Eggnog Mallomars

Happy Holidays everyone!  Can you believe that we are less than a week until Christmas and two weeks until we bid adieu to 2012?  This year has gone by so quickly, I'm not quite ready for 2013 just yet.  I haven't really had a chance to enjoy the holidays and the end of this year!

Over the past four weeks I have been struggling with the cold that would not leave.  This past weekend I headed to the doctor who told me I had bronchitis!  I was hooked up with some medicine and have been crashing at home for the past few days.  I'm hoping to kick this out of my system before I head home to Buffalo this weekend.

The exact same thing happened last year, I got sick just before the holidays.  I was laid up for weeks and missed out on so much fun while I was napping.  I think that BF and I went to sleep around 10:30 on New Years Eve. 

After three days on my medication, I'm feeling much better.  Hopefully I'm on the mend for real this time.  I was feeling healthier this Saturday and made some holiday mallomars!  Last year was peppermint, this year I made you some eggnog flavored sweets.  Though I am concerned about feeding them to anyone, what with my bronchitis diagnosis a day after I made them!  I can tell you that these guys were tasty and I was the only one to have any.  Maybe being sick while making cookies is a good thing?  All for me!

Hope you are all enjoying these last few weeks of the year.  With my recent illness, the last few weeks of my 2012 challenge have fallen to the wayside.  I've pushed the final challenges into the new year, to be sure that I complete them all!  And don't worry.  A new 2013 challenge will be announced soon!  Stay warm and bright everyone!

One Year Ago: 2011 Fan Favorites
Two Years Ago: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

Eggnog Mallomars

A Wilde Original

I love making mallomars.  With the wide options of flavors for marshmallows these days, you can make a mallomar any flavor you would like.  In order to make these eggnog mallomars, I used concentrated eggnog candy oil (from LorAnn Oils, it's only a few dollars!).

Cinnamon Cookies

1 stick butter, room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, beat together butter, powdered sugar, cinnamon and salt until smooth.  Add almond flour and vanilla and beat until combined.  Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the edges.  Add egg and combine.  Finally, add flour slowly until completely mixed.

Scrape batter out of the bowl and onto a large piece of plastic wrap.  Fold over plastic wrap and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness.  Place dough on a flat surface and place in the fridge.

Lightly dust your work surface with flour.  Remove chilled dough from the fridge and place on floured surface.  Stamp out 2-inch circles with a cookie or biscuit cutter.  Place dough circles on a baking sheet and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F and bake cookies for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet on a wire rack.  Remove from the baking sheet and allow cookies to cool completely before adding marshmallow.


Eggnog Marshmallow

For the bloom
4 1/2 tsp powdered gelatin
1/2 cup cold water

For the marshmallow syrup
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
pinch salt

For the flavoring
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp eggnog

Prepare the bloom by stirring gelatin into cold water.  Let gelatin soften  while you prepare the marshmallow syrup.

In a 2-quart pot, combine sugar, corn syrup, water and salt.  Insert candy thermometer into the mixture and heat over medium.  Without stirring, bring candy syrup to 245 F.  Once the syrup reaches this temperature, remove from the heat and stir in bloomed gelatin (be careful, it will bubble up!).

Pour marshmallow syrup into the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large bowl, if you're doing this with a hand mixer).  Begin whipping the syrup on medium speed, after three minutes add the flavorings.  Increase speed to high and continue whipping for a total of ten minutes.

Transfer marshmallow fluff to a piping bag and pipe blobs of marshmallow onto your cooled cookies.  Let the marshmallow set for at least two hours.  You can either dip the cookies in melted chocolate or cover the marshmallow in sprinkles.