Pumpkin Mallomars

With the return of the fall weather, something else is returning to our lives - Mallomars! Mallomars are too delicate and meltable to ship to grocery stores in the summer, so we always see the return of these sweet treats right around Labor day. Seeing them on the grocery store shelves made me want to whip up another batch myself.

If you've been a long time reader of WITK, you may remember that I made pumpkin mallomars several years ago. I think it was three years ago... Feel free to go back into the archives and check those out too, they're totally different from these pumpkin mallomars. The old recipe has a pumpkin marshmallo, vanilla cookie and they're coated in white chocolate.

Rather than getting fancy with the marshmallow, I stayed super traditional with a vanilla marshmallow. Where the pumpkin comes in is the cookie! A pumpkin cut-out cookie? How did I not think of this years ago? Adding pumpkin to a cookie recipe is so much easier than trying to balance the flavors and texture of a candy. These cookies came out of the oven smelling like Fall and so delectable, even without the marshmallow topping.

The marshmallow on top really brings these cookies to a whole new level. Actually, they taste just like pumpkin pie. Seriously! The delicate flavors of the pumpkin cookie and vanilla marshmallow taste just like you popped some vanilla whipped cream on top of your pumpkin pie.

Of course these aren't exactly like a traditional mallomar. Most importantly, they aren't covered in chocolate. I coated my first few mallomar recipes in chocolate. I came to realize that the chocolate flavor was covering up the mild flavors I was infusing into the marshmallow or cookie. Therefore, we will call these "Naked Mallomars" from here on out.

Also, don't let the homemade marshmallow scare you off. Personally I've made marshmallows at least two dozen times. It gets easier and easier each time you put a batch together. This vanilla recipe is simple, quick and takes no more than 15-20 minutes to go from ingredients to piping bag. Have marshmallow questions? Leave them in the comment section and I'll try to be of assistance!

One Year Ago: Watermelon Mallomars
Two Years Ago: Pumpkin-frosted, caramel-filled, vanilla cupcakes
Three Years Ago:Ramen Vegetable Soup
Four Years Ago: Pomegranate Ice Cream
Five Years Ago: Apple cake with Brown sugar icing

Naked Pumpkin Mallomars

A Wilde Original

Pumpkin Cut-out Cookies

Adapted from All Recipes

3/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Cream together butter and brown sugar until smooth and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add pumpkin puree and beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.  In another bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Add all of the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on low until combined.

Divide dough into two portions. Cut a long piece of plastic wrap and lay flat on the counter. Add half of the dough and fold the plastic wrap over the top. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 3/16-1/4-inch thickness (I use rolling pin guide rings). Place on a baking sheet. Do the same thing with the other half of the dough. Set on top of the other piece of dough and set them both in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat sheets. Stamp out 2-inch circles in the semi-frozen dough. Set cookies at least 1-inch apart on the baking sheet. Put the baking sheets in the fridge to chill the dough for at least 10 minutes. Stamp out all of the dough and reserve the baking sheets in the fridge until they are ready to go into the oven.

Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes, or until they are slightly browned. Let cool on the cookies sheets for 1 minute before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Let cookies cool completely before adding marshmallow.

Vanilla Marshmallow

A Wilde Original

After many requests to create a marshmallow that doesn't include corn syrup, and hours of candy experiments... I bring you my own, corn syrup-free vanilla marshmallow. You want it also to be GMO free? Use this Caullet glucose. It's French. It's what I used.

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cold water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoon powdered gelatin

1/3 cup water
1/2 cup glucose
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pinch salt

Stir together cold water, vanilla and gelatin. Set aside and allow the gelatin to bloom.

Combine remaining ingredients in a 2-quart. Do not stir, just clip on a candy thermometer and place over medium-high heat. Allow the sugar syrup to come to a boil and reach 250 °F. Remove from the heat and whisk in the gelatin.

Pour everything into the bowl of your stand mixer with the whip attachment. Turn on the machine and start whipping on medium. As the mixture starts to thicken, turn it all the way up to high. Whip until the marshmallow is white, shiny and thick. When you turn off the mixer, you should have to beat out the marshmallow from the whip.

Transfer marshmallow to a piping bag fitted with a large round piping tip. Pipe blobs of marshmallow on top of the cooled cookies. Once all of the cookies have been piped (you may run out of marshmallow and have to eat some naked cookies), dip the marshmallow into sugar crystals.