Hello everyone!

I’m back from Punta Cana! It was a fun and relaxing trip. I will talk about it in another post since My boyfriend and I visited sugar cane, coffee and cacao (are you surprised?) plantations!

Here is a recipe I wanted to make for quite a while now. In fact, it was my colleague who was really into Whippet that made me want to do these! I then discovered that the Daring Bakers had made Whippet (or mallows or chocolate covered marshmallow cookies) a while back (July 2009!). Their recipe is very good!

It was also my first time at using vanilla bean! The experience is conclusive though I was really surprised by the smell; it was so strong it smelled almost like alcohol!

Homemade Whippet (Mallows or Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)
Recipe from Daring Bakers July 2009 (see Tartelette’s)
For the Cookies:
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 eggs, whisked together

For the marshmallows:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
2 egg whites, room temperature
1 whole vanilla bean, split open and seeded

For the chocolate glaze:
12 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

Prepare the cookies
In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy. Add the eggs and mix until combine. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface.
** They double in height when you bake them so keep it in mind when you choose the thickness of the dough.
Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.

Prepare the marshmallows: In a medium saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.

** Here I have 2 little advices if you don’t want to end up like me with a brownish marshmallow (I had to do another batch!).
First: do not stir the mixture. You can stir it when you combine the ingredients, but once it boils do not stir.
Second, use a thermometer (I didn’t have a candy thermometer, but I used my meat thermometer to know the temperature approximately).
Oh and let’s go with another one, if you see your mixture turning slightly brown remove from heat immediately (but normally it won’t happen if you followed the previous advice)!
You can listen to this video from Joy of Baking, it helped me understand what I did wrong the first time!

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites. Add the vanilla seeds and continue whipping until stiff. Transfer to a pastry bag.

Prepare the chocolate glaze: Melt the chocolate and shortening together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

To assemble: Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the warm chocolate glaze. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.