"Checkers, anyone?" - Daring Bakers' July Challenge, Almost

Okay, another fail this month. 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. I wanted to do the mallows - I love 'em, they even have a special silly name in our household (motorbike cakes, don't ask). :P

But wait - there was no gelatine in the house to make the marshmallow, bother. I was not going to drive to the nearest supermarket just for that, so I used ready-made mini-marshmallows. If I was at my student place I could have used some of the home-made marshmallow fluff I have sitting in the freezer... but oh well!

So, anyway, I got to work on the bases. Even using 1/3 of the recipe it made loads! I had only prepped one baking sheet,and my reasoning was - if only I'd cut them thicker! I decided to double them up rather than re-rolling (hey, I was late for the deadline, okay?), which was my first mistake.


Then I baked them with a little marshmallow on top of each (just one, because the damn things kept falling off and melting all over the baking tray). Some of the biscuits decided to seperate during cooking (don't blame them really), so I inverted those and made marshmallow sandwiches.


Then the chocolate - oh, the chocolate! Instead of cocoa butter or vegetable oil I decided to add... evaporated milk. Just a drop, but my, how it did thicken the chocolate! Dipping was no longer an option; in the end I just splodged the stuff on top and attempted to spread it a bit.


Ah, I made a right mess of it, and I wouldn't call the end result Mallows (or Milans :P). Thing is, they remind me of draughts/checkers counters. Stacked in twos we have the kings, and we have the black and white colours... Wanna play? ;)


Better news: I'm moving into my new student house tomorrow and I predict that it will be awesome - and I may have to do some baking to 'break in' the kitchen, right? Maybe I'll even remember to blog it! :0
Aaand I picked up a piping set during my pre-move visit to Ikea. Never used the things before but have been wanting to get some for yonks, so yay! Nicely decorated cakes, coming soon???