I’ve had a bit of a sweet tooth late at night – craving a little treat has become a nightly affair. Since Eric is the baker in the family I decided to give him a little challenge in the kitchen, making my favorite cookies – Milanos. Quite honestly, I could eat an entire bag in one sitting and the homemade version are even better.
Enjoy these scrumptious cookies.
Homemade Milano Cookies
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
- 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 (I used rice flour mix, with 1/2 t xanthan gum)
- Cookie filling, recipe follows
Cookie filling:
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used dark chocolate)
- 1 orange, zested (I used 1 T triple sec)
Directions:
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.
Recipe and photo from hey, that tastes good
I love love Milano cookies. This looks so delicious!
Oh my! My mouth is watering – these look fantastic!
Can you tell me what you mean exactly by “scald” cream? other than that this seems eminently do-able, i can’t wait for an opportunity to try them!
You’ve made my day with this recipe
Shaina, scalding is bringing cream up to a near boil while stirring to prevent burn. Totally do-able!
My family is finally getting on the wheat free lifestyle – so recipes like this are becoming more appealing all the time. Thank you for sharing your adaptation!
How are the cookies stored, can they be frozen and how long do they last unfrozen?
Looks delicious.
Are you sure…2 tablespoons of each extract seems like a lot. Is it supposed to be teaspoons?
Tried this recipe earlier today, but it didn’t turn out so well for me
My cookies tasted strange and too lemony, and even after cooling completely were very sticky. My chocolate, even after being put in the fridge for a while, never thickened up and tasted too orangey from the zest (though it was still delicious lol). Thought I did everything right, but maybe I messed up somewhere along the way this is just how it turned out for me.
Just made these and they were DELICIOUS! I did not use lemon flavoring or orange zest…we like the double chocolate Milanos! They came out perfect. Thanks!
Mine also came out weird – texture of the cookie was wrong, way too lemony and the chocolate was also runny. Bummed.
Mine came out chewy and stale tasting… any ideas why??
Wayyy to much lemon extract- I would recommend 1 tbls or less
After reading other comments, I did a test batch with just a few cookies. They turned out the same as others have mentioned. To the rest of the batter. I added the other half stick of butter and another 1/3ish cup of flour (I was just scooping it in til it looked good). I would definitely add only 1 tbsp or less of the lemon. I baked them at 320 degrees for 9 minutes in a convection oven and they turned out awesome. The weren’t as thin as the original batch and the edges weren’t burned. Still a bit chewy, which is not how a Milano is, but I have yet to figure that bit out. I may feel like experimenting another time.
I made these last night and they taste awesome! I didn’t have any lemon, so I added extra vanilla. My butter was also a little cold, so it didn’t get totally mixed in, so I had a few clumps, but that was my fault. I found that I had to bake them about 12 minutes so they got cripsy enough, the edges weren’t burnt, but a very golden brown. My also didn’t come out nicely shapped, but I made it work.
Just made these this afternoon and they taste great! A couple of omissions: lemon in the cookie and orange zest in the chocolate. I baked them for 12-14 minutes instead of 10 and they turned out a beautiful golden brown. Mine were oddly shaped like others, but I made them work and they look even more homemade that way! Taking them to a cookie exchange tomorrow and can’t wait to see what feedback I get!
Can’t wait to try this! Thanks for sharing!
XO
Adria, The Pretty Peach
I made these tonight for the first time. Like a few other commenters, I left out the orange and lemon flavors since I prefer the double chocolate Milano cookies. They taste great and the chocolate is perfect, but I don’t find the taste of the cookie very reminiscent of Milanos. Don’t get me wrong, they taste great, like I said – just not like a Milano.
My cookies weren’t sticky like others said theirs were, but they were of a slightly spongier texture than Milanos are. However, I stuck a few in the fridge to set faster, and I found those to be crispier and more similar to the texture of a Milano. Taste still wasn’t the same obviously but texture was closer.
Anyway, thanks for the recipe! I’ll soon have a post up on my blog with pictures – and of course, a link back.
-Christine N.
The key to getting the texture right on these is putting very tiny (quarter-sized) dollops 2-inches apart on the sheet and baking for 12+ minutes. If you make them bigger they will run together and not have the space to spread out and get thin enough to be crispy.
I too omitted the lemon extract in the cookies and simply melted chocolate for the filling. Delicious!
Regarding the chocolate getting runny — if you melt solid chocolate and get it too warm, it will lose its ability to harden unless you go through the tempering process again (work the chocolate so the cocoa butter re-crystalizes). The easiest way to get good results is to melt half of the chocolate and then mix in the other half (unmelted) to “seed” the mixture. You can look up more details at other websites. Here is a website with a good writeup:
http://chocolatetempering.net/abouttempering.htm
Obviously, I was fascinated to learn how extensive the art of chocolate-making is!
I made these today, and they were lovely! I had to bake them in several batches, and I found out the first batch that they spread quite a lot! Subsequent batches, I piled up the batter higher rather than wider so they would be a little thicker. So delicious! Would definitely use less lemon extract next time though, or try it with mint! Thanks for the recipe!