Mallow Cookie, Mellow Evening (by Kat)

Ok, getting all caught up here on moving posts from Daring Bakers onto our webiste.
So, without further ado, this was my first Daring Baker challenge from back in July...

My first Daring Baker challenge! I think the words "Daring Baker" should be surrounded by flames and racing stripes, don't you? There's thrills, excitement, knuckle-whitening moments, and sometimes, like waiting for the chocolate to set, it's about as exciting as race cars going endlessly in circles.

So, my first thought upon reading through the recipe was that Nicole, from Sweet Tooth, crept into my kitchen one night, and saw that none of my printed recipes involving homemade marshmallows had sticky fingerprints on them, and that she decided I needed to stretch myself. Hooray! Thanks, Nicole, you're welcome to prowl anytime (hee hee)! And, you'll see upon your next visit that fingerprints have been added.
Ok, the cookie part was easy enough to do in my sleep. I did, in fact. Until I got the emergency call from my daughter and had to run off mid-mixing. No problemo, though, the dough came through just fine. She did too, in case you are wondering. This recipe made a lot of cookies, but I think they're cute and tasty with a spastic addition of chocolate. Most things are, though, aren't they?

The marshmallow part of the recipe, I'll admit, scared the bejeesus out of me. Fresh eggs were gathered from the chickens, with the promise that if the recipe failed they could have them back. I thought of putting a photo of an egg donor on my counter, but decided against it. Let's just leave it at "the eggs were fresh."

What I learned: marshmallows are no-fail! My digital thermometer was taking forever to reach 235 F, and I just happened to have some cold water at hand, so I threw a bit of the hot sugar mix into the water and ended up with a very hard ball stage! So, without further ado, I added it to the eggwhites and continued beating.
Oh !@# The gelatin! It's a hard rubber ball! With nothing to waste, I threw it into the mixer bowl and beat some more. Amazingly, it worked!

The marshmallow was duly piped onto the cooled cookies, chocolate was melted, and the cookies were dunked. I waited for the chocolate to set. And I waited. And I waited. And I waited. I eventually put the cookies in the fridge after I read in the forums that others had done this without problems. Oh looky! Wine in the fridge!

Finally the cookies set, photos were taken, and the bottle of wine was emptied.

Mellow evening, mallow cookies. It's all so gooooooooood.