marshmallows Archive

How do you make marshmallows? (PICS)

My second attempt at making marshmallows has gone so swimmingly much better than my first that I felt words could not do the difference justice. Fortunately, I have a whole lot of photographic equipment I should be using to shoot rockstars and naked people. But there isn’t a lot of budget for that sort of thing in the current economy. So here is my marshmallows visual aid. Both batches were made with roughly the same recipe.

how to make marshmallows

This time, when I heated the sugar, I was very careful to mix it thoroughly. I also set the candy thermometer to sound the alarm at a lower temperature than I was aiming for, and I aimed for a temp approx seven degrees cooler than last time. Plus I heated the gelatin. The result has only been setting for a few hours, so it is not quite ready for me to melt down portions to make crispy rice treats. But I think it is definitely going to work well this time.

Full disclosure: The really gross-looking glop on the left tasted more like a fruit glace and caramel than marshmallows and it made the crispy rice treats kinda soggy. But it actually was pretty yummy too.

Because marshmallows are made with only the whites of eggs, I now feel compelled to make crème brulée with every batch. Crème brulée is surprisingly easy to make, especially as compared with marshmallows.

Homemade Candy with Skull Flair

Homemade Candy with Skull Flair

by Amelia G : September 17th, 2010

Carrie Carolin at Goth Shopaholic just went through the Sur La Table site and selected all the best Halloween cupcake accessories. I would not have even guess that Sur La Table would have spooky kitchenware, but they do.

homemade halloween treat box

So I’m learning how to make a health food version of Rice Krispies Treats this week. This means I’m learning how to make marshmallows from scratch. I always assumed that marshmallows were some kind of scientifically engineered modern food, but all those additives on the store bought ingredients list are basically preservatives. Traditional confectioners have made marshmallows for ages out of mostly just sugar and maybe some corn syrup, corn starch, and vanilla, plus maybe a couple egg whites if you want to get buckwild.

The key to what variety of candy you are going to create is how hot you get the sugar. Traditional confectioners have boiled sugar for a while, then spooned out a bit of boiling sugar water and dropped it in a bowl of cold water. They would then reach a hand in to the bowl of cold water to feel the current consistency of the recently boiling sugar. This was how they would tell when the sugar was hot enough. I assume traditional confectioners all burned off their fingerprints as well.

Another way to test how hot the sugar you are boiling has become is, ya . . .

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