MALLOWS ANYONE? It’s the DARING BAKER time of the month!
Cecil Beaton
The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet
Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and
Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.
The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at 
In Nicoles words, “I’m a huge fan of Gale Gand, I have tried a lot of her recipes and they are such a huge success. For July’s challenge though I wanted to try something different and I wanted to do Gand’s version on my favorite store bought cookies which are the Peppridge Farm Milano Cookies and the Mallows (Chocolate covered Cookies). I’ve been wanting to try this recipes but just haven’t have the chance to do so or to be honest haven’t have the courage to tackle homemade marshmallow yet, until now.” 
Mallows (Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies) recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network. Cookie heaven, and that’s just what this months challenge was all about. Pleasure packed into a fabulous cookie! Dessert bites, light as air, and ever so indulgent!! Do stop by at Nicole’s blog @Sweet Tooth for the recipe.
Procrastination never got the better of anyone, least of all me, as far as typing the post goes. Got the mallows ready in the 2nd week of July, & was quite prepared to try the Milanos. Fate had other plans for me; it always does! Schools had barely opened after a 2 month long summer vacation, & this Friday had been bookmarked for the Milano. Unfortunately, the school had to be shut down again for sanitization due to a number of H1N1 cases among students. Sigh, sorry Milanos…
With the kids at home, nothing in my life moves. It’s been an extended short break for them, & I wonder why I waited so long to get typing the post. With D-day tomorrow, here I am trying to type my thoughts as July sweeps by us. What happened to the month? Life has actually been reduced to a blur! Days merging into one another, and as always, so much to do, & so little time. Being on twitter doesn’t help, so I’ve torn myself away from it for the past 2 days! FOCUS!! 
Some things just get moved up in queue from want to do, to have to do! Making Mallows has been the best cookie experience I’ve had, & by far the most involved & exciting. DELICIOUS & IMPRESSIVE for homed-baked cookies, we couldn’t get over them. Got huge thumbs up from the whole family, & for once, even from myself.
Mallows are a fabulous cookie to make, & only once they come together under the chocolate coating, do you realise the magic you’ve created. The cookie base is crisp & light as air (I had my doubts about the base cookie, & was proved a 100% wrong). The marshmallows were FUN to make, almost uncertain again that I would manage, so I worked with them a little gingerly. I didn’t pipe on big glops of marshmallow on the cookie because I thought they would slide right off & spread uncontrollably due to the heat, but surprise, surprise! They held their ground, & beautifully. 
The chocolate coating was fun & very satisfying. I thought everything would fall apart once in the melted chocolate, but this part was a breeze! The other challenge of course was getting the chocolate to set, which it did only in the fridge, & then trying to get some good ‘unbloomed‘ shots. 
Not altogether possible, because the coating melted & gathered condensation as soon as it was out of the fridge. The mallows TASTED FABULOUS though, & am so glad I made these. Could never imagine I would something as delightful as these from scratch one day! YUM! 
The other problem was that I got way too many cookies out of the batch, almost 1-2 dozens still sitting in the box. The marshmallow & melted chocolate weren’t sufficient for the whole batch of cookies, which were almost 8 dozen! Maybe I rolled them too thin, but it was 1/8″ alright. I got a few mallows sans the chocolate coating, so did them up with different toppings. Drizzled scraped melted chocolate coating over a few, with chocolate shavings. Sprinkled some citrus sugar over others etc.
The citrus sugar idea came from Audax Artifex’s post on the forum at DB. Was a pleasure to make it. I make lime juice for the kids everyday when they return from school. So as a routine now, I microplane the zest off & run the zest the microwave for 2-3 minutes till dry. Rub the zest into the sugar well with your fingertips, & voila, you have some good citrus sugar. Thank you Audax…I love it!
The marshmallows and chocolate coating ran out pretty soon. So something had to be done with the base cookies that got left over. Crumbs leftover from a Chocolate Bundt Cake that I make often, mixed in with some thick chocolate ganache, gave birth to some Chocolate Sandwich Leftover Cookies! What’s not to love about left-overs? I ♥ them!!
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
118 Comments
Miakoda
Absolutely beautiful! The marshmallow filling and chocolate coating look perfect. In spite of the heat and all that, you've really pulled it off! 🙂
Jo
Absolutely gorgeous. I love the flavours, colours, presentation and pictures. Another challenge brilliantly executed.
Susan from Food Blogga
I feel like I'm in a candy shop, Deeba! Oh, my, these look heavenly!
Elra
Despite the heat & humidity, you did very very well Deeba! Look absolutely fabulous!
toontz
Wow, Deeba!! Beautiful as usual….
Andrea
You always make everything look so pretty, like a wonderful present you are preparing to give away. Lovely cookies!
Dips
Amazing collection there ! Just beautiful…I just managed to get in..will post before the day end 🙂
Congrats again for the great job !!
Barbara Bakes
My first time making marshmallows too! We loved this cookie as well. You pictures are beautiful as usual!
Pontch
Great job !
I love your Mallow and the Milan they looks amazing !!!
thecookieshopinenglish
How cute are these cookies? I love the ones with the lemon sugar!
♥♥♥Ria♥♥♥
So cute! I loved your cookies! And your pics… they speak volumes Deeba!!
Nithya
The pics are fabulous. I just cant resist.. tempting cookies.. 🙂
Helene
They are stunning, I've been missing you on twitter xx
Loie
Oh wow! Yours are brilliant, I'm embarrassed that you even looked at mine!! Good job on the challenge!
Susan @ SGCC
These are spectacular, Deeba! Each one is so beautiful! Where do you find the time?
I am having the same problems with heat and humidity. It has been in the 90's F. here and it rained all weekend. I have my air conditioning turned down to 68 and have been waiting all day for the darn chocolate to harden! I will have to try to get some photos in the morning.
Anh
You have done an amazing job with this for sure! Fabulous… My chocolate coating tends to soften too. Due to humidity perhaps?
Rosa's Yummy Yums
What pretty cookies and beautiful pictures! You did a great job! I am impressed!
Cheers,
Rosa
Lisa
GORGEOU, deeba! The fact that you can shrink your photos so small, and they still remain sharp as a tack, is the mark of a truly gifted photographer. Oh, and all of your cookies, the clean work, presentation etc…are perfection and they look and sound delicious!
ARUNA
lovely pics and brilliant presentation Deeba!!
Aparna
Very, very pretty Deeba.
I made these ones, too using marzipan instead of marshmallow. 🙂
Audax
I just can't believe your photos and the quality of the final product you truely are an amazing baker top-notch. I'm stunned on your posting it is so beautiful and your photos are so detailed. Bravo bravo bravo. And thanks for the plug about the lemon/lime/orange sugar it is super nice. But what is delightful is flavoured salt this is super expensive to buy if you can find it in the first place but so cheap to make – it is made the same way as the sugar, dry the flavouring and add to the salt – try chives very tasty and my fav is olive salt. And even plum salt is great and they last a long time and it is easy to make and will add a beautiful taste that people will comment on. Cheers from Audax in Australia. Again wonderful result I'm so impressed in every manner.
Poornima Nair
Deeba, your mallows are the best. The pictures are so beautiful, I've gone over them so many times already and can't stop. The chocolate coating is so perfect and I love the sandwich cookies…Yummm.
Tartelette
Beautiful styling and results as always Deeba!
Lovely flavors all around!
Sara
Looks gorgeous! I love all the photos…totally delicious! 🙂
Megan@Feasting on Art
You chocolate coating looks fabulous!! Great job on the challenge. I must try out the citrus sugar, my type of thing!
KSHEMA
Wow those look gorgeous. Your posts always inspire me to bake. & now I have to try these. I had one question though. I just went through the recipe & one of the ingredients for the marshmallows is corn syrup. I can't find that here in Mumbai .. Do you get it there in gurgaon ? or is there a substitute I can use ??
Snooky doodle
OH THESE COOKIES! JUST AMAZING!! I M DROOLING OVER THESE, ESPECIALLY THE MARSHMALLOW ONES! OH! GREAT PHOTOS!
Parita
Your photos speak that you enjoyed the challenge a lot! love all those gorgeous clicks!
Abhilash Pillai
Deeba,
This is really delicious to see. "SEE", I hope they will taste the same… mm… Mouth-watering cookies…
Thanks for the comment on my blog. Yes, blogging in India is growing and exchange of ideas is random…
I hope people share more information through WWW and India has a new name for its bloggers as it has for its engineers…
Jamie
Wow! This was a challenge that I should not have missed and I must make them – you know that chocolate-covered marshmallow is my favorite thing! Beautiful, luscious job, Deeba!
Dhanggit
im drooling! all these creations are adorable and yummy too i could imagine!
noobcook
They are beautiful works of art!
Zita
So many flavors and cobinations… outstanding as always Deeba 🙂
shaz
Such gorgeous results despite the heat and amazing photos! You've got a brand new fan 🙂
cookemila
absolutamente irresistibles
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
Wow Deeba you've really outdone yourself tonight! These look amazingly good and I love the variations you made 😀
Nags
us passion amazes me Deeba. Beautiful beautiful pics too!!! 🙂
Ellie
They look amazingly gorgeous!
Memória
Wow, you did a lovely job!! I also adore your photos!! I'm glad you and your children enjoyed the cookies. I love your idea of the crumb and ganache filling. YUM!
janis
they're amazing! i hope i can make some of those one day… some that would look as pretty as yours 😀
Karen
What a comprehensive post! I love all your photos!
Avanika [YumsiliciousBakes]
OH MY GOD Deeba!! These look soo sinful!! Serious eye-gasm occuring right now 😛 😛 I cant wait to try these for myself!
vibi
Deeba… you kill me.
Either you are the cookie fairy, or you carry cookie genes in your DNA!
Jennifer
I think I say this every time I come to your wonderful blog, but you are amazing! Your creations, re-creations and photography just blow me away! so inspiring!! 🙂
Judy@nofearentertaining
Oh Deeba! Those look so perfect. I would never have known the weather played a factor in them!!! As always your creativity is amazing. Now help me figure out what to do with the leftover unbaked cookie dough I have???
Yasmeen
Little morsels of joy,love the pretty presentation.The citrus sugar idea is a must try 😀
Bellini Valli
Mallo's have always been a childhood favourite Deeba. Beautiful smaps are making me very hungry…better go have breakfast.
Dharm
These look just lovely my dear friend! so professional looking – I just love it!
Donna-FFW
My goodness, absolutely perfect, beautiful, they look phenomenal!! You did a super fantastic job.
raj
this is my first time over at your blog! found it through the purple foodie's. your photos are amazing. and the cookies looks delicious!
Ramya Kiran
Absolutely gorgeous. Wonderful clicks too!
Jen @ My Kitchen Addiction
All of your pictures are so beautiful! Your mallows turned out much better than mine did!
Jenny
So beautiful! I didn't get around to the mallows but I am inspired by your post to give it a try soon. It looks like these would make terrific gifts!
amritac
I'm droooooling here!! (and can barely pull my tongue back up inside). Your mallows look gorgeous and great photography as usual!
Anula
OMG! Your mallows look great! Can I have some? 😉 What a lovely photos! Cheers!
raquel
amazing! well done!
glamah16
Youn knoecked this one out of the park. Outstanding works of art. Love the candied citrus idea. So many great variations.
noble pig
Oh those are seriously beautiful Deeba!
Jen
Wow, the cookies are just beautiful and your photography is amazing! Those mallows are making me hungry!
pinkstripes
Wow! Wow! Wow! Your mallows look perfect. I love all the different things you did with them. Great job.
isabelle
Awesome!
I love all the flavours and your
presentation is gorgeous!
Lauren
Beautiful. I love your collages, they're gorgeous =D. All of your marshmallow cookies look amazing – Awesome job!!
The Blonde Duck
I love the ones with sprinkles!
Gera @ SweetsFoods
Awesome just awesome post..the photos are dreamy if you don't have a sweet tooth…you’ve it now!
How much time you spend taking and editing these brilliant pics?
Totally impressed!! Sending to twitter right now 🙂
Cheers!
Gera
Andrea
Fabulous! Your mallows are so pretty, and a great idea to make sandwich cookies with the extras.
Chef E
Gera directed me here, and I am glad I followed her lead, because your stuff is gorgeous, and I bet out of this world tasty…
meeso
Of course, yours turn out absolutely beautiful with a great presentation!
Tammy
wow, what amazing photos!!!! I loved how impressive these looked as well
singinghorse
Once again, words cannot express how much I enjoyed your photo series and cookie fashion show. I loved all of the cookies. Beautifully done, as always!
Laura
Stunning work, beautiful pictures, perfectly executed creative cookies. Wow. Well done!
Y
I love all your decorating ideas! They look like they would make amazing presents.
Anita
Gorgeous photos!!! I love the different ways you made the mallows too.
Gloria
Deeba! Really I love mellows and your look wonderful, absolutely nice pictures too, as always, xoxoxoxo Gloria
Namratha
Pretty pretty Deeba, your cookies are a sight to see! And gorgeous pics too.
Light as air is definitely right about the Mallows, I loveeeed them!
Elle
Totally gorgeous cookies! Great idea to make sandwich cookies with the rest of the base cookies. Beautiful photos, too.
Eat4Fun
Delicious looking cookies and photos! Beautiful variations and wrapping!
SimplePleasures
wow! they are stunning!
BumbleVee
I don't care what you are baking…I just have to keep coming back to look at your amazing photos……of amazing baking…. …. these are absolutely beautiful.
creampuff
Deeba, Those aren't cookies, those are works of art! Just gorgeous!
Kamran Siddiqi
How do you do it? You're photos are so exquisite and if I were to have one of them after you were done photographing, I probably wouldn't eat them because they look too pretty to eat. So perfect!!
Kamran Siddiqi
How do you do it? You're photos are so exquisite and if I were to have one of them after you were done photographing, I probably wouldn't eat them because they look too pretty to eat. So perfect!!
Julie (Willow Bird Baking)
Beautiful cookies and photos!! What a great post!
Laura
Wonderful pictures! I will try the mallows tomorrow, didn't have time today.
MeetaK
simply gorgeous deeba! wonderful looking cookies and leftover cookies! great going!
morgana
Mmmmmmmmm. Amazing job, beautiful photos… I love your work.
mandymortimer
Beautiful mallows, stunning photos!
Julia @ Mélanger
Deeba, A M A Z I N G! All your variations look so good. Well done.
Cakelaw
Your cookies are gorgeous Deeba – and I love the chocolate sandwich leftover cookies. I only made Milanos the day before posting day – and wished I hadn't!!!
Jasmine
What an amazing job you did on this challenge! So creative and pretty. Thanks to your visit on my blog, I now discover yours… And it's going to become one of my favorites for sure!
gine
so lovely ^^!! .. I love all the many variations ^^ .. yummy yum!! XOXO
jillian
So beautiful and you photos are just gorgeous!
Ruth
OMG wow love everything you really embraced the challenge
Brettany Brown
your pictures are beautiful!…it's so refreshing to see such passion and craft.
Coffee and Vanilla
They are soooo beautiful!
kellypea
Such a spectacular job on these, Deeba. All of your toppings on the Mallows are so beautiful and since I have some left, I'm resisting the urge to go get one. Always enjoy your lovely photographs ; )
Arwen from Hoglet K
Thanks for passing on the citrus sugar idea. It sounds like a great concentrated flavour. Great job managing the chocolate in the heat too!
Valérie
So many gorgeous pictures! All your different mallows look spectacular! I also have tons left in my fridge, but I'm not complaining: I agree with you, they get more addictive with every taste!
Esi
I am literally overwhelmed by all these beautiful cookies. I haven't even made one yet. So lovely.
Proud Italian Cook
Deeba, You could sell these and make a fortune! You never cease to amaze me!
Jill
Your pictures are FANTASTIC!! I can't even pick a favorite, because they were all amazing! I thought your Mallows were beautiful! 🙂
kk
the mallows look absolutely fantastic!! after seeing all these mallows, i want to make them too!! i only got to make the milano cookies. I think i'm going to them your "leftover" way. =) great job!!!
Rohit
:P~
This website should be marked as NSFW (Not Safe for Work)
The images are so tempting that I can't concentrate back on work.
Do you ever do an exhibition of these stuff or invite people for a treat 😉
Soma
Oh my goodness ! You have done a LOT here! your pictures are always so enticing… make me want to go grab one of the mallows.. i love marshmallow.
sweetakery
Absolutely beautiful! The marshmallow filling and chocolate coating look delicious!…the presentation and pictures are beautiful! Yah in spite of the weather they do turn out amazing, don’t they? Thank you for dropping by and sweet comments! =)
Elissa
I always look forward to seeing your challenge because you are positively the most beautiful decorator there is. I'm never disappointed… all of these cookies look lovely!
Irina @ PastryPal
Hi Deeba! I found your blog because you left a comment on mine and I'm really glad you did. Your blog is very, very beautiful and I'm looking forward to trying one of these recipes.
nikki
Beautiful photos and cookies! Really fantastic job!
Fahrenheit 350°
WOW!
Katrina
Wow, all the cookies look SOOO good and yummy and fabulous pictures!
Celeste
Absolutely scrumptious and beautiful!! Great job!!
Junglefrog
Wow Deeba, what beautiful pictures you've made of this challenge, along with having amazing looking cookies as well! And hey, now you even know what cream of tartar is for! 🙂
Talita
Oh, no! Please! Don't show me that! Those look amazing! So delicate and rich! Thanks for stopping by my blog, I didn't remember your blog and see it again it was a pleasure! =)
HoneyB
You were so busy! These all look so beautiful and delicious!
Sophie
You have been being busy!!! How lovely all of the treats look! How to choose??
How can you choose?
All of those delicious looking treats look FABULOUS!!!
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM,…
cookies and cups
Wow! Awesome! That's all I can say…also your pictures are gorgeous!
Christina
Gorgeous cookies and photos!
culinography
So many beautiful, beautiful photos! Wonderfully done!
Winnie
Amazing job- these look incredible!