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Chocolate Covered Nutella-Mallow Cookies

adapted from Gale Gand ^[1]

Dessert, Cookies | Servings: about 5 dozen
Prep time: 1 hour | Cook time: 10 min | Total time: 6 hour 10 min

Ingredients

Cookie

3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/8 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
12 tbsp. butter
3 eggs
1 egg yolk

Jar of Nutella (substitute: peanut butter)

Marshmallow

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. powdered gelatin
2 tbsp. cold water
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Chocolate glaze

12 oz. semisweet chocolate
2 oz. cocoa butter or vegetable oil

Process

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon in a mixer bowl.
Add butter. Using the paddle attachment mix at low speed until sandy.
Whisk together eggs and egg yolk in a small bowl and add it to the flour mixture. Mix until combined.
Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (You can chill the dough up to 3 days if necessary.)
When ready to bake the cookies, preheat your oven to 375 degrees (F) and line 1 or 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to 1/8 thickness. These cookies can grow quite tall if they are too thick so make sure the dough is evenly rolled. Use a round 1 1/2 inch cookie cutter to cut out the dough. Place on the cookie sheet about 1/2 inch apart (they grow up, not out).
Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown on top. Let cool completely on wire racks. These can be stored in an airtight container or plastic bag overnight if you want to wait and proceed with the recipe the next day.
Once cooled, evenly spread about 1/2 – 1 tsp. nutella (or peanut butter) on top of each cookie.
Prep a pastry bag fitted with the tip you want to use and set that aside. You will also need a candy thermometer.
In a small/medium saucepan, combine 1/4 cup water, corn syrup, and sugar. Bring to boil and cook until the thermometer registers 235 degrees (the “soft-ball” stage).
Meanwhile, sprinkle the gelatin in a small bowl filled with 2 tbsp. cold water and stir quickly. The gelatin will solidify in the bowl.
Remove the syrup from the stove, add in the gelatin and mix well. Set aside.
Whip the egg whites until soft peaks ^[2] form. Pour in the syrup and vanilla. Continue whipping until stiff. It just needs to be stiff enough to hold its shape; it will become stiffer as it dries, so be careful not to overwhip or else it could become too stiff to pipe.
Quickly transfer the marshmallow to your pastry bag. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow on top of each cookie. Let cookies set at room temperature for 2 hours.
Melt chocolate and oil in a saucepan over low heat or in a double broiler.
Meanwhile, line a surface with wax paper and place the wire racks holding your cookies on top.
Spoon the melted chocolate on top of each cookie, making sure they are completely covered (check the nooks and crannies on all sides!). So as to not waste chocolate, I found the best practice was to cover about half the cookies and let those dry until firm, about 1 hour. Then use a spatula to scrape the chocolate off the wax paper (it comes off with almost no effort). Put it back in the saucepan with any other leftover chocolate and melt over low heat again. Then proceed to cover the rest of the cookies. Let all the cookies set for another hour or two. And you should never waste chocolate so I give you full permission to eat the remaining drippings once it firms up! 🙂