Daring Bakers~July Challenge~Milano 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.

I chose to only make the Milan Cookies this month.
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

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

• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

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

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.
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.
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).
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.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

I did tweak the recipe a bit, but it was due to shear panic. I had printed out the recipe and while I was following the recipe, I thought, "FOUR TABLESPOONS OF EXTRACT???" I don't remember ever using four tablespoons of extract in a recipe before, so I quickly cut down the recipe to 4 teaspoons of extract. Even then, 4 teaspoons as extract seemed like a lot for a recipe only containing 1.5 cups of flour.
The cookies ended up coming out okay, so if I make the recipe again, I might try to incorporate 4 tablespoons of extract and I might try to use cake flour to make a lighter cookies.
My first batch of misshapen and burnt cookies.
My next attempt.
The filling that I chose to use were Wilton's pink candy melts and Giradelli chocolate. Mmmmm....the finished products. Milan cookies. The cookies were not as professional looking as Pepperidge Farms cookies, but they still were yummy!