Saturday, April 29, 2006

Homemade Marshmallows

I saw this recipe on Brownie Point's blog for marshmallows yesterday. I wanted to make them right away, but a weekend houseguest from Palo Alto was due to arrive any minute. Not wanting to wait, I dove right in and got everything together so I could whip them up later. Well, he got lost somewhere on the L.A. freeways and was late, which gave me just enough time to mix them up.

These were a breeze to make. Just keep in mind you're working with sugar as hot as a volcano, and follow a few safety rules, and you'll do fine. This recipe conveniently has amounts for a 13 x 9 pan and also an 8 x 8 pan; I made the smaller amount, because a large pan of marshmallows seemed like an awful lot.

While the gelatin blooms in water and vanilla extract, I proceeded to cook the sugar, water, corn syrup mixture to the soft ball stage. With the mixer on low speed the hot solution is to be poured slowly down the side of the mixer bowl. Well, I've always found this to be risky, so ahead of time I heated a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup and poured the hot liquid into it, which was then easier to aim and pour down into the bowl. It's then mixed at high speed about 10 minutes, at which point you pour it into a parchment-lined pan and smooth out the top with an offset spatula. Then it's is set aside, uncovered, overnight to dry out.

One of the best recent purchases we've made was a small offset spatula from Kitchen Kitchen in Indian Wells. This is great for smoothing out the top of batters in smaller sized pans.

This morning I dusted the top with equal amounts of rice flour and powdered sugar, turned the slab out, peeled off the paper, dusted the bottom, cut it into squares and dusted the rest of the exposed sides.



This could not have been easier. We all had one after breakfast. YUMMY! I can't wait to try this with other flavors instead of the vanilla. Let's see: how about Kahlua or Grand Marnier flavored marshmallows? Can you imagine a S'mores made with good dark chocolate, orange flavored marshmallow and Graham crackers? Wow! What a sugar rush that's going to be.

1 comment:

Erielle said...

Orange flavored marshmallows...The possibilities are endless! Those look so good that I will probably make the 13 x 9 size because I am such a glutton. Thanks for the lead!