Thursday, November 5, 2009

RECIPE: Homemade Marshmallows



I've been wanting to make homemade marshmallows ever since I saw an episode of Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa. Then the other day Giada De Laurentiis did an episode of Sugar Rush on her Giada at Home series, where she made homemade marshmallows. I had picked up on the Knox Gelatin money-maker at Publix and have 4 boxes of unflavored gelatin and needed to figure out something yummy to make. And then of course, covering the letter "M" during homeschool makes it absolutely necessary to make marshmallows!

Here's what we made and how we did it:

Homemade Marshmallows
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon flavored extract - we used Strawberry
food coloring - a few drops to color the marshmallows
colored sugar

Combine the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in a large mixing bowl; set aside.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt and 1/2 cup of water in small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees F with a candy thermometer. Remove from heat.

Carefully pour the hot syrup into the dissolved gelatin while running the mixer on low.

Increase speed to high and whip the mixture until it's very thick - about 8-10 minutes with a hand mixer. Other recipes state it can take as long as 15 minutes using a stand mixer.

Add the extract and the food coloring mixing thoroughly.


Prepare a 13 x 9 non-metallic pan by generously sprinkling it with powdered sugar. I think when we make this again, I'll spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray and then coat it with powdered sugar to be able to get an easy release from the sides.

Pour the marshmallow mix into the prepared pan smoothing the top. Sprinkle the top with more powdered sugar or with colored sugar. Allow to dry uncovered at room temperature for at least 6 hours.

To remove the marshmallows from the pan, carefully loosen the sides from the pan with a spatula and then sprinkling with powdered sugar so it won't stick back to the pan. You should be able to pull and lift the entire marshmallow from the pan and place on a cutting board.

Using a very sharp knife (Giada used kitchen shears) cut the marshmallows into squares. Dip the knife into powdered sugar to keep it from sticking to the marshmallows. Press the sides of each piece into powdered sugar.


Then store uncovered at room temperature.


Let me tell you - these things taste like little puffy clouds of sweet goodness! You'll never buy marshmallows again!!!

Enjoy!


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5 comments:

Sarah said...

What a recipe to start with! I have wanted to make marshmallows for some time now. It's really no surprise to hear that homemade is so much better than what we get at the store....it just takes that one time trying it to convince you. Love the colored sugar. You could make them special for all different occasions. Thanks for cooking along with FNCCC! I'm off to explore your blog :)

SnoWhite said...

I have been wanting to try marshmallows from scratch too -- I think this will be a task for my kitchen soon!!

Jenna @ Newlyweds said...

Wow what a wonderful recipe. I am so happy to hear they are wonderful, love the pictures. Congrats on your first challenge.

mub said...

Her orange flavored ones looked really good too! I thought it looked even more interesting because it didn't have corn syrup (a scarce commodity here) but decided I probably didn't need to make anything with 2 cups of sugar in it right now *L* You might just have swayed me though, thanks so much for sharing =D

April said...

I just got done making these, they are still cooling.... Very easy to make, the time for the sugars to get to 250* took long than I expected. Also, I had little bits of sticky goodness all over the stand mixer itself, so if you wipe that with a hot towel ASAP, it will save you time later...I'll let you know how yummy they are later.

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