Marshmallow Goodness

Growing up in New Zealand, my favourite store bought biscuit was by far the Mallowpuff. How can you resist the amazing combination of marshmallow, biscuit and chocolate? It’s so good. I guess that’s why I love s’mores as well. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the s’more, you are missing out! Traditionally made around a campfire, it consists of a fire melted marshmallow sandwiched between two chocolate biscuits (Chocolate Girl Guide Biscuits to be precise). In the US I believe they use graham crackers and Hersheys chocolate rather than chocolate biscuits.

I was flicking through another recipe book from the library when I came across ‘Marshmallow Teacakes’. To me, it looked just like a homemade Mallowpuff. I was excited to say the least, and had dreams of miniature high tea Mallowpuffs. So when I finally had some extra time to test out the recipe I jumped at the chance.

My final product was not as aesthetically pleasing as the recipe book, but I am pleased to say, they were quite good. I changed the recipe slightly to suit what I wanted to do and my own tastes. Next time I might use a milk chocolate as the dark chocolate was quite a strong flavour (but it is also a lot sweeter).

Marshmallow Teacakes

Biscuit base:

110g plain flour

1/8 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

60g butter, softened

60g castor sugar

2 egg yolks (save the whites for the marshmallow)

½ tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp milk

Marshmallow filling:

2 egg whites

100g castor sugar

1tbsp golden syrup, plus 1 tsp

Pinch of salt

½ tsp vanilla essence

Chocolate topping:

200g 70% cocoa chocolate

1.     Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius and line a baking tray with baking paper.

2.     Sift first four ingredients of the biscuit base together in a bowl and set aside.

3.     In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add egg yolks and vanilla essence and mix well. Beat in milk. Add flour mixture and mix with a spoon until combined (don’t over-mix).

4.     Place small balls of biscuit dough onto baking tray – I had about 18, but it depends on how big/small you want to make them. I would squish them down slightly with a fork as they don't spread very much. Bake for about 10 minutes or until slightly golden around the edges (cooking time will vary depending on the size of your biscuits). Remove from oven and allow to cool.

5.     While the biscuits are cooling, put all of the marshmallow filling ingredients into a saucepan. (The original recipe suggests using a double boiler, but I found it easier to do it straight in the saucepan – you just have to be extra careful it doesn’t catch!). Whisk continuously by hand until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture becomes frothy and slightly opaque (10ish minutes). Remove from heat and beat with an electric handmixer until the mixture is the consistency of meringue. Once it is white and thick and holds it shape it is ready to go. Put the filling into a piping bag fitted with a large plain round tip (I used the Wilton 12 Round Tip).

6.     Pipe generous amounts of marshmallow onto each biscuit and put aside to set.

7.     Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave for 30 second bursts on medium, stirring between each time. You do not need to fully melt the chocolate in the microwave, you will find that once it is half melted you are able to just stir it until smooth.

8.     Spoon the chocolate over each marshmallow cover biscuit. Let the chocolate set completely before serving (can take up to an hour). Eat on the same day as making (but this shouldn’t be a problem). This may seem rather quick, but when I ate one of the last ones only two days after making them, the biscuit had started to become a little soggy with the marshmallow, and it tasted a little old.

Recipe adapted from  Peyton and Byrne: British Baking.

This recipe is fairly labour intensive, but I enjoyed making them as marshmallow is not usually something that I make. It's definitely on the list to remake.