Pretty Pastel Marshmallows

After Sweetie's birthday two weeks ago, I restocked on powdered sugar. As far as I knew at the time, I'd be making a second cake for my own birthday and would need it for frosting. Then Mo Diva interfered and planted the idea of pie in my head instead. Which left me with a brand new electric mixer and a big bag of powdered sugar that I had no solid intention of using for another year.

Enter the marketing staff at Kroger, who have been busy switching out the hearts and shamrocks for everything pastel-colored and egg-shaped. I have no need to enter the Seasonal aisle and cough up $6 for jelly beans made "special" by the adornment of a cartoon bunny on the plastic bag, but they make sure I don't have to to be exposed to the peppy post-Lent sugar rush. In one aisle, I ran across gigantic pastel marshmallows. By "gigantic" I do not mean those wimpy campfire things for s'mores. I mean marshmallows of the "I woke up and my pillow was gone" variety...marshmallows a grade-school child would need two hands to hold and eat. IMO, children should not be eating candies that require two hands to hold. But there are apparently parents out there who would buy them and companies who are happy to sell them.


My mother bought me one of these at Disneyland when I was 7. I think it took me a week to eat it. I'm sure by day 3 it was just as sanitary as it was in the wrapper >.>

Anyway, all the solidified sugar stacked around me got me thinking about the sugar that was sitting at home. And then I remembered that Mo Diva also made homemade marshmallows a few weeks ago. So I spun on my heel and found a packet of unflavored gelatin and went on my merry way. Unfortunately, the recipe Mo Diva used needed a lot more than gelatin, like egg whites and corn syrup. Which I was not going to buy, because I would have no use for them other than the immediate project at hand. But after a little Googling, I found a Martha Stewart recipe that required nothing but sugar, water, and gelatin.

-1 packet unflavored gelatin (2 1/2 teaspoons)
-1/3 cup cold water for gelatin, plus 1/4 cup for syrup
-1 cup sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/3 cup cold water. Allow gelatin to soften, about 5 minutes.

In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup water and sugar, and stir over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved. Stop stirring, and place a candy thermometer into sugar water; wipe sides of pan with a wet brush if sugar crystals have splattered up. Boil sugar until temperature reaches the soft-ball stage (238 degrees). Remove syrup from heat; add to softened gelatin. Using the whisk attachment of an electric mixer, hand-stir the mixture a few minutes to cool; place bowl on the mixer stand. Beat on medium high with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form and the marshmallow mixture holds shape, 8 to 10 minutes.

Transfer marshmallow mixture to a large (14-inch) pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch (No. 11 Ateco) tip, and use immediately.

This marshmallow substance was meant to be thicker and faster-drying than others for piping cute animal shapes. If I was going to make homemade marshmallows, why not go all the way and try some fancy Peeps?


This is why. When you're only working with a cup of sugar syrup, it is very difficult to get it to just the right stage before taking it off the heat. I was supposed to get it to soft-ball stage, but in the space of some 30 seconds it jumped straight from stringy-not-there-yet to the hard-ball stage. This made whipping it into marshmallow very difficult, and whipping it into a marshmallow fluffy enough to withstand shaping basically impossible. The "peeps" were unceremoniously dismantled and mottled into a big multi-colored block instead (what can I say...I like to keep all of my bottles of food coloring even).


It didn't look like much smooshed into a pan and doused with powdered sugar, but it was pretty enough turned out.





Yay me. Of course, I couldn't just leave the blocks of marshmallow like this. For one thing, I should have used a mixture of powdered sugar and cornstarch instead of straight-up sugar, because that crust that formed on the outside from the moisture isn't visually appealing. For another, this tastes like nothing but congealed sugar, because it is nothing but congealed sugar. I whipped in a little vanilla near the end, but it didn't help much. Simple sweets like these need a little kick.




That's better. They would be even better if I used a more distinctive flavor than vanilla in the marshmallow. A few combinations to keep in mind if I want to try again: peppermint extract and semi-sweet chocolate (pepperming patties!); orange juice and dark chocolate; cherry or strawberry extract and white chocolate. One thing I want to work on is getting that chocolate to give way a little and not crack when bitten into. Any tips?