Dark Chocolate S’mores

Prep time: 2hr

Cook time: 0.5hr

Servings: 6

Difficulty: 4 out of 5

Ingredients

Shortbread Biscuit

• 225g Butter
• 113g Icing Sugar
• 340g  White Flour (+ 2 heaped Tbsp Cornflour)
• ½ tsp Salt

Marshmallow (from Ottolenghi)

• 1 ½ tsp Powdered Gelatin
• 85ml Cold Water
• 90g Castor Sugar
• 1 ½ tsp Liquid glucose
• ¼ tsp Vanilla Paste
• 30g Egg whites (1x medium egg)

Chocolate Icing:

• 2x 100g blocks Whittaker’s 70% Samoa Chocolate, finely chopped or 200g dark cooking chocolate

Method

Biscuit

1. Preheat oven to 150°C bake. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. Beat butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in flour and cornflower until the mixture comes together and forms a dough. Mould into a ball.
3. Place the shortbread onto a piece of baking paper, lay a second sheet of baking paper on top. Using a rolling pin, roll dough to an even layer about 0.5cm thick.
4. Cut out as many circles as you can using a round cookie cutter. Transfer to a lined baking tray with a thin metal spatula (lightly floured to avoid sticking
5. Prick the centre of each cookie three times with a fork – this will prevent the dough from puffing up in the middle during cooking. Gather any dough scraps and repeat rolling, cutting and transferring until you have used up the dough.
6. Bake 25 – 30 minutes, until shortbread is pale but crisp.

Marshmallow

1. Place the gelatin sheets or powder in a small bowl. Cover with 3 tbsp(45ml)of the water and set aside.
2. Place the sugar, corn syrup, vanilla seeds and remaining water in a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir until the sugar has melted, then increase the heat to medium-high. Bring to a boil and simmer for 8–10 minutes, until the mixture turns a very light amber colour and starts to thicken (you are looking for it to eventually reach 128°C on a thermometer).
3. Keep a close eye on the sugar as it’s simmering, and when the temperature reaches about 120°C, place the egg white in the bowl of an electric mixer. Starting off with a handheld whisk (there is not enough egg in the bowl for the machine whisk to be effective at this stage), beat the egg white until stiff peaks form, then continue beating with the machine.
4. When the sugar reaches 128°C, remove it from the heat, add the softened gelatin and soaking water to the sugar mixture and stir to combine. With the electric mixer running, slowly and carefully pour the sugar syrup over the egg white and continue to beat until the mixture is glossy and thick and the bowl of the mixer is completely cool; about 15 minutes.
5. To finish, immediately spoon the marshmallow into a piping bag and pipe the mixture into a circular pattern over half of the shortbread biscuits, covering the whole of the base with a generous amount of the marshmallow. Sandwich another biscuit on top of a marshmallow-covered cookie and press gently together. Continue with the remaining biscuits in the same way, then leave for about a half hour to set.

Chocolate

1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave (In short increments to avoid burning)
2. Once melted, dip one half of the biscuit into the chocolate so that the top of the biscuit is covered.
3. Allow to set before serving.