Anyway, ever since hearing the chef at Sweet Art talk about making homemade marshmallows, I've wanted to try it. But it always sounded so complicated-- egg whites whipped into a meringue, "blooming" gelatin, so much work!
Then I came across a recipe for "jellied" marshmallows in a wonderful book I picked up. I eyeballed it for a while, checking out the recipe, admiring the photo of perfect puffy marshmallows. It called to me... all I needed was an excuse!
(I should explain by saying that a common side-effect of pregnancy for me is the insane desire to BAKE BAKE BAKE... and the utter inability to eat what I create. For some reason, I lose my sweet tooth completely when I'm pregnant, and it takes me a few months after childbirth to regain it.)
So, when my (soon-to-be) mother-in-law invited us to a family gathering, I decided it was a good excuse to give the marshmallows a try :) And I'm telling you... I don't think there is a more rewarding recipe out there. It's super simple, uses very few ingredients, and the results are very impressive. Plus, the whole process is just completely gorgeous. You'll see!
Jellied marshmallows need only five ingredients:
1 3-oz (85 ml) package Jello, any flavour
2/3 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
Powdered sugar
First... in a small saucepan, bring the water to a rolling boil.
Add the Jello powder (for this batch, I chose blue flavour!), stir like crazy until it's dissolved. Then add the sugar, stir some more until THAT's dissolved, and add the corn syrup.
Once it's all completely dissolved, pour into a LARGE bowl (that's important!) and put in the fridge to chill.
Chill for an hour, taking it out every 15 minutes to stir and scrape down the sides. It will be almost, but not quite, set.
Then comes the best part! Beat the heck out of the mixture for TEN MINUTES. Don't skimp out. You will want to stop at five or six minutes-- DON'T. You will feel like you have lost control and the mixture is going to take over. That's normal :D Entertain yourself by making different shapes with the beaters. Or just by watching how beautiful this mixture becomes, through all the changes. It starts out like this:
... and starts to turn into this gorgeous, glassy-smooth stuff. It's like magic, I swear.
Isn't it beautiful? It was such a surprise to me how this turned out.
After a full ten minutes of beating, pour into a foil-lined, greased 8x8 or 9x9 square pan.
Chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
Sift powdered sugar onto a large piece of wax paper, and then invert the pan onto the powdered sugar and remove the foil from the marshmallow. Rub powdered sugar into the now-exposed bottom of the marshmallow, then cut it into 1" squares and coat the cut edges in the powdered sugar.
It works best if you kind of dip the edges in the sugar and then rub it in with your finger, dusting off the excess. The result is a silky finish on the fluffy marshmallow! :)
I enjoyed this process so much I made two batches-- one blue and one pink (strawberry). They turned out so beautifully, I want to make a whole rainbow of marshmallows!
Keep refrigerated until served. The surface of the marshmallows will begin to crystallize, don't worry, that's normal. They have a wonderful texture but I'll warn you-- they are deathly sweet :) Just don't blame ME if you go into sugar shock!
One last tip... IMMEDIATELY soak any utensils or dishes in HOT HOT water, or you will be stuck scrubbing off a sticky mess. But if you put the pot, spatula, beaters, etc. in super hot water as soon as you're done with them, the sticky stuff just dissolves and cleanup is a snap.
So this was my very first foray into food blogging and food photography. It's not easy! From pretending to be left-handed so I can take pictures with my right hand, to the work involved in choosing, editing and uploading photos... it's a long process. But for homemade marshmallows... it's definitely worth it!
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