With Donata being 6 hours ahead, we can’t really bounce ideas off of each other as often as we’d like to 😢. So I told a friend of mine I was going to try my hand at making marshmallows and she looked at me like I was nuts and asked, “Why?”. I looked at her like she was bonkers and said, “because it’s fun and they sound AH-mazing”. Duh 🙄. Not to mention the fact that you can make up your own flavors and decide exactly how big you want to cut them. I went for it using @tiffanithiessen’s recipe for inspiration. They were super easy and fun to make, despite running out of sugar at a critical no-point-of-return moment and resorting to brown sugar instead. But as luck should have it, those kitchen blunders sometimes give rise to the best new creations, and the result was a hint of caramel rather than sickly sweetness - a more sophisticated flavor if you will. To dress them up and make them entertainment worthy, my current ingredient obsession with freeze-dried everything had me sprinkling raspberry sugar over them and then, as if that wasn’t enough, they were finished off with a dip in a chocolate bath.
The uneven ruggedness is a hallmark of a homemade item. I don’t strive for perfection with these things, but for ultimate deliciousness. So now I’m wondering whether a salted caramel marshmallow dipped in chocolate or a rose and raspberry marshmallow should be my next experiment…votes?! Xoxo Kirsty #gatherandbekirsty
Ingredients:
coconut oil, melted if solid
1/2 cup cold water
3 sachets unflavored gelatin, such as Knox
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, for dredging marshmallows
1/4 cup freeze dried raspberries
1/2 cup dark chocolate
Note: A stand mixer really helps with this as you'll be mixing for 12 minutes. The mixture will quickly become a billowy mass of fluff, and a hand held mixer might disappear in it!
Pour the cold water into the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Soak for 10 minutes. Line a 9-by-9-inch baking pan with plastic wrap and lightly brush with coconut oil. In a saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup and a 1/4 cup water and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, then slowly pour it into the gelatin mixture and mix on high speed. Add the salt and beat for an additional 12 minutes, before adding the vanilla. With a lightly-oiled spatula, scrape the marshmallow mixture into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Brush another piece of plastic wrap with coconut oil and use it to press the mixture into the pan. Let sit at room temperature for 2 hours.
Crush the dried raspberries in a zip lock bag using a rolling pin. Mix the confectioner’s sugar with the raspberry powder and set aside.
Remove the marshmallow from the pan. Dredge the entire marshmallow square in the raspberry sugar. With scissors (it helps if you lightly oil the scissor blades), cut into your desired size and then dredge each marshmallow again in raspberry sugar.
Melt the chocolate (easiest is in a microwave at 30 second intervals) and dip the marshmallow cubes into the chocolate. Place them on a piece of parchment paper until the chocolate has hardened. Store in an airtight container until ready to devour.