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.

Now you might think upon reading the above line that that sounds fairly simple and well, maybe it does sound fairly simple, but I didn’t find it so simple! (that is a lot of simple in one sentence…lol) Initially I thought I wouldn’t be making my own marshmallows. I am not that fond of marshmallows and then making them seemed like a lot of hassle. But over the course of the next few weeks I kept seeing people that already did the challenge and made beautiful looking marshmallows. So in the middle of making the cookies I decided why not give it a try? It’s a challenge after all, so why make it too easy for myself? Now one of the things I have found that it’s incredibly hard to find certain ingredients here. Baking soda might sound like something entirely normal to a lot of people but it’s not an ingredient you can find here in any supermarket (if you know of one then let me know!) and neither can you find it in a specialty store. I did not check online now that I think about it and I probably should have. Will do that after finishing writing this as it definitely would be good to have a source of baking soda and other things ready when needed!

I found the instructions that Audax left for making your own cornsyrup if you couldn’t find it, but that required something called “cream of tartar”. Never heard of and I was not in the mood to go and search the country for something that was likely also not to be found. But browsing the internet I saw someone mentioning that you can make it by simply adding water and sugar together and boiling untill softball state. So that is what I did, but after turning of the heat, the sugar became hard so fast that it was useless going any further. At which point I chickened out and decided I was going to use the marshmallows I had already bought anyway.

The making of the cookies was pretty straightforward apart from the fact that I used a too small cutter for the first batch of cookies and ended up with tiny rounds, which would not have fitted any marshmallow, so since I had plenty of dough leftover, I made new ones with a slightly bigger cookie cutter. I actually measured the size of the marshmallow so I knew it would fit.

After baking the cookies I let them cool to room temperature, placed the marshmallows on top and briefly put them back in the oven so the marshmallow would slightly melt on the cookie.

Then came the part about melting the chocolate. Since I made only about 25 cookies I figured that the 12 ounce of chocolate was a bit much so I halved that and melted the chocolate with a little vegetable oil. But because I had a shallow bowl and not so much chocolate dipping the cookie in wasn’t going to submerge it in the chocolate. Not really an issue but I was wondering if everyone needed to turn their cookies around in the chocolate to cover it?

I placed them on a cakerack, just because I liked the dripping effect for the photo above, although on second thought it wasn’t even that visible, so I could have used a regular plate, but nooo, I chose a cake cooling rack… Can you already guess what happened?

I had read about people having trouble with the chocolate not hardening and because I wanted to bring them to my parents this evening (I am on a diet after all and eating tons of marshmallow cookies might not be the best way to lose weight..) I decided to put them in the fridge once they were all covered with chocolate. Ofcourse stupid me could have guessed that the chocolate sticks to the rack making it virtually impossible to remove the cookies once hardened!

Can you visualize the look on my face when I took out the rack from the fridge? I hacked them off the rack with a flat thing which wasn’t really easy and some lost their undersides, but ok… I’m sure my parents will still enjoy them..

All in all, it wasn’t very difficult, apart from the fact that I didn’t make the marshmallows, but I just made several wrong decisions along the way, making it ultimately more difficult for myself than it should have been!

As I said; I am not that fond of marshmallows, so will probably not be making these again…. I  should have probably picked the milancookies instead!

Here is the recipe if you want to try it yourself!

Mallows(Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 10 min
Inactive Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Serves: about 2 dozen cookies

• 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (112.5grams/3.97oz) white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, whisked together
• Homemade marshmallows, recipe follows
• Chocolate glaze, recipe follows

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.
2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.
3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.
4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.
8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.
9. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
11. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.
12. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
13. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

Note: if you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

Homemade marshmallows:
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar
• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 egg whites , room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.
3. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.
4. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.
5. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.
6. Transfer to a pastry bag.

Chocolate glaze:
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

Whoohoo!! Ofcourse I could not resist making another batch of macarons yesterday as I really wanted it to work better then the first attempt. I had received full instructions from Helen via an article she had written previously for dessert magazine (look on page 38) and following those… I got the above results! The whole French method is sooo much easier then the Italian one I did previously that I was pleasantly surprised.

I had gone to Amsterdam in the morning to buy ground almonds (I bought a kilo…. so more macarons to follow… ) and a tip that would be in the right size, so I would not have so much issues with the piping bag. In the end I used whole almonds and ground them myself as I had bought those previously and ultimately I needed to finish those before the ground ones. I didn’t really have old eggwhites so I used Helen’s recommendation to microwave them for 10-20 seconds before using them as that apparently replicates the effect of using old eggwhites.

I had also bought powdered coloring of which I used a bit too much. You need just really a tiny amount to get any color into the meringue. I had never used powder before, but I know for next time now.

As for the taste; they were good although I would say not quite there yet. Compaired to the Italian version the French ones use less almonds (the previous recipe had 200 gr powdered sugar and 200 gr almonds, while this one had 200 gr powdered sugar and 110 gr almonds) so I found the taste to be a little bit more sugary. I am not sure if it is save to experiment with the sugar/almond combination but I might try to do that for next time, or add some other nuts to the mixture which I am sure will work really well as well.

I also found that the recommended 12-13 minutes was not enough. I ended up letting them bake for about 25 minutes before the bottom was firm enough. I think that was the mistake  I made the first time as they did not want to come of the parchment paper. Keeping them in a little longer was all that was needed. (we do have an oven that is not really working as it should, so that is possibly one of the reasons)

For the filling we used chocolate ganache with no other additions and that was delicious but rather heavy as well. I have some left over which I will fill with something else just to see how that will compair with the taste. The chocolate was almost too overpowering…

All in all I am really pleased with how my second attempt turned out and they really were delicious!

I was right by the way, about my friend laughing really hard about my first attempt…. I bet she was here now to taste my second attempt!!

For the recipe I followed click on the link above to Dessert Magazine and have a look at page 38.

Next thing I will be doing is trying to experiment with the flavours and getting it to be perfect. Varying with the filling as well.

O and let’s not forget the practising with the right size as these were a bit on the large size really and definitely not all the same size either. That’s the least of my worries though. Taste and flavour is most important. I am sure getting them the right size is gonna be a thing you – hopefully – learn over time!

Failed attempt nr. 1

Ever since I tasted the very first macaron in my life at Laduree in Paris, I’m hooked… I love the texture of these phenomenal cookies and the taste is just well…. to die for!

Last year I was in France with a friend and we found this little bakery in Dijon where they had macarons, so – you guessed it – we had more then our share of them. At that point I thought that it would be really cool to try and make them myself at some point in time. So I told my friend (who does not cook at all) who started to laugh and told me that was impossible…

I admit that the prospect of making these beauties myself was indeed a bit daunting and not something I would attempt to do lightly, but it had been done before right and I am not one to not take on a challenge. Still it is now almost a year further and today is the day I am making my first attempt at a macaron. I am saying attempt on purpose since I already know the outcome…

It all started quite well I think; I had bought the ingredients the day before, split my eggs, mixed the almond and the icing sugar, made my sugar syrup and thought I had done all the things correctly untill I put everything together and you just know that the batter is too thin…

Putting the stuff in a piping bag and then making rounds all equal in size proved to be another challenge I did not master at all! I didn’t have the right size tip but I don’t think that I can blame the tip for everything else that went wrong (I would love to do that though…!!) If it was only the size that would have been wrong, I could have lived with it, easily! No problem…

I let the mismatching size macarons sit outside for about an hour, which apparently is necessary to harden the shells a bit. So I did and then popped them in the oven at a 145 degrees C. I sett the timer for 15 minutes but when I checked after 15 minutes they still seemed very fragile when I took one out of the oven. It broke immediately. So I left them in the oven a little while longer, but as it turned out – none of that mattered! I could not get them of the baking sheets. I tried a knife, I tried a cake knife, I tried to rub the blade in oil to make it more smooth, but whatever I did… no success. So this is how it all finally came of the sheet…

I was planning to bring them to my parents in law tomorrow when we go there! O haha… I already see their faces before me when I present them with this sugary mess… I guess I have to make something a little bit simpler tomorrow, so at least I have something!

I emailed the queen of macarons, Helen aka Tartelette, with a cry for help and apparently I have used an Italian recipe for meringue instead of a french one.

Don’t think I will give up!! My friend will no doubt laugh herself silly when I present her with the last picture of how my first adventure into the world of making macarons ended. But at some point I am going to have to prove her wrong. Even if it takes me 10 batches of failed macarons (who by the way, despite their apparent look, where still very tasty. I have a sugar overdose now!)

So again, I present you with failed attempt numbero uno!

Oatmeal raisin cookies

Just a few days ago I stumbled upon the website of Sweet and Simple Bakes where I read about their monthly baking challenge. Now I love challenges as it gives me a reason to bake something that I maybe otherwise wouldn’t have attempted to do and this particular challenge brought back fond memories of the times I started working at Nike 11 years ago… You have to realise that Oatmeal cookies are really not something you find in Holland that often if at all; so when I started working for Nike I was pleasantly surprised to find laaaarge chocolate chip cookies and large oatmeal raisin cookies. I took one and I was hooked. For the next few months I went into the cafetaria on a daily basis and got one large oatmeal raisin cookie and enjoyed that for most of the morning while working behind my computer… Those where the days!

Oatmeal cookies

They stopped baking them at some point; probably because they weren’t healthy enough and I have left Nike two years ago to start on my own, so no more oatmeal raisin cookies for me untill… I saw the post about this months challenge on Sweet and Simple Bakes and it concerned my favorite cookies, so that choice wasn’t very hard to make!!

I had obviously never made them myself so had no idea whatsoever what rolled oats should be. It’s funny how you can eat cookies forever and just not realise what it is you’re eating…:) Turns out it is something very ordinary and goes by the Dutch name of havermout. I purchased all the ingredients and since I couldn’t find any light brown soft sugar I mixed dark brown with white soft sugar, which I figured would roughly give me lightbrown. I am not entirely sure that I made the recipe correctly to be quite honest, but then I have nothing to compare it with so let’s assume that I did.

The dough was quite heavy and I had to really roll them between my hands to make a walnut sized balls to put in the oven and they also didn’t rise as much as I had thought they would. They still make a decent sized cookie, so I don’t really know what I had expected, but keep in mind that the only oatmeal cookies I had ever seen before where giant sized, so mine are fairly modest in comparison I think. The recipe at the site of Sweet and Simple Bakes called for Oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, but I couldn’t find the right chocolate, so went for the more original version, but added nuts as well as raisins.

Warm they were absolutely brilliant, but cooled off I would have liked them to be a little chewier on the inside still. Possibly something to do with the size of the cookies maybe?

Anyway, I am not displeased with them for my first try at a challenge. My scottish friend and very good cook will get to taste them in two days, so if she likes them I have passed the test!

I’m already looking forward to the next challenge although that is going to be a while. This post will only be published on april 1st together with the rest of the people that participated! Can’t wait to see everyone else’s results as well!

So I haven’t had much time to do any photography. I have done some cooking and tried out some lovely Italian recipes that I might share once I have been able to take some good photos of them. But you know how it is sometimes; you try and juggle several recipes at the time and then the only thing you want to do once you have it finished is eat it all!! Tom came back from the hospital on monday. Yeah!!
So we had a great pasta dish on tuesday with pancetta and tuna, together with a lovely fresh salad consisting of frisee, parma ham, apple and a dressing with balsamic vinegar. Very very tasty and very very healthy. I will definitely make those again, so watch this space to find the recipes and photos at some point in the near future.
Tonight I made pasta with grilled tomato, chili and roasted pepper sauce (freshly made) I had bought roma tomatoes which I think taste really good and put some cherry tomatoes in the grill. And those cherry tomatoes where sooooo lovely and sweet once grilled! I could have eaten a plate just with the tomatoes!! We ate it with fresh herbal tagliatelli, which was also tasty. Tom liked the tuna version from the day before better, although he did like this one as well. But as you can probably tell from the description it was vegetarian and my guy and vegetarian don’t always mix very well! He loves to have at least a little bit of meat in there; even if it is just a sliver…

I actually baked cookies also in the afternoon as well as summer pudding. We had gone out and Tom was tired when we came back (still not fully recovered) so he went to sleep for a few hours, and I baked cookies and made summer pudding.

I just hate our oven; it is just no good. If you follow the recipe it never comes out the way it is supposed to. In this particular case; the oven was to be at 170 degrees and the cookies had to bake for 15-20 minutes or untill golden. Mine where in there for around 40 minutes and STILL they were very pale looking (as you can see from the photo!). I had already adjusted the temperature to be higher as I know that the temperature maintaince of the oven is terrible, but still not so good…

Anyway; next I was doing the summer pudding. I am a bit anxious to find out how they come out tomorrow. The recipe called for lining the glasses with plastic to get it out easily. But the only plastic I had was clingfilm and the name already gives it away; it clings to the glass!! So not sure how it will come out tomorrow or if it wants to come out at all… We’re not gonna eat as a dessert, but more as a breakfast tomorrow morning, so I will hold off with posting this untill I have – hopefully – made some photos and if it is any good, I will share the recipe. Not sure about this one… It could be great or it could be horrible!!

The day after….
I was a bit anxious this morning when taking the summerpudding out of it’s glasses but that actually went quite smoothly. I don’t think they look as good as they can as this particular one was the least attractive from the batch that I did. I left it so I could take photos of it in the afternoon rather then early in the morning, but it is not entirely covered with the fruitpuree as by the time I was at the third one I didn’t have so much left. It was quite tasty although I felt that the bread itself was a bit too much. It would have been better if it was flatter I think. Or maybe have the pudding in a larger mold and then sharing or something like that. Anyway, if you want to try it; here is the recipe!

SUMMER PUDDING (dessert, four people)

500 gr of fresh soft fruit (blueberries, red and black currant, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries)
60 gr sugar
18 slices of old white bread
yogurt to serve

Put half of the fruit in a bowl, sprinkle half of the sugar over it and leave to set.
Put the rest of the sugar and the rest of the fruit in a kitchenmachine and puree untill smooth. If you want you can siff the pips out.
Line four molds (don’t use aluminium molds as that reacts to the acid in the fruit) with plastic foil. With a round cutter cut out four circles from the bread to put on the bottom of the molds and four larger circles to top it off once filled.
Cut the crusts from the other slices of bread and cut the bread into strips of about 2 cm wide.
Dip the breadbottoms in the fruit puree and put them in the molds. Dip the breadstrips into the puree and line the sides of the molds with it. Any parts that stick out of the mold you can cut off. Fill the molds with the whole fruits and make sure you press it all tightly and cover with the larger circle (which you have also covered in puree) Put something heavy on top of the molds so they are pressed tightly (they become firmer that way) and leave overnight in the fridge.
To serve put them on a plate, sprinkle some of the leftover fruitpuree on top and serve with yogurt.
* You can use frozen fruit but that will release more juice and will be less firm.
Prepare: 30 min/rest one night

After this healthy breakfast we went to Amsterdam to Studio Bazar which is a huge store which sells all sort of stuff for the kitchen. I’ve behaved and only bought the below stuff… Not much don’t you think??