I made that!

Today was fun. While lazing about the house with a sad tummy, I was thinking of marshmallows. Not eating them, just making them. After a botched attempt last year I was feeling the need to redeem myself. Several hours later I became a believer that EVERYONE should make homemade marshmallows. Just once. It is total kitchen magic. I had the itch (and some extra egg whites) and decided to make a batch of raspberry flavored mallows.

I started by oiling and then dusting a pan with powdered sugar and cornstarch.

Since it takes a while to get up to temp, I started boiling my sugar syrup.

Then I rubbed some vanilla bean seeds with a bit of sugar.

I tossed that in with some raspberry puree (still had some of the freezer from this day). Then I sprinkled on some gelatin, stirring to keep it from clumping.

Since it immediately becomes stiff, I placed it over a pot of simmering water to melt the gelatin down. This part is a bit tricky: You want the gelatin warm to loosen it up, but if it gets too warm it smells just awful. So have your nose be your guide. If you can smell it, remove it from the heat and stir using the residual heat. If your house suddenly smells like livestock, you have gone too far. I did that once and couldn’t eat a marshmallow for a year. Seriously, gelatin is creepy. In a fabulous sort of way.

I started whipping some egg whites into a stiff meringue.

And then slowly poured in my syrup. I let that whip for a few seconds, and poured in the raspberry mixture. I continued whipping, until the marshmallow had cooled and tripled in volume.

I poured the marshmallow onto the prepared pan.

And attempted to flatten it out.

I let it sit for 3 hours and then turned it onto a powdered sugar coated board. I sprinkled on a thick layer of more powdered sugar and let it sit for another hour.

Then I started slicing!

I rolled the little squares in more powdered sugar and played with them for a while.

And what do we do with fresh yummy squishy marshmallows? We dip them in Chocolate!

RASPBERRY MARSHMALLOW RECIPE:

14 oz sugar

1 TBSP corn syrup

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup (1 oz) gelatin

3/4 cup raspberry puree

1 TBSP sugar

1/2 vanilla bean

2 TBSP water

2 egg whites

1 TBSP vegetable oil

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

– Mix the cornstarch and powdered sugar together. Prepare a 9″x13″ pan by greasing it lightly with vegetable oil. Dust it with half of the powdered sugar mixture.

– Combine granulated sugar, corn syrup and 3/4 cup water in a pot over low heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Stop stirring, bring to a boil. Place a thermometer inside. You want the syrup to eventually reach 260.

– While syrup is boiling, mix together vanilla bean seeds and 1 TBSP sugar. Rub with fingers until seeds are incorporated into sugar. Mix raspberry puree, water and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Sprinkle gelatin on top, stirring it in to keep it from clumping. Place this over a pot of simmering water to melt the gelatin.

– Begin beating the egg whites until stiff. Once they are stiff and syrup is at 260, begin slowly pouring in syrup while continuing to beat the whites. Beat for 30 seconds to incorporate.

– Beat in raspberry puree mixture. Continue beating until marshmallow mixture is cooled and tripled in volume.

– Immediately pour into the prepared pan and quickly smooth the top flat. Let the marshmallow sit, uncovered, for at least 3 hours at room temperature.

– Dust a work surface with the rest of the sugar cornstarch mixture. Run a knife along the edges to loosen the marshmallow and turn out onto the surface. Cover with a layer of powdered sugar and let sit for 1 hour to develop a sugar crust.

– Cut the marshmallow into squares and toss the squares in powdered sugar. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.