Wilde day in Brooklyn

This weekend I spent my Saturday in Brooklyn with a whole bunch of NYC area food bloggers!  It was the NYC bake sale for No Kid Hungry and the delicious treats were out in full effect.  For some reason I only took one photo, I must have been distracted by all the sweets.  

The crowds were great, thanks to the beautiful sunshine, and once people learned it was all for charity, they really opened up their pocketbooks.  With a plethora of sweet options from over twenty local bloggers and bakeries, along with some fun raffles and tote bags to promote big purchases!  I picked up a few treats for myself too!

Image via Tasty Pursuits
Meet @sweetsillianah, @Takethetoyz, me, @TheRescueBaker, and @ChipChipHooray

Last week I told you about the birthday cake mallomars that I brought to the bake sale.  I also made some raspberry macarons and these Gluten-Free Cookies & Cream Mallomars!  Lillian had suggested I give a gluten-free mallomar a try and I had to agree that was a great idea!

I took one of my classic dark chocolate cut out cookies and swapped out the traditional all-purpose wheat flour with Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour and some xantham gum.  Along with these cookies being gluten-free, they were made with the support of Divine Chocolate!

Divine Chocolates was one of the sponsors of the NYC bake sale and donated several baking kits to the bloggers to help make some seriously chocolatey treats.  These mallomars wound up super chocolatey because they contained the Divine 70% dark chocolate bars and dark cocoa powder.  The rich chocolate offset the sweet vanilla marshmallow perfectly.

In addition to being able to bake with the Divine Chocolate, the actual farmers (and owners) of Divine were in town this weekend.  I got to meet with and share my mallomars with two of the Ghana farmers.  I'm fairly certain they thought they were a bit too sweet, which means they were perfect for the American palate!  Give them a try!

Disclaimer - I received a package of Divine chocolate for use in this post.  All opinions are my own.



One Year Ago: Thai Chicken Salad
Two Years Ago: Three Musketeers Bars

Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Cut out Cookies

A Wilde Original

These gluten-free cookies served as the base of my cookies and creme mallomars.  They would also be great plain or topped and decorated with your favorite royal icing!  They are super rich and chocolately thanks to the cocoa powder and the dark chocolate in the dough.

2 cups Gluten-free all-purpose flour (I like Bob's Red Mill)

1/2 teaspoon Xantham gum (Also Bob's Red Mill)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces 70% Dark chocolate, chopped

8 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a small saucepan combine chocolates, butter and sugar and heat on medium-low. Stir until melted and remove from heat. Continue stirring until smooth and sugar is totally dissolved.  Allow to cool slightly.  In another small bowl, lightly beat the eggs.  Add 1/2 cup butter mixture to the eggs and gently whisk to combine.  Pour this back into the remaining butter mixture and whisk until smooth.

Pour chocolate mixture into flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough forms a ball. Divide dough in half and flatten to ¼-inch between two sheets of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and chill dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Cut out cookies using any two-inch cookie cutter.  Place on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper or a silpat. Collect the scraps and re-roll to a ¼-inch. If the dough gets too sticky then put in the fridge for ten minutes.  Chill cut out cookies dough pieces in the fridge for 30  minutes.

Bake at 350 F for 8-9 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan on a wire rack for 1 minute.  Remove cookies from the baking sheet and let cool completely before topping with marshmallow.

Vanilla Marshmallows

Adapted from Several sources

Can you believe that I have never made a plain vanilla marshmallow?  All of my other ventures into the marshmallow making world have been flavored!  Here is a simple vanilla marshmallow that is springy and soft.  Perfect for piping onto cookies or just cutting into cubes, this will become your go to vanilla marshmallow.  Or maybe I'm the only one who needs a "go to" marshmallow recipe...

For the bloom
1/2 plus 2 tablespoons cup cool water
1 1/2 tablepoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons powdered gelatin (I like Knox brand)

For the sugar syrup
1 1/4 cups corn syrup
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
pinch kosher salt

In a small bowl, combine cool water and vanilla extract.  Slowly whisk in gelatin and set aside.

In a 4 quart pot, combine sugar, water, corn syrup and salt.  Bring to a boil over medium heat and clip on candy thermometer.  Do not stir the contents of the pot (if there are sugar crystals clinging to the sides of the pot, wash them down with a wet pastry brush).  Let the sugar syrup come to 250 F.  Once the sugar hits this temperature, remove from the heat and gently stir in the bloomed gelatin.

Transfer mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer and attach whisk.  Place a clean kitchen towel over the stand mixer (to reduce splashing) and turn the speed up to max.  Whip the marshmallow batter for 10 minutes, or until white, shiny and smooth.

To make mallomars - transfer marshmallow batter to a piping bag with a 1/4-inch, circular tip.  Pipe blogs of marshmallow onto the top of the cooled cookies.  Let the marshmallow set for at least 15 minutes before dipping in your desired coating.

I chose to use Wiltons Cookies & Cream Crunch Sprinkles because these would be sitting in the sun at the bake sale.  If these were just for me, I would have dipped them in milk chocolate!