Have you ever made marshmallows? Or wondered how they were made? I have to admit, I’ve always been curious, so when I saw a recipe on Martha Stewart, I had to give it a try. It’s really not that hard – as long as you have an electric mixer and are somewhat okay with multitasking. If you can’t multitask, have someone else help you.
The hard part is waiting for the sugar to reach the right temperature WHILE you are also whisking the gelatin and WHILE you are also whipping the egg whites. That’s the tricky party. Getting all that together at the same time.
It’s really fun. And, you’ll have this satisfaction once you’re cutting up the marshmallows. They come out looking so gourmet. I kept thinking to myself, “I can’t believe I made these!”
Seriously, you’ll scoff at the gourmet marshmallows in the fancy organic grocery stores, thinking to yourself, “I can totally make that!” Then, once you make a batch, you’ll want to package them up in little cellophane bags and give them as gifts to everyone you know.
This recipe is for homemade peppermint marshmallows, but you can add any extract and food coloring. I think I want to try orange or bubblegum next — probably both.
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Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows
Ingredients
- 2 cups of sugar
- 1 tbs corn syrup
- 4 pkgs of plain gelatin
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- 2 egg whites
- 2 big dollops of red food coloring gel
- 3/4 cup + 3/4 cup of water
- cooking spray (I use olive oil spray)
Instructions
- Spray an 8 x 8 in square pan with cooking spray. Then, line bottom of pan with parchment paper.
- Also, oat the parchment paper with cooking spray.
- Add sugar, corn syrup, and 3/4 cup water in a small saucepan and cook it over medium heat. Stir constantly until sugar is dissolved.
- Stop stirring and let it come to a boil.
- Then, raise the heat to medium-high and cook until a candy thermometer registers 260 degrees.
- While the temp is rising, sprinkle gelatin over 3/4 cup of water in a heatproof bowl, and let it sit for 5 minutes to soften. It will become like jello.
- Fill another saucepan with a bit of water and get it to simmer.
- Put the bowl of gelatin over the pan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
- Remove it from the heat and stir in the extract and set it aside.
- Beat egg whites in a small bowl with an electric mixer with a whisk attachment just until stiff peaks form.
- Next, in a bowl whisk the gelatin mixture into the sugar mixture. Then, with mixer still running, gradually add the gelatin/sugar mixture to egg whites.
- Mix on high speed until very thick, which is usually about 10-15 minutes. (Mine took about 10 min)
- Now pour the mixture into the lined pan very quickly.
- Next, also quickly, add the food coloring and using a knife or toothpick, swirl the color.
- Let the marshmallow stand uncovered at room temperature until it is completely firm. (I did this overnight)
- Then, flip it out onto a cutting board dusted with powdered sugar (or corn starch). Flip it over to get the powdered sugar all over the giant marshmallow.
- Using scissors, cut the marshmallow into smaller squares. (I made 2 x 2 inch squares)
I tried peppermint first because I love mint and chocolate together, so I had a couple of ulterior motives. The first one was to make peppermint marshmallows and then plop a big ol’ one into a nice cup of steaming hot chocolate. Pepperminty Hot Chocolate – yum!
My other motive was to make Peppermint Smores. I have not done this one yet, but plan to do it very soon. I have a feeling it’s going to be heaven on a graham cracker.
If you’ve never tried making marshmallows, do it one day, just for fun. Â You’ll be surprised at how easy it is.
Enjoy!
1 comment
I’ve always wanted to try to make marshmallows! 🙂 This would be such a fun project for Christmas time 🙂