I thought it would be the marshmallow that would make this little bit of insanity difficult to pull off. I was wrong. It was the cookie. And the chocolate. And the assembly. And the storage.
The more I thought about how to make this cookie, the more I had to ask Michele what she thought about each of it's components. It didn't take me too long to figure out that what I was doing was custom designing a cookie for her that was based on a cookie she loved. I wasn't recreating Mallowmars so much as creating "Michele-o-mars"...from the ground up. Wow. I guess I take requests now. (From some people. Put your hand down back there!)
One thing at a time, I told myself. The cookie first. Since graham crackers were out, I asked Michele what she thought would make a good base for her cookie. She first said a classic biscuit but then we talked about how the cookie needed to be light but sturdy enough to stand up to both the marshmallow and the chocolate. I searched my mind for alternatives. What about vanilla wafers?
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| Wafers in Rows. |
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| Some detail. |
I've been wanting to try my hand at vanilla wafers for a while now, for a completely different project (which will happen pretty soon), so now was as good a time as any. I went with this recipe, which turned out well. It was tasty but a little too dense for this, and my completely different project.
A Brief Word About What I Want (With Regards To Vanilla Wafers):
I'll probably make an alteration or two for the completely different project (notice the foreshadowing). They need to be a little lighter but brown up more. I have a specific plan for my vanilla wafers and they'll need to be as perfect as I can make them.
A Brief Word About What I Want (With Regards To Vanilla Wafers):
I sent Michele to work with the results of the wafers. One of her co-workers, a level or two up from her, I believe, couldn't stop raving about them and how they were the absolute perfect cookie. I accepted the praise and told Michele that if she ever needed to...um...distract this person for any reason, we now know how to do it. But for Mallowmars? No cigar.
What about short bread? I've made shortbread before and I do like it. But I've never made shortbread cookies. I found a recipe that was simple – three ingredients – and had a lot of promise.
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| Shortbread rounds! |
These baked up well, kept a good shape and were pretty much the right thickness. Michele, however, pronounced them too sweet and I had to agree. Alone they were great but if I combined them with marshmallow and chocolate, they'd send her right over the edge of her sweetness tolerance.
Again I sent her to work with a box of rejects. She shared them at a meeting and they were well-received. When the meeting was over, she noticed that the box, which still had a great many cookies in it, was gone. It turns out that her new direct supervisor had secreted it away from everyone for himself. He told her that they were amazing, and he knows from amazing because his mother, who was a fantastic cook, taught him how to bake, and he's also frequented many incredible bakeries with great cookies in his time. These ranked right up there. Highest praise!
But still not right. Even when I halved the amount of sugar they were too sweet. What if I did a mixture of butter and shortening (as I use to do with my pie crusts) and halved the sugar?
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| Three ingredients...plus one. |
These tasted fine but they were too fragile to stand up to the rigors of this cookie. (This batch, though, I kept to myself. Mmmmmm!) And when I tried it with all shortening, the results were dismal:
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| Wha...? |
Digestive biscuits?
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| It was the baking soda that was supposed to aid in digestion...hence the name. |
Not bad but digestives are sort of graham cracker-like. So these just wouldn't do.
Wow. Three different cookies, six different batches, and not a winner is sight. I needed to solve this problem but I'd have to wait. It was time to work on the chocolate.
Part II ends.
Currently listening to: Said The Sky - Book Of Us (Feat. Mothica)
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