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Homemade Marshmallows: Recipes & Tips (Part 2)

Becca Porter

By Becca Porter
in Pastry & Baking

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Chris Hennes

Chris Hennes

Posted
Posted
Your biscuit cut mallows are begging to be set on a cookie- like a ginger snap?

So, did you earn the right to make more when your wife saw how successful these were?  I admit- my household was quite suspicious of the feel of my first ones.  We resisted the urge to make boob shaped strawberry mallows, but just barely! :laugh:

The ginger snap sounds good... I have been thinking about trying to concoct some sort of "s'more"-type confection with a marshmallow and graham cracker enrobed together, but they don't exactly make round graham crackers. Ginger snaps might be just the ticket.

I think after the habañero-mango truffles turned out so tasty today, I have pretty free reign with the flavors. As most of the product ends up at our offices (who can eat 50 chocolate-covered marshmallows?) my anatomical analog possibilities are somewhat limited... :hmmm:

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

Posted
Posted

I don't have pictures yet and they're still uncut but I finally finished my little marshmallow marathon. I have the following flavors made, dusted, wrapped, sealed in containers and ready to cut, package and give away:

- Chocolate (callebaut cocoa)

- Strawberry (strawberry puree and lemon juice)

- Raspberry (raspberry puree and citric acid)

- Passion Fruit (passion fruit puree)

- Blueberry (pureed local wild blueberries that were in my freezer, lemon juice, replaced corn syrup with homemade wild blueberry syrup)

- Cherry (morello cherry puree, citric acid)

- Honey Lemon (fresh lemon juice, citric acid, replaced corn syrup with honey)

- Apple (pureed granny smith apples, malic acid)

- Caramel (caramelized part of the sugar and added a healthy dose of sea salt)

- Coconut (coconut milk boosted with spray dried coconut milk powder)

- Banana (pureed bananas)

- Pumpkin (pumpkin puree, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, vanilla)

- Vanilla (that one explains itself)

- Chai (strong chai tea)

- London Fog (strong earl grey and vanilla)

- Coffee (espresso)

- Rosewater (another self explanatory flavor)

- Mayan Chocolate (cocoa, cinnamon, new mexico chile powder, vanilla, replaced 1/2 of corn syrup with honey)

Things I learned:

- Nightscotsman's recipe rocks but through testing I discovered I prefer to use all fruit puree instead of the 1/2 puree, 1/2 water as listed. It doesn't seem to hurt anything and gives a more powerful flavor.

- I made numerous substitutions to the cooked syrup depending on the flavor I was doing and it caused no problems at all.

- The recipe is very open to changes, the only thing that seemed to mess with it was the addition of fat (coconut milk and cocoa for example) which resulted in less volume and a more dense texture but otherwise was fine.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

CanadianBakin'

CanadianBakin'

Posted
Posted
I don't have pictures yet and they're still uncut but I finally finished my little marshmallow marathon. I have the following flavors made, dusted, wrapped, sealed in containers and ready to cut, package and give away:

-Things I learned:

- Nightscotsman's recipe rocks but through testing I discovered I prefer to use all fruit puree instead of the 1/2 puree, 1/2 water as listed. It doesn't seem to hurt anything and gives a more powerful flavor.

- I made numerous substitutions to the cooked syrup depending on the flavor I was doing and it caused no problems at all.

- The recipe is very open to changes, the only thing that seemed to mess with it was the addition of fat (coconut milk and cocoa for example) which resulted in less volume and a more dense texture but otherwise was fine.

WOW!! What a lot of flavours. I can't wait to see pictures and read your opinion of each. Thanks for adding notes about your discoveries when using this recipe.

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Orison Swett Marden

KrazedMom

KrazedMom

Posted
Posted
I don't have pictures yet and they're still uncut but I finally finished my little marshmallow marathon. I have the following flavors made, dusted, wrapped, sealed in containers and ready to cut, package and give away:

So what do I need to do to get on the mailing list? :wub:

alanamoana

alanamoana

Posted
Posted
The ginger snap sounds good... I have been thinking about trying to concoct some sort of "s'more"-type confection with a marshmallow and graham cracker enrobed together, but they don't exactly make round graham crackers. Ginger snaps might be just the ticket.

that's why, along with the confectionery, you have to start baking...making your own graham crackers to fit your homemade marshmallows!

Lior

Lior

Posted
Posted

I am working on a s'more confection too. I made my own graham crackers, regular marshmellows and then "glued the marshmellow onto the graham cracker with chocolate and dipped it all into chocolate. It was good but too large. I also had some problems with the graham crackers - at first they came out spongy and then I left them in the oven for much lomger than required and had them thinner and it worked. I still need to perfect it. Also, there was no melty marshmellow involved...

My egullet foodblog

Ganache Chocolate

patris

patris

Posted
Posted

Lior,

Those are beautiful!

Chris - we make s'mores using bought graham crackers broken into quarters - we spread a layer of ganache on a sheet of marshmallow, (sometimes wait for it to set and then spread a layer of peanut butter), stick the graham cracker quarters on it, cut and enrobe. It's particularly good with raspberry marshmallow using all fruit puree, as others have suggested.

One item we tried was a take on the old Crown cookie - a vanilla wafer with a little bit of raspberry ganache piped on top, then a piped mound of marhsmallow, enrobed and decorated with powdered raspberry. They were spectacular. I've thought many times of doing a chai marshmallow with gingersnaps in the same way (without the raspberry, of course...)

Patty

Lior

Lior

Posted
Posted

Thank you. I have to make my g crackers cause they aren't available here! Your method sounds delicious. Do the grahams break into perfect quarters? And then I assume you cut it along those quarters? Oh well, I can't buy then anyway!!

Thanks for the compliments! :rolleyes:

My egullet foodblog

Ganache Chocolate

bkeith

bkeith

Posted
Posted

My best result with a smores-type creation goes thusly:

Line 2 12x12x2 square pans with parchment paper and spray with Pam.

Make a batch of marshmallows (I've done vanilla, banana, and burnt sugar, and they all worked well). Pour half into each pan. Tile the top with store-bought graham crackers. It takes just about one package to cover both pans completely. Press with a smaller pan to ensure everything's even. Let set.

Turn out the marshmallows and remove the parchment. You've now got a nice block of stuff that's flat on both top and bottom, and has a stable layer of graham cracker on the bottom to help keep the cuts square. Cut to 1"x1" bite-size bits. Dip in your favorite tempered bittersweet or semisweet couverture.

The only part I'm not completely satisfied with yet is that it's missing that toasted marshmallow flavor. In my most recent attempt I took part of the sugar from the recipe and caramelized it to a dark brown, then added the water and the rest of the sugar and made the syrup as the recipe indicated. That worked a bit, but wasn't as strong a burnt sugar flavor as I'd have liked, so maybe I need to caramelize a bit more sugar to start with. Drawback is that it makes a slightly tan marshmallow.

My first couple attempts I used a torch to toast the top of the marshmallow layer after it was turned out of the pan. That works ok, but again, not enough toasted flavor. And you have to let the marshmallow set up again before cutting because the top gets soft from the heat of the torch.

I think the problem is that with an enrobed treat, the amount of chocolate is greater than you'd get on a traditional smore, and it overwhelms the toasted flavor I'm putting into the marshmallow mix. Gotta keep tweaking.

B. Keith Ryder

BCakes by BKeith

Lior

Lior

Posted
Posted

wonderful! Don't the graham crackers crack or break when you cut them into 1"X1"? When I make mine I make the dimensions kind of cut into the dough before it goes into the oven and then they are just the right size. I wonder exactly how you do it so there is no cracking or crumbing. Wonderful inventiveness!

My egullet foodblog

Ganache Chocolate

Chris Hennes

Chris Hennes

Posted
Posted
I think the problem is that with an enrobed treat, the amount of chocolate is greater than you'd get on a traditional smore, and it overwhelms the toasted flavor I'm putting into the marshmallow mix.  Gotta keep tweaking.

Yeah, I think careful chocolate selection is key - I think it has to be a relatively mild-flavored milk chocolate, and the coating needs to be as thin as possible. I like the idea of toasting the marshmallow before enrobing to complete the flavor profile.

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

Posted
Posted

Very nice Lior. I wish I had the motivation to do various accents for all the marshmallows I made but I'm not going to. It was mainly just an experiment with various familiar flavors to get a good grasp of what the recipe will tolerate so I can start playing around with weird flavors. I'm just cutting mine (maybe with a shaped cutter, probably just squares to keep it simple and quick), seperating the flavors into 4 or 5 pieces per bag (little snack size ziplocks), labeling the bags, putting them in boxes and handing them out to a few people. I find the toasted marshmallow flavor dicussion interesting. I think I'll play around and see if I can contribute anything to that cause. It should be fun to try even if I just end up making a big mess.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

bkeith

bkeith

Posted
Posted
wonderful! Don't the graham crackers crack or break when you cut them into 1"X1"? When I make mine I make the dimensions kind of cut into the dough before it goes into the oven and then they are just the right size. I wonder exactly how you do it so there is no cracking or crumbing. Wonderful inventiveness!

The only time I had that problem was when I lined both top and bottom with graham crackers. The ones on top broke up when I cut because they were sitting on a non-firm surface. The ones on the bottom were fine.

I'm really building them upside down. The graham crackers are on top of the marshmallow in the pan, but when I flip them out, the crackers are on the bottom, and that's where they stay. I think having them sit on the marshmallow overnight probably softens them a touch as well.

Yeah, I think careful chocolate selection is key - I think it has to be a relatively mild-flavored milk chocolate, and the coating needs to be as thin as possible. I like the idea of toasting the marshmallow before enrobing to complete the flavor profile.

You know, that's a good point. I'm a big bittersweet fan, so I just grabbed for that naturally. But now that I think about it, the traditional chocolate for smores is Hershey's milk chocolate. Next time I'll try milk thinned with a bit of cocoa butter. Thanks!

B. Keith Ryder

BCakes by BKeith

KrazedMom

KrazedMom

Posted
Posted
I see thanks. What do you use to cut them with?

I also prefer dark chocolate but thought the exact same thing- traditionally they are made with milk choc. I also am trying to figure out the melty burnt marshmellow taste.

I made my version of s'mores (the fast mommy way). I crushed a bunch of graham crackers and lined the bottom of the pan. I then put the Hershey candy bars over that (I sectioned & spread them out so it wasn't completely covered) I poured the marshmallow directly on the crumbs & chocolate.

The remaining heat of the marshmallow goo melted the candy bar pieces just enough that they softened up nicely. The next day, I cut it into manageable pieces, rolled the cut sides in the graham crumbs and then got out my torch and did just enough so the tops were nice and golden. There is nothing like a homemade marshmallow torched! They turned out better than I anticipated!!

KrazedMom

KrazedMom

Posted
Posted
oooh! Do you have a picture?? Sounds interesting! Of course, I bet it is a real treat for those around!! Thanks!

no pics, sorry.

I got the idea when I first started making the marshmallows and my son & I would toast them on the stove. It evolved into the s'mores creation. We tried toasting the chocolate but it just wasn't good. The vanilla ones were amazing...I loved the crunchy crust they got.

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