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milano cookies

Monday, July 27, 2009 by alana

So this month, it is cookies. The challenge was to create two store bought favorites, Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies, and Mallows. We could do both, or choose one. Since half-assed cooking experiences seem to be my specialty these days, I chose one. Not so daring, I know. But the tomatoes have blight, and Sadie has hives, and there’s a homesick nephew moping around and I know, I know, true daring bakers don’t make excuses, but there they are.
The choice was easy. During my picky years, my single mamma opted to just give me what I wanted for lunch every day. I think that it is entirely possible that for five or more years, I got a bagel and cream cheese, two mint milano cookies, and maybe some sort of fruit of vegetable that I have blocked out because I probably didn’t eat it. So as you can imagine, milano cookies are pretty near and dear to my heart, although I don’t think that I have had one in a really really long time. And there they are, happy and wonderful little milanos, made in my very own kitchen.

Yeah, right.
You knew it wouldn’t be that easy. Warning sign one: late night baking (never works out well for me). Warning sign two: I have to use a piping bag. Warning sign three: the directions are perplexing to me. I mean, how does such a tiny line of batter turn into a cookie?

Turns out that it doesn’t.

Yes, I think that we would call that cookie FAIL. Although I must admit that peeled off the parchement, these made a good late night binge for us.
But luckily, Joey stepped in with his little artistic hands. He piped much bigger and more even circles, counter to the instructions. Piping is now officially his job. I spread the chocolate, put them together, and they were lovely. But really chewy. Which kind of worked actually. Except I just might have forgetten that although I put two sticks of butter on the counter to soften, I was only supposed to use one and a half. Which I might have realized in the middle of the night. Perhaps it was my inconsistency with the recipe, but these were in no way milanos. Milanos are very shortbready thick cookies. These cookies that we made were in fact, if I remember correctly, what Pepperidge Farm named Brussels. Thin, bubbly and sweet. Did anyone else have this experience?
Well there you have it. Another slightly daring baking experience over here. Here’s how you follow in my footsteps…

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.

Milan Cookies
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: 0 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies

• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. 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.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. 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.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

For the mallow recipe, as well as links to all of the other fabulous daring bakers’s creations, go check out the daring kitchen site. Thanks so much to Nicole for hosting this challenge, and I apologize to her for botching such a nice recipe. Luckily, butter and chocolate can’t be messed beyond repair.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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I’m Alana, and I write about food, family and the wonderful chaos that ensues when the two combine. If you’re new to the site, here are a few good places to start, or learn more about me on my about page.

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Instagram post 2337331591407595410_13442450 Sending off my taxes today with intention and prayer that they will be used to support programs for the most vulnerable, and that my little contribution will join with others to help move us towards the country I know we can be. #taxmagic ✨
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Instagram post 2322615811734696638_13442450 Black lives matter.
Instagram post 2319329508599466327_13442450 I did not bake these cookies, as I am no longer the cookie baker in this house. But this is the second time that  Sadie has made @susanspungen ‘s Triple-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies (and also the second time I’ve talked about a recipe Sadie has made from the #openkitchencookbook), and I think these might actually be the best cookies I have ever had. I’m often looking for the perfect ginger cookie and this is it, and I’d also choose it over a chocolate chip cookie (or let’s be honest-any other kind of cookie) any day.
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Instagram post 2312088043104000827_13442450 Every day my neighbor’s yard gets prettier.
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Instagram post 2311141543964321092_13442450 When I took on a day job a few years ago, I found that the first thing to go was all the homemade stuff I’d been making and writing about over the years. I’m still going out to work most days, but I’m finding now with a full and captive house and more downtime in general that those things I love to make are back. For me, it’s granola, yogurt, bread. Hello, old friends!
Instagram post 2308503311808232748_13442450 All the things in the house pasta: roasted cauliflower, a few sad leaves of kale, one jar of fancy tuna saved for a special occasion (how about Wednesday?), Rosemary, homemade breadcrumbs from the freezer fried in butter, crispy sage leaves, pasta water, salt, so much pepper. Success!
Instagram post 2307412630968777107_13442450 @artbywoodgy made this beautiful thing for me for Mother’s Day. All the veggies are on Velcro so I can plan to my hearts delight.
Instagram post 2306345003953662730_13442450 Happy Mother’s Day to my brave and beautiful mom, who birthed two different humans in such different times in her life. With me she was so young, and she figured it all out just as she was learning how to be an adult. This picture was taken nineteen years later, when she was pregnant again and I was almost an adult myself. Thanks for keeping at it, Mom, and for always showing up with love. ❤️
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Instagram post 2295808104927071821_13442450 A long time ago, Joey talked about his crush on this particular alien-like flower with a good friend of ours. Months later, little bulbs arrived in the mail. We put them in the ground last fall, and now they are everywhere. If that isn’t some kind of magic, I don’t know what is. ✨ (🙏🏻 to @wildflowers1 for the cool vase, too.)
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