Homemade Marshmallows

Homemade marshmallows are, in my opinion, nothing like mass produced, over-fluffed, bland, store bought marshmallows. Homemade marshmallows are sweeter, denser, stickier, and more flavorful. I will rarely eat a store bought marshmallow unless it's in a s'more or hot cocoa, but I'll eat homemade marshmallows straight from the bag! They are delicious! That's why I knew I had to share them. It may seem a little intimidating to consider making marshmallows from scratch, but they're actually very easy and only require a few ingredients.

All you need is gelatin, salt, corn starch, confectioners' sugar, sugar, cold water, corn syrup, and vanilla. You also need to have a candy thermometer, and it helps to have a standing mixer, but I believe you could use a hand mixer effectively with a deep bowl.

Before starting the candy, spray a 9 x 13 baking pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, combine the corn starch and confectioners' sugar. Sprinkle some of the mixture into the pan and set the rest aside for later. Shake the pan around so that it is completely coated with the mixture and pour the excess back into the bowl.

To get started with the candy, combine the gelatin and half of the water in the bowl of a standing mixer and allow to bloom. The gelatin is a powder, but as soon as it hits cold water, this is what it does.

Now combine the remaining water, the sugar, salt, and corn syrup in a small saucepan set over medium high heat.

I love stirring this. It looks so pretty and interesting. You will cook the mixture, covered for four to five minutes, then uncover, clip the candy thermometer on, and continue cooking for another eight minutes or so.

This is a great illustration of the process. You can see the progress of the sugar melting and the water boiling off in the first three pictures. In the third, the foam is the remaining water boiling away. Under that foam the mixture has become clear as the sugar has dissolved. In the final photo, you can see how clear the liquid is. There is no foaming left on top and the bubbles have become large and thick. The mixture is very syrupy at this point.

Once the mixture reaches 240 degrees (soft ball stage), remove from the heat.

Remove the candy thermometer, gently tapping to remove excess syrup. *Be sure to have a small plate or bowl near by to place the thermometer on, as the syrup will harden and stick very quickly.

With the whisk attachment attached and your mixer on low speed, pour the syrup into the bowl. Once all of the mixture is in the bowl, increase the speed to high. You can increase the speed in small increments to help prevent splashing, but try to reach high speed pretty quickly. This is very, very hot and can severely burn your skin, so be very careful. We have experienced third degree burns around here from errant syrup drops. If using a hand mixer, make sure you have a deep bowl to prevent splashing. And, if you have kids, I would recommend doing this while the kids are napping or otherwise distracted.

You can see here the steam and condensation as an illustration of how hot this mixture is.

As you can see here, the mixture begins to cool very quickly. Each picture shows how much stickier and fluffier the mixture gets as you whisk it.

After ten minutes of whisking, the marshmallow fluff is ready to go into the pan.

Using a spatula sprayed with cooking oil, transfer the fluff to your prepared pan. This is incredibly sticky. I give up on the spatula early and start coating my hands with the remaining starch/sugar mixture and scraping the fluff out with my fingers.

I don't have a lot of patience for these really sticky recipes. I am not thorough about cleaning every little bit from the bowl. I just find it too irritating! I get the majority and move on.

Using your hands, generously coated with the starch/sugar mixture, press the fluff into the pan until it's evenly distributed.

Allow the marshmallows to sit in the pan for several hours or overnight. I always just go ahead and let them sit overnight to get better results.

After the marshmallows have set up, remove them from the pan.

Place them on a cutting board, or countertop, lightly dusted with the starch/sugar mixture.

Using a pizza wheel, cut strips into the marshmallows. Periodically dust your wheel as needed. After cutting the marshmallows into strips in one direction, cut them into cubes by crosscutting in the opposite direction.

Pull apart the individual cubes, putting half a dozen or so at a time into the sugar mixture and tossing to coat them. As you remove them from the bowl, gently roll them in your hands to remove excess sugar and place them in another bowl or a zipper lock bag.

This makes a lot of marshmallows. Like a pound and a half or something. They'll last for a week or two in a zippered bag, but I usually keep them longer. After a couple of weeks the sugar starts to crystallize a bit. I like when this happens because I think it's really yummy in hot cocoa. The marshmallows melt in the cocoa, but there are tiny, crunchy bits of sugar in them. I love it!!

You may feel the need to use these up before they start to crystallize, so I've also included a fun, delicious way to serve them.........with chocolate!

I just melted a bag of chocolate chips. You can use milk, semi-sweet, white, or whatever flavor of chips you like. I haven't tried butterscotch or peanut butter chips yet, but I'm dying to! Here I used milk chocolate chips and poured them into a plastic cup.

Mmmmm! Marshmallows on a stick! I put four to five marshmallows in a stick.

Dip the stick into the cup of melted chocolate. You may have to tilt the cup to the side a bit to get all of the marshmallows coated. Gently shake the stick over the cup to remove excess chocolate.

Place the candy on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

If you like, you can decorate these with sprinkles, candies, chips, or other melted candies and chocolates.

These are Squire NomNom's favorite to have marshmallows.

But I like them like this. Individually dipped. Like bonbons. The more chocolate on each and every one, the better!!! HRH Beermeister likes the ones that are just drizzled with a little chocolate, like the one in the front of the bowl above. **I don't know why, but these are only good for two or three days. After that they take on a stale quality.

These seem intimidating to make, but they're actually very easy, and they are totally worth it, so give them a shot!! And enjoy!

Homemade Marshmallows

Makes about 1 1/2 pounds

Ingredients

3 packets unflavored gelatin

1 cup cold water, divided

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup corn starch

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Cooking spray

Coat a 9 x 13 baking pan with cooking spray. 

In a small bowl, combine the corn starch and confectioners' sugar. Sprinkle some of the mixture into the pan and set the rest aside for later. Shake the pan around so that the mixture completely coats it. Pour the excess sugar mixture back into the bowl.

Combine the gelatin and half of the water in the bowl of a standing mixer to allow to bloom. Attach the whisk attachment.

In a small saucepan set over medium high heat, combine the remaining water, the sugar, salt, and corn syrup. Cook, covered, for four minutes. Uncover, place a candy thermometer on the pan, and continue cooking until the mixture reaches 240 degrees, about 8 minutes.

Remove the thermometer. With the mixer on low speed, pour the candy mixture into the bowl. Slowly increase your speed to high, being careful to prevent splatter. Whisk on high for 10 minutes, adding the vanilla towards the end of the process.

Using a spatula sprayed with cooking oil, transfer the fluff to your prepared pan.  Generously coat your hands with remaining starch/sugar mixture and press the fluff into the pan until it's evenly distributed. Allow the marshmallows to sit in the pan for several hours or overnight.

After the marshmallows have set up, remove them from the pan, and place them on a cutting board, or countertop, lightly dusted with the starch/sugar mixture. Using a pizza wheel, cut strips into the marshmallows. Periodically dust your wheel, as needed. After cutting the marshmallows into strips in one direction, cut them into cubes by crosscutting in the opposite direction. Pull apart the cubes, tossing them in the sugar mixture to coat them. Gently roll the marshmallows in your hands to remove excess sugar and place them in another bowl or a zipper lock bag.

Adapted from Alton Brown's recipe.

Peanut Butter Sandwiches

I've been thinking about posting peanut butter cookies for a while, but kept coming across new recipes to try instead. The other night I decided to make a recipe from a very popular person's cookbook (I'm withholding all names while the jury continues to be out on the book), and they turned out...bad. Well...not bad, I guess. The hubster and NomNom liked them enough to eat a few, but the majority got thrown away and I personally thought they were awful. They were peanut butter chocolate cupcakes. In defense of the recipe, I'm not a big fan of the PB and chocolate combo in the first place, but there was more wrong with these than that. Poor directions, bland chocolate flavor, and way more work than was worth it in the end. Plus, I had this big bowl of chocolate ganache leftover and I wasn't about to throw it away! I started brainstorming for something new to try with it.

I decided to go for the PB and chocolate combination again. 

I thought I'd try a cookie sandwich with the leftover ganache and my mom's peanut butter cookie recipe. I love peanut butter cookies! They are very, very high on my cookie list...maybe first. The recipe here is the one my mom always made when we were little and I think it might originally come from Betty Crocker, but I'm not 100% sure. I have tweaked it myself a bit over the years to make it a slightly puffier cookie, and I've even managed to make it vegan!

Our cookie characters today are sugar, peanut butter, butter (margarine for vegan cookies), salt, baking soda, brown sugar, vanilla, and flour. You will also need an egg (or applesauce, for vegan), which I neglected to include here. Oops. I made mine with applesauce and I prefer it. It made the cookies slightly moister, softer, and sweeter.

These are very easy to make! Just whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars, beat in the egg (or applesauce) until combined, and add the peanut butter. Stir until well mixed and add the vanilla. Finally beat in the flour mixture until well combined (I continue adding flour, no more than two cups, until I can touch the mixture and it isn't sticky anymore).

Next, roll the dough into balls. I would normally roll one tablespoon of dough at a time, but this time I did half of that. Since I'm making sandwiches with them, I wanted to make them more bite sized. I used my handy dandy scoop to get one tablespoon then simply divided it in half and rolled each piece into a small ball, placing them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I spaced them about an inch and a half to two inches apart.

For the traditional lattice design on top, I pressed down on each cookie gently with a fork in one direction...

...and again in the opposite direction.

Next, I lightly sprinkled the tops with regular sugar. Now they're ready to go in the oven!

I baked them for twelve minutes in a 375 degree oven. After removing the sheets from the oven, allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for a minute or two and sprinkle the tops lightly with more sugar. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let them cool completely before the next step.

Either ahead of time or while the cookies are baking, you can mix up your ganache. You only need three ingredients: semisweet chocolate, heavy cream, and corn syrup. Obviously, the ganache is not vegan, but I believe it would be easy to make it so, although I don't know the right ingredients to recommend. I was thinking carob chips for the chocolate and honey for the corn syrup, but I don't know what to use for heavy cream. Any suggestions would be helpful!

Place the chocolate in a small bowl, then warm the cream and corn syrup in a small saucepan until it just begins to simmer. Now slowly pour the cream over the chocolate to melt it. Once you've added all of the cream mixture, stir with a rubber spatula, pulling the chocolate up from the bottom of the bowl. Continue stirring gently until all of the chocolate is melted and combined with the cream. For a few minutes, it will look like it isn't going to combine, but it will, just be patient. I was worried that I had done something wrong the first time I made this, but it just takes a little time for the ingredients to come together. Allow the ganache to cool for 10 to 15 minutes to firm up a bit.

Your cookies should be nice and cool by now. Return them to the cooled cookie sheets and flip them over. Place a small amount (1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons) of the ganache on half of the cookies and sandwich them with the rest of the cookies, pressing gently to spread the chocolate to the edges.

Repeat with the remaining cookies, and you're all done!! Allow the sandwiches to set up for about a half hour or so before serving.

These look really pretty for such simple little cookies and I couldn't stop taking pictures of them! The cookies are delicious on their own too, but I like this new twist.

These only took about an hour to an hour and a half from start to finish, and all of the ingredients are things that most people always have on hand! I have a feeling they may become a staple in this realm! I hope you give them a try and, as always, enjoy!!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Makes 4 1/2 dozen 2" cookies or 2 1/4 dozen 2" sandwiches

Ingredients

FOR THE COOKIES

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened (margarine for vegan)

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg (1/4 cup applesauce for vegan)

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (add and extra 1/4 teaspoon for vegan)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 to 2 cups flour

FOR THE GANACHE

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon corn syrup

To make the cookies: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a small bowl; set aside. 

In a large bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in the egg (or applesauce) until combined. Add the peanut butter and beat until well mixed. Stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture a half cup at a time until combined.

Roll the dough into balls. scooping one tablespoon at a time and dividing it in half to make two cookies. Place the balls 2" apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Press each ball gently with a fork in one direction, then again in the opposite direction. Lightly sprinkle the cookies with sugar. Bake for 12 minutes or until just browned.

To make the ganache: Place the chocolate in a small bowl; set aside.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the cream and corn syrup to a simmer; remove from heat. 

Slowly pour the cream over the chocolate. Stir with a rubber spatula, pulling the chocolate up from the bottom of the bowl. Continue stirring gently until all of the chocolate is melted and combined with the cream. Allow the ganache to cool for 10 to 15 minutes to firm up.

To make the sandwiches: Flip half of the cooled cookies over on a cookie sheet. Place 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of ganache on each one. Gently press another cookie on top of each cookie. Allow to set up for 20 to 30 minutes.

Hello, Cupcake

Last year for my birthday, I got Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Makeby Karen Tack & Alan Richardson. 

I had seen it featured on a lot of websites and I was very excited about it. When I got it and flipped through it,  I was even more excited! There are some very seriously cute cupcakes in this book!

And they all really do seem so easy, like anyone could make them.

I don't know if I'd want to make all of them... These bugs frankly look too real for my taste. But I imagine there are some little boys and girls out there that would love how disgustingly tasty they are!

Then there's the frosting version of Starry Night by Van Gogh. Personally, I subscribe to Jen Yates way of thinking as far as cupcake cakes go, but isn't this gorgeous? It would translate to a sheet cake beautifully, and why stop at Van Gogh? I think Monet's Water-Lillies would look delicious in frosting! And don't even get me started on Picasso!! I love the idea of putting it in a frame too! Genious!

Even the more complicated designs and ideas look so simple after reading the instructions. All of the ideas are clear and concise with easy to follow directions, so none of it seems like it would be an overwhelming undertaking.

And yet...

After owning the book for a good four months, I still hadn't attempted any of the ideas. I mean, I was soooo excited about it, and...nothing.

Here's the thing: they all seem very easy to do with such great direction. They all seem so fun to make based on the lovely photos. But they all require a lot of random ingredients that I just don't keep on hand. Obviously the cake and frosting ingredients are always around here, considering how much I bake, I'm well stocked for cupcakes. I don't, however, buy fruit rolls, donut holes, or vanilla wafers (not to mention the boatloads of candy) on a regular basis. And you need a combination of these and much, much more to do the majority of these cupcake designs. 

Of course, it's all very accessible stuff. I don't think there is a single ingredient in this book that every single person couldn't find. No, my point is that I can't just pick it up and make the cupcakes of my choice. I rarely plan ahead for my baked goods. They're spur-of-the-moment, what-am-I-in-the-mood-for? creations. So every time I picked this book up, I walked away disappointed because I had to make a trip to the store just to make cupcakes.

I finally did get around to making a recipe though.

It's one of the simpler, more accessible ideas. All I needed were cupcakes and mini marshmallows (the book recommends using white and yellow marshmallows, but I think you could definitely get away with plain white ones). I always have all of that on hand. Plus, I just happened to have some seriously adorable popcorn containers, so I set to work.

The recipe requires mini cupcakes, so I made a basic vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. If you don't have a mini muffin pan, you can use foil cupcake liners set on a rimmed cookie sheet. Bake your cupcakes as directed, and allow to cool. Now the fun starts!

To make your "popcorn kernels," simply cut three mini marshmallows in half. Lay them sticky side up on the counter to help prevent mess and irritation. You'll use three halves and one whole mini marshmallow for each kernel.

Place a small amount of frosting on the end of one of your whole marshmallows and "glue" three of the halves to the base. Frost a cupcake and stick two to three completed kernels onto it while the frosting is still wet. It's important to frost each cupcake individually so that the frosting doesn't have time to set up before you stick the "popcorn" to it.

You can see here how the three halves should be arranged, and it really does end up looking remarkably like popcorn! As you can see, I went with both colors of marshmallows, but I don't think it makes a great enough difference to buy the colored bag specifically for this (I ended up throwing the rest away from lack of need). But the cuppies are adorable, aren't they?

We had them for movie night. HRH Beermeister borrowed a beautiful projector, we hung a huge white sheet from the ceiling, and sat down to "popcorn" and a movie. It was a lot of fun and the cupcakes were definitely a hit. I have to say that the containers really added something to it, too. I got these at Target for one dollar each!! They usually sell them at random throughout the year, so it's worth checking out. Amazonalso has a lot of choices, including paper/cardboardor plastic. 

So, I finally made one of the designs from the book. They were a hit and everyone loved them.

I haven't made anything since. 

It's a little depressing because it's a wonderful book. I really do highly recommend it. Especially if you have young children, as the majority of the cupcakes are geared towards kids. But more than the designs is the fact that they are so easy to follow. I do intend to do an "artist cake" inspired by the Starry Night idea, and I love the idea of getting some of the really unique cupcakes made. I'll keep you posted on whether I get myself motivated on it, though. Meanwhile, check this book from the library at the very least. I know this isn't exactly a sterling review of the book (I don't think I actually fall into the audience they're going for, i.e., people with small children), but it's definitely worth flipping through, and you'll probably end up buying it because it's brilliant.