Emelia Jackson’s Chocolate Marshmallow Kisses Recipe
Emelia Jackson’s Chocolate Marshmallow Kisses, featured in her gorgeous new cookbook Some of My Best Friends Are Cookies, capture that sense of nostalgia with a grown-up twist.
If you were a kid in Australia during the ’90s, chances are you remember the sheer delight of a marshmallow-filled cookie making an appearance at birthday parties or special gatherings. These were not your everyday biscuits, they were next-level indulgence.
They may take a little extra love and time, think buttery shortbread, homemade marshmallow clouds, a jammy centre and a glossy chocolate dip, but the payoff is more than worth it. Whether you stick to the classic version or try one of Emelia’s inspired flavour twists (hello, Dulcey passionfruit!), this recipe is a joy to bake, eat, and share.
Images and text from Some of My Best Friends Are Cookies by Emelia Jackson, photography by Armelle Habib, illustrations by Andrea Smith. Murdoch Books RRP $39.99.
Ingredients:
- 85 g (3 oz) unsalted butter
- 70 g (2 ½ oz) caster (superfine) sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 150 g (5 ½ oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting
- 250 g (9 oz) good-quality raspberry jam (or any jam you love)
- 250 g (9 oz) dark or milk chocolate, tempered
Vanilla marshmallow
- 400 g (14 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
- 30 g (1 oz) liquid glucose
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- 14 g (1/2 oz) powdered gelatine
Method:
-
Emelia Jackson Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until combined – you’re not looking for this to be light and fluffy.
- Add the egg yolk, vanilla and salt and mix to combine. Add the flour and mix until completely incorporated.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours. (This will help reduce spreading during baking. You can make the dough the day prior and refrigerate it overnight, if preferred.)
- Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) fan-forced.
- Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicone baking mats.
- Roll out the chilled dough on a lightly floured bench until 6 mm (1⁄4 inch) thick, stopping and rotating as you go to ensure it isn’t sticking to the bench (and adding small amounts of flour if it is).
- Using a 5–6 cm (2–21⁄2 inch) cutter, cut the dough into rounds and place them on the baking trays. (The dough rounds can be stored in the fridge until ready to bake and can also be frozen for later use.)
- Bake the cookies for 12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. If they spread in the oven, you can use your cookie cutter to cut them into uniform sizes again while still hot.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely on the trays.
- Meanwhile, make the marshmallow. Combine 150 ml (5 fl oz) water with the sugar, glucose and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring the syrup to the boil and cook until it reaches 118–121°C (244–250°F) on a sugar thermometer (soft-ball stage).
- While the syrup is cooking, combine 50 ml (1 3⁄4 fl oz) water with the gelatine in the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside to allow the gelatine to swell while the sugar syrup comes to temperature.
- When the sugar syrup is ready, pour the syrup over the gelatine mixture and whisk on medium–high speed. As the gelatine cools, air will become trapped in the sugar syrup and the mixture will become pale and, for lack of a better word, marshmallowy.
- Transfer the marshmallow to a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle and get ready to begin assembling the cookies. Take one of the cookies and spoon 1⁄2 teaspoon of jam onto the centre.
- Pipe the soft marshmallow over the jam to completely encase it, and pull the piping bag up to create a ‘kiss’ shape.
- Repeat with the remaining cookies. Allow the marshmallow to set for 20–30 minutes before dipping the entire cookie into the tempered chocolate.
- Place in the fridge for about an hour to allow the chocolate to set.
Mix it up!
These can be flavoured in so many different ways – freeze-dried fruit powders, citrus zests or even flavouring extracts can be used in the marshmallow, different-flavoured jams can be used in the filling and different chocolates can all be utilised to create your own signature flavours.
Dulcey passionfruit kisses
Add 15 g (1⁄2 oz) freeze-dried passionfruit powder to the marshmallow while whisking, leave out the jam and dip the cookies into melted caramelised dulcey white chocolate.
Strawberry milk chocolate kisses
Add 15 g (1⁄2 oz) freeze-dried strawberry powder to the marshmallow while whisking, replace the raspberry jam with strawberry, and dip the kisses into milk chocolate.
Blackberry and pink peppercorn kisses
Add 1⁄2 teaspoon ground pink peppercorns to the biscuit dough along with the flour, add 25 g (1 oz) freeze-dried blackberry powder to the marshmallow, replace the raspberry jam with blackberry jam and use a 70% (or higher) dark chocolate to coat the kisses.