July Daring Bakers-- Milan Cookies

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.

Okay, so you are probably wondering where my Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies are, aren't you? Well... we only had to make one or the other for the challenge and I had every intention on making both, however I've been taking some online classes for school this summer that are waaaaaaaaaaaay accelerated ( a 17 week courses in 4 weeks and a 17 week course in 7 weeks? Ouch!) and sadly my baking, crafting and blogging have all suffered because of it.

So, I only got the chance to do the Milano cookies. If you are going to do only one of the two, that is the one to do! They were so tasty! I love the Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies and this recipe (minus the citrus junk in there...ewwww) tasted pretty close to them. The only difference was that the ones I made were chewy rather than crunchy, but I loved them chewy!

I worked through this recipe without a single problem- it's very simple, just putzy! I also got more than 3 dozen cookies but I'm not sure exactly how many because the cookies were soooo good to eat even before assembling them, that I'm sure I ate a good 12-15 of the cookies plain! They reminded me of the Tuiles that we made back in January.

Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies




• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested

I skipped the citrus in both the batter and the filling. I don't think the Pepperidge Farm Milano's have any citrus to them and that just sounds gross to me anyway! So I went with the full chocolate flavor. Why ruin something so beautiful with citrus?


1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.

3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.

I guess maybe I ate even more than 12-15 cookies if you count the spoonfuls of cookie batter that I ate, too. Oopsy.

4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.

I just used my Pampered Chef Cookie Press to pipe the batter. I also used a fancy tip with it instead of a plain round one, but the dough is so thin that it just oozed all together when it baked so it didn't matter anyway.

5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.



6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).

I know I'm not the only one that ate this by the spoonful either...

9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.

Be sure not to squeeze them together like I did with this one (oh darn... it wasn't presentable so someone had to eat it!).

Much better.


10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Seriously delicious.

Don't forget to check out the Daring Baker's Blogroll to see other yummy creations for this month!