Homemade Marshmallows

Hey everyone
So this is my first recipe post to a blog, hope you enjoy it!

They're squishy.. gooey... delicious... toast them or put them in hot chocolate.. what could it be but marshmallows? Wait til you try them homemade, you'll never want to go back to shop bought ones again! I love these and I really enjoyed making them.

This is a recipe from The Guardian but slightly adapted and I'll be giving you more advice because it is a rather sticky job to carry out!
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/nov/04/recipes.dessert is the address of the original recipe if you are interested.)

You will need...
Quite a lot of icing sugar

Quite a lot of cornflour

Vegetable oil

25g gelatine granules (about 2 sachets)

2 egg whites (I used powdered egg whites)

vanilla flavouring (I have some really nice vanilla stuff with bits of actual vanilla in, get some of this, it's lush)

500g granulated sugar

A dot of red food colouring (if you want your 'mallows to be pink :D Which is really much nicer)

You'll also need some scissors, bowls etc, and a shallow flat tin. It says 20cm square in the original, but I just used whatever one I had. So long as there's enough room for them to spread out you'll be fine. You might want an assistant when it comes to the marshmallow pouring into the tin. (I used my Dad :D)


OK, so time to get started! :D Make sure you've got your sink clear and a sponge you don't want to use again (lol) because you are going to want to get that sticky bowl washed right away before before it turns into superglue!

1. Sift together equal amounts of icing sugar and cornflour, then put some oil on your tin and coat it in this sugar/cornflour mix. I think it could actually do with quite a lot because the mix is very sticky and this will help when you try and get it out.

2. Get 120ml of hot water in a little jug and sprinkle in your gelatine packets. (It says on the packet to add them this way, not the other way round) Then stir it up 'til it dissolves. Put this somewhere out the way.

3. Get your powdered egg whites and follow the instructions on the packet to reconstitute your egg whites. I'd never used these before and thought they smelt weird, but they don't end up affecting the final flavour so don't worry about it. I added about a teaspoon of vanilla essence at this time because I was concerned about the egg white flavour, and I think now is as good a time as any to add it!

4. Get out an electric whisker (you really do need one of these) and whizz it until you get 'stiff peaks' (In other works, when you lift the mixer out of the bowl (turn it off first!!!) the mix goes up into little mountains, and it stays there!). This takes a century and a half so be warned that you might want to find some unsuspecting victim to take turns with so your arm doesn't fall off.

5. Put the sugar in a saucepan with 250ml of water, stir over a low heat until dissolved. Raise the heat and boil until it turns into syrup. This is really important, you have to leave it long enough that if you drop it into cold water, it goes into little hard balls. I found the whole thing suddenly seems to change consistency and look too, it can take a little while, but it'll get there. If you don't do this for long enough you might have trouble getting your marshmallows to set (not good). Alternatively if you have a sugar thermometer (which I don't because they don't seem to do them in tesco -_-), you can check it out because it's ready when it gets to 122ºC.

Now add your gelatine mixture and stir it in. The mix will bubble and go a bit crazy but it's all good.

6. Now is the time to get your helper/unsuspecting victim from before/Dad to come and help. You need to stand by the egg whites and keep whisking them, while the helper pours in the syrupy mix. This is really impossible to do alone unless you've got a standalone mixer.

7. Keep whisking until the mixture goes pretty thick, but you can still pour it in your tin. I think basically it's just setting as it goes thick and you're trying to get as much air as you can in before you put it in the tin.

8. Pour it into your prepared tin and leave it somewhere cool (not the fridge)
I put it in my garage. It took about 2 or 3 hours to set for me, but it was a really hot night so it might be quicker for you.

9. Now get all your stuff washed up. yes I told you it was stickorama :(



***when it's set***

10. Get your tin out, it should be set to the point that you could contemplate getting it out the tin without disaster occuring O:)
So, get a chopping board and cover it with the cornflour/icing sugar stuff. (just a note, you'll want to have a lot of this cornflour/sugar mix on hand)

Cover the marshmallows (still in the tin) with the cornflour/sugar mix so they don't stick to you when you're getting them out.


11. Now this is quite tricky, so don't worry if you can't do it first go. Loosen one end of the marshmallows with a knife (coated in oil and then the dusting mix) and the sides to a point and then carefully roll it back. Now quickly get a load of the cornflour/icing sugar mix under there so it doesn't stick back to the tin. Keep rolling out and adding the mix underneath. If all goes well, you should get to a point where you can loosen it and take it out the tin. (You'll probably have to keep loosening the sides too with the knife) Get it out and put it onto your prepared board.

The alternative is to cut it out every time you roll up a bit, which works just as well, but means you don't get it all out at once. Make sure to coat all the sticky bits with the dusting.

12. Now you get to cut it into the shapes you want! You can make them any size you like. They suggest using a knife in the original recipe, but I found it works a lot better to cut it up with scissors. So get some scissors, coat with oil and then the dusting, and cut into squares. Roll each square in the dusting on the board or put some in a bowl and roll it round so there are no sticky parts, and put on a plate.


You can eat them now :D If you like, toast them over a tea light ^______^