Milano Cookies... Simply Delicious!

Yes, that's right... those delicious crispy wafers with chocolate fudge in the middle. Best part is, you can make them yourself! I will admit that they are quick to bake, but take a little longer to put together. Don't worry they're totally worth it :-)

You will need:


3/4 c. butter, softened
2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
~6 egg whites
3 Tbsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour

* adapted from Gale Gand


Preheat oven to 350F (177C)

Cream the butter and sugar. Slowly add the egg whites and vanilla, mix well. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pipe the dough in 1-inch segments about 2-inches apart, they spread a little during baking. Piping is easiest using a pastry bag,... but one can be easily made by filling a ziplock type bag and cutting off the tip of one of the bag's corners after you've filled it.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges have browned. I generally leave them in the oven until they 'look right'. Take them out of the oven and leave on the pan to cool. The cookies will be slightly soft when pulled out of the oven, but they crisp up once they cool.

For the filling:
I used my chocolate ganache-frosting recipe because it didn't require me to go buy cream, but you can use the original recipe as follows:

1/2 c. heavy cream
8oz. semi sweet chocolate
zest of one orange


*Tips/Hints/Suggestions:


One of the greatest things about this recipe (for me at least) was that it finds a use for those pesky egg whites when only the yolks are used in other recipes. Example: pudding and some yellow cakes only uses egg yolks... milano cookies are one of many ways to use just the egg whites, but most egg-white-only recipes aren't nearly as awesome.


The original recipe called for lemon extract along with vanilla in the cookie... I omitted the lemon in favor of just vanilla, but you could try lemon, mint, almond, anise or any other flavoring you love.


Similar concept for the filling, the recipe called for orange zest, but I used my own chocolate frosting recipe and used half vanilla and half mint for a slightly mint flavor, delish! I would recommend trying with and without mint, try the orange zest or even an orange extract... think chocolate oranges, yum! Maybe even try some raspberry or strawberry flavoring.

If you're not allergic to nuts using nutella would be delicious and make preparing the cookies even easier!


ENJOY!