St. Patty's Day cookies. What to do?
This?
Nah, I don't want to do a sugar cookie.
This?
No, that's still essentially another sugar cookie just not cut out.
How about this idea?
Or another version of the same thing?
Nah, too close to the chocolate mint things we did at Christmas, and I'm just not ready for that flavor profile again yet.
So what about something like this?
No, that is simply too cutesie and not my style at all.
What about pistachio's for a touch of green? I went with that idea for a while and had a pistachio biscotti and one other pistachio cookie picked out, but I wasn't sold on either one.
And then I thought of a man at work who is from England and whose mother is Irish. This started to get me inspired.
So I asked him for a cookie that he remembered from his childhood. He smiled and said he would have to think about it. Before too long I got an email from him with these two cookies:
A Mikado. Now this isn't the Mikado that is like Poky. This is the Ireland Mikado - a shortbread cookie with raspberry jam plus 10 marshmallow puffs and coconut on top. They look like this.
And a Kimberley, which is a mild gingerbread cookie sandwiched around marshmallow. (Apparently Ireland likes their marshmallows!) These look like this. (That is sparkling sugar around the edges!)
Now I was really inspired! So I went looking for copycat type recipes.
None. I found none. I could read people describing these cookies, but I couldn't find any copycats, so I decided to try my hand at replicating based on what I had read. And while I didn't match either one of them perfectly, I at least made something that folks enjoyed.
Here were my Half-Irish friend's comments:
They look delicious. Takes me back to my grandma's kitchen! Many a happy vacation spent in Co. Claire, Ireland.
That was high praise already. Those came simply from looking at the pictures. To be reminded of your grandmother's kitchen? I'd won. Right then and there, I'd won. But here is what he said after tasting each of the four options I had.
Deb, they were wonderful. The level of ginger was spot on, very close to the actual branded ones. My preference was definitely the ones that had the actual marshmallow versus the marshmallow creme, but I could each of bunch of either!
So I still considered these a win. And they were gone pretty quickly at work yesterday morning!
Ready for the recipes and pics? I will start with the Mikado, since I really don't have much of a recipe to share for these. Also I am fairly certain my version of the Mikado was the least like the original of the two cookies I tried to replicate, but that's ok. I don't feel badly about that at all.
I used my go to Murbteig shortbread from Helen Fletcher, but any shortbread would do. I rolled it between two sheets of waxed paper and dropped it into a 10 x 15 jelly roll pan and spread it as evenly in thickness as I could.
Then I scored it and poked holes in it to make cutting it into bars easier later. Remember what I've said about needing a ruler to cut? It's obvious that I didn't use a ruler this time. As PW says, don't be like me...
Then I set it in the freezer while I baked the Kimberley cookies. Once those were done, I baked this at 325 for about 25 minutes. It was just barely colored; I didn't want a full golden brown because what I had read talked about a soft shortbread texture rather than on the crispier side. The Mikado picture looks a bit browner, no doubt, and thicker with a definite texture on the bottom side, but I wasn't sure I could replicate that, so I erred on the side of softer texture.
They cut beautifully on the scored lines after about a 5 - 7 minute cool. You can see from the above pic that I need to work on my evenly spreading skills since I had quite a bit of variation in thickness. I am sure you will do better!
That is where I ended on Tuesday night with these. Before work Thursday morning, I finished these off with the raspberry jam and marshmallow ideas. First I seeded the raspberry jam. This isn't hard; it is just a bit time consuming. I melted the jam and then pushed it through a fine mesh strainer. I just didn't want the seeds to interfere with the texture. I read online that the real Mikados use apple jelly with raspberry flavor and coloring, and I understand why. Apples are less expensive and the seeds are much easier to deal with! Please note - seeds on the left. Seedless on the right.
I put the seedless results in a plastic bag, cut the corner and squeezed it on first and then smoothed it with an offset spatula.
And this is where the marshmallow dilemma came up. I had two options. Mini marshmallows lined up in two rows to simulate the original. Or some of the cream cheese marshmallow filling left from J-man's birthday cake. Which one? Which one?
Oh bother. Why not both?!
I toasted ever so slightly the ones with the mini marshmallows in hopes of softening them up enough so the coconut would adhere, but that didn't so much happen as planned. The coconut adhered much better to the marshmallow creme mixture, but I should have probably put the coconut through my food processor for a few pulses to get it much smaller, similar to the coconut on the real Mikados. But live and learn, I suppose.
Would I do these again? Yes, I would. They are quite tasty if you are looking for a tea time type cookie. The tartness of the raspberry is balanced with the sweetness of the marshmallow - either way you do marshmallow. And the shortbread is a simple but slightly sweet base for the fun going on up top. And if you're not a coconut fan, please don't let that deter you from trying these. There is very little coconut (at least on my interpretation) so I heard anti-coconut people saying that they actually liked the complement of the coconut, but it wasn't pronounced.
Which marshmallow option did I prefer? I liked the marshmallow creme option on these better, but I heard positive comments both ways, so it's pretty much a personal preference.
Now for the Kimberley. This is actually an original recipe - somewhere between a lightly spiced ginger cookie and a whoopee pie. I made it up Tuesday night, and these were the first to go!
| 10 T softened
butter |
| 6 T butter flavor shortening |
| 3/4 c. dark brown sugar |
| 1/2 c. sugar |
| 1 1/2 t. baking powder |
| 1 1/2 t. cinnamon |
1 1/2 t. ginger |
| 1/2 t. allspice |
| 3/4 t. salt |
| 1 egg |
| 2 egg whites |
| 2 T. molasses |
| 2 T. buttermilk powder |
| 2 1/2 c. all purpose flour |
| 3 T. cornstarch |
| 3/4 t. baking soda |
| 1/4 c. water |
| 1 t. vanilla |
Cream butter,
shortening, sugars, baking powder and spices together until
light and fluffy.
Add egg, egg
whites and molasses and mix thoroughly.
Combine
buttermilk powder, flour, cornstarch and baking soda together.
Add to creamed mixture along with water and
vanilla. Beat until combined.
Scoop onto
parchment lined baking sheets to desired size. Bake at 350 f
or about 10 to 12 minutes.
And the pics of each stage...
The butter, shortening, sugars, baking powder, spices, salt, egg, egg
whites and molasses all mixed together.
Then add the flour, buttermilk powder, cornstarch and baking soda.
And finally the water and vanilla, mixing until I had a cohesive but loose
cookie dough.
I tried scooping with my smaller cookie scoop, using the full amount,
but that made them just a bit too big for what I had in mind,
so I tried to only fill about 7/8 of the way, something like this...
These spread quite a bit, so I needed to leave a lot of space between
each one.
I packed these away in airtight containers to let them mellow and ripen
from Tuesday evening to Thursday.
Then on Thursday morning, I used both marshmallow options like the
Mikado and then sandwiched the Kimberley wannabees together.
For the record, if you have stale marshmallows around, they work
great for this, because fresh ones roll right off of the cookies, but
the sticky ones stick together and stay where they aughta!
And here they are ready to serve to my coworkers, complete with
an offering of tea. I won't say that this sets a "propa tea", but it
wasn't altogether unattractive either...
Most folks liked the Kimberley cookies better with the straight
marshmallows. I was trying to give these a bit of height either
way, so I think I used a bit too much of the cream filling. I think I
would actually prefer these as just a single cookie with a thin
coating of the marshmallow creme.
One friend suggested dipping in chocolate, which is another
real Kimberley option, and with the marshmallows would be
reminiscent of a snobby s'more - the only kind I'm actually interested
in, but that's a story for another day!
Again - not a speck o' green, but can these still count as St. Patrick's
Day cookies? Please?
Thank you again for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed learning a wee
bit about some cookies from Ireland. I encourage you to Google or
Pintrest or Bing or whatever the cool kids do these days to research
Mikado and Kimberley cookies and try to simulate one or both, too!
I had fun and learned some things! Always a good thing!
Deb Disclaimer - one thing I also learned that has nothing to do with cooking
and everything to do with Excel and formatting a blog - I can't paste from
Excel into this here blog format. That is why the last half of this post looks
so odd. I pasted the recipe from Excel into the blog and then everything
went haywire! Please forgive...one of these days I will figure this blog thing out!
See ya next week for Cake # 3! And I have plans for green to show up then!
Love,
Deb |
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