie but for a home-made version, it was pretty good.
Mint-Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Recipe from Try It You Might Like It (from September 2010 issue of Everyday Food)
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
4 oz semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 tsp pure peppermint extract (They have great organic peppermint extract at Trader Joe’s.)
Directions
In a small bowl, whisk together flour and salt. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixture, beat butter and granulated sugar on high, scraping down bowl as needed, until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg and beat to combine. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until just combined.
Transfer dough to a quart-size zip-top bag; with scissors, snip a 3/4-inch hole in one corner (or use a pastry bag with a plain tip). Pipe 54 cookies (3/4 by 2 inches), 1/2 inch apart, onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Bake until cookies are light golden at edges, about 15 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer immediately to wire racks and let cool.
Melt chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave, about 1 1/2 minutes stirring every 30 seconds. In another bowl whisk together confectioners’ sugar, peppermint extract and 4 tsp water.
With a table knife, spread chocolate on flat side of half the cookies and mint glaze on the other half. Sandwich cookie halves together. I ended up chilling the cookies again to get the chocolate and mint glaze to set.
-Aaron John
Happy New Year to you too AJ.
ReplyDeleteMy new year's resolution is to learn to type with ten fingers... shocking I know.
The cookies look great. I haven't had these for a while.
Hi Aaron, Either your cookies look good and delicious or your photography skills are great. No, I think it is both. Wow. Must try it out.
ReplyDeleteWhat a success! Your version of the cookies look just like the original. Well done.
ReplyDeleteMichael: I'm exactly like you! I don't type with 10 fingers. It's only two for me! haha. Well, maybe 4 if I count my thumbs on the space bar. lol.
ReplyDeleteKen bakes: Omg! Thanks so much! I'm really trying to improve my photography skills. All I need to do is get me a dslr camera. ha.
Lauren: Thanks! I was surprised myself as to how them came out looking! :D
Hi Aaron, You have a very lovely blog with great photos of your bakes...am so drooling over these cookies.
ReplyDeleteJeannie: Thanks! I'm so glad these cookies turned out so well!
ReplyDeleteSad to say, mine didn't come out to be the crumbly soft texture of the pepperidge farm one. They came out hard like you said. I'm thinking that using shortening may solve this problem because I've tried making a "butter" cookie with shortening and it had that crumbly texture.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, that's actually a good question. I would probably say go half and half with the shortening and the butter. Also, possibly taking out a 1/4 cup of flour and replacing it with 1/4 cup cornstarch may do the trick! Now I want to test this out myself! ha
ReplyDeleteAj, great site along with great recipes! I did a dry run with the Milanos yesterday, delicious ! The icing set up perfectly. I, along with a few others seem to want to tweak the recipe slightly. I was thinking if the dough were not refrigerated, maybe the shape of the cookie would spread a little wider. Also the shortening addition might work as well. Has anybody "fooled around" with this recipe?
ReplyDeletePoorboy: I totally agree with you. This recipe needs to be tweaked to become the real "milano" cookie. I'm going to keep playing around with this recipe until I get it right!! :)
ReplyDelete