Daring Bakers: Milan Cookies

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.
The challenge this month was to make one or both of the above listed cookies. Because of time constraints for the challenge deadline, I chose to do the Milan Cookies only but plan on doing the Chocolate-Covered Marshmallow Cookies at a later date (probably for Care Group in mid-August, as I usually try to coincide Daring Baker challenges with Care Group...somewhere to take the food so it won't end up around my waist!).

Usually I don't post the Daring Baker recipe because I'm not sure it's okay to have thousands of bakers posting the same recipe that typically comes out of a cookbook. However, this recipe is available on-line and so I'll link to it (above) and post it as well (below).

Now, for the part I know you're all waiting anxiously for... (I'm the chick in purple)
So, Gina, tell us, how was baking the Milan Cookies? It was oh. so. easy!
And, what were they like? Well, I thought they were a little soft because I only had bread flour. I was pleasantly surprised that they were not too lemony, especially with all that lemon extract! And someone at church said, "These are much better than the store-bought ones!" Since I'm pretty fond of the Pepperidge Farm version, I took that as a compliment. Oh, and I wanted to make mint Milan cookies, but I was unable to find spearmint oil for the chocolate ganache filling and was too lazy to drive all over looking for it. :)

Here are the baked cookies awaiting filling and sandwiching. Some are a little more done than I'd like but my oven leaves a lot to be desired in the calibration department. :) It's almost 30, I'm giving it a break (and hopefully the old heave-ho early next year!)

And here are the sandwiched cookies. The blue in the background would be my oldest daughter, ready to pounce. And then, she discovered I'd used semi-sweet chocolate...and she was truly bummed.

Prep Time:
20 min
Inactive Prep Time:
0 min
Cook Time:
1 hr 0 min

Level:
0

Serves:
about 3 dozen cookies (I made "mini" cookies and easily had twice that)

Ingredients

* 12 tablespoons butter, softened
* 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
* 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
* 2 tablespoons vanilla extract (yes, really two TABLESPOONS)
* 2 tablespoons lemon extract (yes, really two TABLESPOONS)
* 1 1/2 cups flour
* Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:

* 1/2 cup heavy cream
* 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
* 1 orange, zested (I really dislike chocolate and orange, I skipped this)

Directions

Cream the butter with a paddle attachment then mix in the sugar. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.

Cookie Filling: In a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl. Whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools). Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.