Homemade Marshmallows

Yesterday I decided to make some homemade marshmallows. I've been spending a lot of time lately with the Earth to Table cookbook that I've been reviewing for this blog, and with it being winter now I've been drinking hot chocolate more often than before. This means, of course, that I had to give the marshmallow recipe in the Earth to Table book a try.

I've never made marshmallows before, so I was surprised by how easy it is and how basic the ingredient list is. The marshmallows consist of nothing more than cold water, gelatin, corn syrup, sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and icing sugar (all things I had in the house already). I began the recipe by allowing three packets of gelatin to bloom in cold water. While the gelatin was softening in the water, I put the sugar, some cold water, and corn syrup on the stove to bring to a boil until the bubbles were large; this took approximately 5 minutes. Then I mixed the gelatin with a hand mixer, poured the cooked sugar syrup over the gelatin and continued mixing. Once it looked frothy, I added the vanilla and salt and mixed it a bit more. The marshmallows were supposed to get light and fluffy, and I wasn't exactly sure if my mixture reached the point it was supposed to be at, but I knew I had mixed it longer than was specified so I went ahead and poured it in a greased baking dish that had the icing sugar sprinkled on it. Then I sprinkled more icing sugar on top of the marshmallow mixture and allowed it to set overnight. It began to set very quickly, so I was reassured that the marshmallow was at least going to firm up.

I did do a bit of research afterward, however (on the joy of baking website), and watched the video there on how to make marshmallows. I can tell you now that my mixture was nowhere near thick enough, and I found out that because I was using a hand mixer, I really should have mixed the marshmallows longer than I did. Rather than the mixture being thick and difficult to spread, mine was watery and spread evenly right away. But, it did begin to firm up immediately, like I said, so I was still hopeful that the recipe would work out for me. 

Luckily for me, my execution of the marshmallow recipe seems to be successful. I think you can see in the pictures that it definitely looks like marshmallows.I tasted a little bit too, and they have a really nice vanilla flavour and a squishy marshmallow texture. I'm not even a huge fan of marshmallows, beyond having them in hot chocolate or roasting them over a fire, but I think I could eat these on their own. I'll be making these again, but I'm going to mix the marshmallows longer next time and see if they turn out any different. Regardless, it seems like this recipe is foolproof.

The final step of the recipe is simply to cut the marshmallows up in to squares (or whatever shape you want I suppose). I used a pizza wheel because that was suggested in the recipe, and I found the marshmallows cut very easily. Then I had to roll them in more icing sugar so that they aren't sticky, and store them in an airtight container.