Brownie Marshmallow Cookies with bonus Marshmallow Pops

The end of the year is birthday season in our house, and while it may be September, I have a planner, she’s turning 12… She's chosen a tea party theme, pretty china and tiny treats. Given Miss M is off to high school next year, I’m grabbing the concept and hanging on. There is the small matter of a major kitchen/living area renovation to navigate first… but hoping for the best, we’re recipe testing :)

The lovely Jane from emerald + ella sent over some products from her online store, really pretty party products that suit our theme perfectly! The white straws with tiny green polka dots are my favourite, and the thank you stickers are perfect for someone who is hopeless at sending out thank you notes, even if I have the best intentions.

My instagram and pinterest feeds have been full of images of s’mores, apparently August 10 was National S’mores Day, I love how Americans celebrate food! Combined with the Donna Hay brownie cookies I’ve been wanting to make for a few years, best not to rush things, I dreamt up the brownie marshmallow cookie, like a whoopee pie, but so much better! The cookies are great by themselves, just the perfect combination of crunch and chew, and really easy to make.  They can be sandwiched with almost anything; salted caramel, peanut butter, buttercream, ice cream, strawberries and cream, whatever you fancy really. The marshmallow is slightly trickier, you’ll need a sugar thermometer and an electric mixer, but again you can play with flavours, create something new…

The recipe will give you 10 large, or 20 small, brownie marshmallow cookies and a whole lot of left over marshmallow; you could double the cookie mix, but we are in party planning mode and got a bit carried away, making marshmallow pops and a slab of marshmallow to cut up and fill the goodie bags.

Brownie Cookies (adapted from Donna Hay) 

275g dark chocolate, chopped

75g milk chocolate, chopped

40g butter

2 eggs, at room temperature

130g caster sugar

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

35g plain flour

¼ tsp baking powder

makes 20 individual cookies

• preheat your oven to 180ºC
• put 200g of the dark chocolate into a small pan with the butter, stir over a low heat until smooth, set aside
• sift together the flour and baking powder, also set aside
• put the eggs and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, you can use a hand held electric mixer but expect a sore arm, whisk together for 10-15 minutes until really thick, pale and creamy
• gently fold the flour/baking powder, melted chocolate/butter and all the remaining chocolate through the egg mixture, leave to stand for 10 minutes
• while your cookie mix is resting, line 2 trays with baking paper
• I used a small ice cream scoop (size 40 for the lovers of detail!) to scoop and drop small mounds of the cookie mix onto the trays, a slightly heaped dessert spoon will give you the same amount, give the cookies room to spread, about 3cm
• bake for 10 minutes, but check after 8, the cookies should be puffed and cracked, dry on top, but still very soft
• leave on the trays until completely cool

Strawberry marshmallow

180ml strawberry juice (approximately 1 regular punnet, blitzed and strained)

20g powdered gelatin

500g caster sugar

2 egg whites

a pinch of salt

snow sugar* for dusting

for the marshmallow pops

12 pretty drinking straws

40g white chocolate, melted

40g milk chocolate, melted

sprinkles, 100s&100s etc for decoration

for the cookies, marshmallow pops and individual marshmallows; fit a large piping bag with a 10mm plain tip, lightly grease a 12 hole mini muffin tin or silicon mold and dust with snow sugar, you’ll also need to lightly grease a small cake or loaf pan and dust with snow sugar for the leftover mallow mixture

if you are making double the cookies you’ll just need the piping bag and cake pan

• combine strawberry juice and gelatin in a bowl, set aside
• combine caster sugar and 1 cup (250ml) water in a medium sized saucepan and cook over gentle heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves 
• increase heat to medium and cook until syrup reaches 125ºC on a sugar thermometer, this can take up to 10 minutes, but you need to keep an eye on it
• while the sugar is bubbling away, using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites and a pinch of salt until frothy
• when the syrup reaches 125ºC remove from heat, add strawberry mixture to the syrup and stir until smooth, the mixture will bubble alarmingly!
• with  your mixer on med/low, gradually add the hot strawberry syrup, whisk continuously on medium speed until mixture has doubled in size, slowly decrease speed and mix until mixture is cool

* in Australia snow sugar is available from The Essential Ingredient but can be substituted with a 50/50 combination of icing sugar and corn flour (or potato starch if you’re after gluten free) 

assembling the cookie sandwich cookies and marshmallow pops

if you plan to make the marshmallow pops as well, the next few steps require a bit of juggling, you’ll need to work quite quickly, before the marshmallow starts to set, no pressure…

• while the marshmallow is mixing, pair up similar sized cookies on a tray, one faced up, one faced down
• as soon as the marshmallow mixture is cool, pour around 1/2 into the piping bag, leave the rest in the bowl for the moment
• pipe a walnut sized mound of marshmallow on the upturned cookies, then pipe the remainder into the holes of your mini muffin tin, refill your piping bag if you run out
• when all cookies and pops are piped, tip the left over marshmallow into the cake tin, spread evenly and dust with snow sugar, leave to set at room temperature for about 3 hours
• sandwich your cookies together and store in an airtight container, they will soften gradually but are good for 3-4 days
• poke a straw into the centre of each marshmallow pop and leave to set at room temperature for around 3 hours or until firm; when set, gently ease the edges of the marshmallow away from the tin then pull on the straw to release
• dip the marshmallows in the melted chocolate and decorate with sprinkles; I rigged up an elaborate holes in a box contraption to keep the pops upright as they set, but honestly think up turning them in a glass or jar would work just as well!
• when the marshmallow in the tin has set, ease away from the edge of the tin, turn upside down over a board and bang sharply on the bench to release
• using a sharp knife, and a ruler if you have my OCD leanings, cut marshmallow into 2.5cm squares and roll in snow sugar to coat, bag up in your goodie bags or store in an airtight container between sheets of baking paper at room temperature for up to 2 weeks

      It's February 2017, I'm still loving these cookies, on a bit of a cookie baking bender actually :) Anyway, here they are again, does anyone else gift cookies in a tin, requesting the return of said tin? x