What Are You Baking? December 2023

Curious, how did they fail?

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could well be operator error. Directions are to flatten chilled dough and embed frozen mini marshmallow, then roll in cinnamon/ sugar. Couldn’t get dough to fold over marshmallow and all the manipulation led to a very spready cookie and run away marsmallow. Flavor was good with a nice cayenne punch, but appearance was very bad.

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I did look at the recipe (gift link, which, by the way, if anyone copies and pastes is still a gift link that can be shared on, I believe) today, and liked the looks of it minus the marshmallows (which I may be in a minority in not caring for). It sounds as if it would be more successful if you rolled the dough in the cinnamon sugar, then flattened and pressed the marshmallows into it. If you wanted the marshmallows to be cinnamon sugared as in the recipe, you could always sprinkle a little more on.

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Yes, I’ll add that note to the recipe which explicitly says to press the shortbread layer into an ungreased pan. The shortbread isn’t sticking, but the chocolate top wants to chip along the cut lines and develops cracks when a single cookie-square is lifted. I think using a parchment sling and moving the entire 8x8 square to a cutting board and slicing /sliding there would improve chances of nice-looking giftable cookies.

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Avocado chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips.

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In that case, I’d either use a small amount of your greasing agent of choice in the bottom of the pan to secure the parchment and leave the parchment and exposed pan sides ungreased, or secure the sling by folding the tops of the tall side of it over the pan edges and securing them with binder clips (I embraced this after baking from Edd Kimber’s One Tin Bakes — currently on sale again as an ebook for $2.99 on all three major US platforms — where he gives it in his pan-lining directions, and they’re fine at 350F).

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I often wondered if I could use those in the oven!

Not sure I’d risk the plastic at higher temperatures, but at the standard 350F, it doesn’t even get particularly hot relative to the metal. and emerges completely unscathed. I now have a couple stashed in the drawer that houses rolling pins, pastry brushes, thermometers, etc.

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I score lines in brownies while they’re still warm from the oven and in the pan to get them sharp – once they cool, if you have the desired crinkle top, it is more likely to crumble when a knife goes in, which are the cracks I think you’re describing in the chocolate layer.

I’ve also been lightly buttering the knife or, of late, my Oxo turner if I’m giving them away, for clean lines with no crumbs / stickiness. (Sounds fussy, but works better for neat pieces than the previous method of chilling them before cutting – recent pic here.)

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A while back I did it here with a pan of Supernatural Brownies.

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Yes, Caitlin, I thought that it would work better as a standard cookie without the last minute fiddling. I have several recipes for spicy chocolate cookies, it was the marshmallow in this that was interesting. But I will go back to tried-and-true, like a thai chile truffle!

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Using up the last of my pistachio paste with two items, one being this pistachio pound cake with white chocolate glaze. Absolutely delicious!

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Been doing it for years

Thanks for the hints - recipe said cool completely before cutting but you’re correct that the cracks were in the crinkled tops. I’ll try scoring when still warm. Also easy enough to lightly butter the knife for final cuts.

Oooh - is there a recipe to pass along? I’ve had a jar of cream of pistachio nut spread for a while and haven’t been brave enough to try it. This looks wonderful!

From one of my favorite channels:

I creamed the pistachio paste with the butter as I typically do. And I add leavening and salt with the butter, too.

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I’ll have to watch at home and write down the ingredients and process. Thanks!

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The ingredients are in the description box.

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Thanks - that wasn’t showing up for me for some reason!

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me too!! It’s really a life saver…