Homemade Marshmallows: Recipes & Tips (Part 2)

[emmalish]

There was such an excess of starch mixture both top and bottom of the slab that enough of it coated the knife and transfered to the cut edges as they were cut. I'd spooned on a LOT, both top and bottom. I also rolled each cut row onto the cutting board to pick up a bit more before doing the next cut...

When I made them before, I basically cut them one row at a time into squares and tossed them in my bowl of starch right away. This time I was able to do several rows at the same time and there was enough starch on the slab and cutting board that they didn't stick together and my knife kept pretty clean. I also found that the long chef's knife gave me straighter and sharper edges than the pizza cutter did.

Then I transfer the cut marshmallow squares to my bowl of starch mixture and toss them til they're well coated, then transfer them to a sieve where I shake off the excess. Try it next time! I'd live to hear if it works as well for you!

[cookin4acravin]

If I wanted to get the pure essence and flavor of the fruit what would I do? Would I strain puree then boil the juice down as much as possible and add it to a regular marshmallow recipe or would I replace the sugar and water with the juice

[Tri2Cook]

Replace the liquid you use to hydrate the gelatin with fruit puree. You don't want to "boil it down", that just gives it an obvious cooked taste. There's a link to a strawberry marshmallow (wth variations) recipe somewhere towards the beginning of this thread that works great. It calls for half puree and half water to hydrate the gelatin, I use the recipe with straight fruit (I just replace the water with an equal amount of puree or juice) to hydrate the gelatin with no problems. The only adjustment I make for most fruits is the puree itself but some fruits benefit from a little lemon juice or citric acid to brighten them up a bit after the huge sugar hit. When I do apple, I work in a little citric and malic acid but it's not a necessity.

[emmalish]

I went a little marshmallow crazy this weekend. We're doing a baking exchange at work, and I thought it would be nice to contribute something other than cookies. I made plain vanilla marshmallows – some tossed with starch and some with toasted coconut...

I also made chocolate (which I've made before), and peppermint (first time). I had no idea how much extract to use. I overdid it. The peppermint was waaaaaay too overpowering. A small taste from the mixer seemed okay, but it was too much in an entire marshmallow. I was wondering whether I should even include these in the exchange or call them a loss. And then I thought – hey, why not dip them in chocolate? Suddenly it's the perfect amount of peppermint to balance the dark chocolate...

Now I'm wondering if I should include them in the exchange because I want them all to myself.

[binkyboots]

I'm busy working on batches of mallows for a bakesale, I was wondering... has anyone tried mixing space dust/popping candy into a batch? would they remain stable and poppy or would they turn to mush?

[Tri2Cook]

They won't turn to mush. They'll melt. They're just sugar. But, depending when you add them, they'll either melt very quickly when you dump in the hot syrup or less quickly once it's cooled a bit. How much less quickly, I don't know. I'm guessing not too many, if any, would survive for very long though. There's a fairly high initial loss rate even when adding them to straight cooled, melted chocolate which has far less water content than a marshmallow base.

[Amy D.]

Hi guys I would like to try making nightscotsman's strawberry marshmallow recipe (and of course other fruity flavours) but living in the uk I have a couple questions about ingredients:

firstly can anybody tell me how many grams are in the four envelopes of gelatin (just to see if we have a standarised size),

secondly I can't easily get corn syrup over here normally I just subsitute glucose syrup but i'm not sure if this really thick product would be a suitable replacement for the light corn syrup? if not would there be any thing else I could use instead?

failing that do you think it would be possible to add a fruit puree to this egg white recipe I have previously used: My link

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Kerry Beal]

Hi guys I would like to try making nightscotsman's strawberry marshmallow recipe (and of course other fruity flavours) but living in the uk I have a couple questions about ingredients:

firstly can anybody tell me how many grams are in the four envelopes of gelatin (just to see if we have a standarised size),

secondly I can't easily get corn syrup over here normally I just subsitute glucose syrup but i'm not sure if this really thick product would be a suitable replacement for the light corn syrup? if not would there be any thing else I could use instead?

failing that do you think it would be possible to add a fruit puree to this egg white recipe I have previously used: My link

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

7 grams per package - use the glucose as is - you just boil off the extra water to get to temperature anyway,

And yes - you could sub the puree into that recipe. May require a bit of tweaking - but might not.

Edited December 10, 2009 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Amy D.]

Thanks Kerry, it's good to know I can have a play with both recipes to see which gives the best results

[CanadianBakin']

If I wanted to get the pure essence and flavor of the fruit what would I do? Would I strain puree then boil the juice down as much as possible and add it to a regular marshmallow recipe or would I replace the sugar and water with the juice

I second Tri2Cook's advice. If you have access to Amoretti fruit compounds these add fabulous flavour. I still use the fruit puree and then add some compound for an extra flavour boost.

[LizD518]

Made the NS strawberry recipe with raspberries the week before Thanksgving - they were the best ones I've ever made! I think this weekend I'll make another batch, but I only have half the respberry puree I need. Instead of buying more raspebrries, I was thinking of doing a mix of raspberry and cranberry to use up the rest of the cranberries Ihave in my freezer. Has anyone used cranberries in marshmallows before? I have to cook them down so that I can make the puree, so I thought I'd add some sugar to them so they won't be too tart. Any thoughts?

[Kerry Beal]

Made the NS strawberry recipe with raspberries the week before Thanksgving - they were the best ones I've ever made! I think this weekend I'll make another batch, but I only have half the respberry puree I need. Instead of buying more raspebrries, I was thinking of doing a mix of raspberry and cranberry to use up the rest of the cranberries Ihave in my freezer. Has anyone used cranberries in marshmallows before? I have to cook them down so that I can make the puree, so I thought I'd add some sugar to them so they won't be too tart. Any thoughts?

I think you'll find the amount of sugar in the marshmallows will be plenty for the cranberries so you won't need to add more.

[rosejoy]

Jay -

Re: your post at http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/40358-homemade-marshmallows-recipes-tips/page__view__findpost__p__1405147

Thanks and thanks again for the your utube videos! I'm late to the marshmallow party and just started reading this thread a couple days ago - your videos helped a lot in putting real-life pictures to the process. They're wonderful and oh! so helpful.

[rosejoy]

Jay -

Re: your post at http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/40358-homemade-marshmallows-recipes-tips/page__view__findpost__p__1405147

Thanks and thanks again for the your utube videos! I'm late to the marshmallow party and just started reading this thread a couple days ago - your videos helped a lot in putting real-life pictures to the process. They're wonderful and oh! so helpful.

[LizD518]

Made cran-raspberry marshmallows last night. I had everything ready to go - geletin blooming, sugar measured and in the pan - when I found out that I had run out of corn syrup, and was already nearly out of sugar. After a frantic search through all the cupboards I decided to throw some honey in to make up for the corn syrup.

The flavor turned out wonderful - the honey really complimented the slight bitterness that the cranberries brought. I need to cut them tonight - I can't wait to try them in some hot cocoa!

I also want to ask if anyone has tried a flavor with wasabi by any chance? I have read through this thread in the past and don't remmebr seeing it, but it has been a while. I just received some wasabi powder and I thought that it might be a neat flavor to try and do somthing with. For that matter, I also received powdered lemon peel and want to do something with that. Lemon-wasabi marshmallows anyone?

Edited December 17, 2009 by LizD518 (log)

[thequeenoftreats]

Thank you for all the advice

I made plain vanilla marshmallows for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I used this recipe:

Bloom:

10 TB water

1.5 Tb Vanilla Extract

3 Tb unflavored gelatin

Base:

3/4 Cup water

pinch salt

1.5 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups syrup (made from 2 cups water, 5 1/3 cup sugar, 1 t. cream of tarter, pinch of salt)

I beat them for about 15 minutes and they were rubbery.

Then last night I made the strawberry marshmallows linked on the first page of this thread. I subbed passion fruit puree for the strawberry.

OMG, they are sublime!!

BUT they are so soft, like eating clouds. And they are sticky, sticky, sticky. Very hard to cut.

So my question is can you overbeat marshmallow? And how do you know when it's done?

Thanks for any advice.

[emmalish]

Potentially stupid question about to come... I've always used the marshmallow recipe from Greweling's book, but this year I'm going to give nightscotsman's recipe a try. Now for the stupid question. The strawberry (or other fruit) purée – is that simply puréed and strained fruit?

[Romy]

Emmalish,

I've made Nightscotsman's strawberry marshmallows before, and I did not strain the fruit. Since it was winter, I opted for frozen strawberries since the fresh ones looked so appalling. I just pureed them in a blender. The tiny seeds let people know it's actual strawberries and not just flavoring, in case the taste alone doesn't tip them off.

I recently made pumpkin spice marshmallows (based on Nightscotsman's recipe) using pumpkin puree and then dipped in dark chocolate for my wedding favors. Here's a very dark picture of that process. I find flipping the marshmallow out onto waxed paper sprinkled with a little powdered sugar and using a very lightly oiled (with cooking spray, or Crisco, or any other neutral-flavor oil) pizza cutter to be a fast way to cut the slab into squares. Then, I toss the squares in powdered sugar with a little additional cornstarch in a big Ziploc bag. I find using the smallest amount of cornstarch/powdered sugar in the bag as possible to be the best bet for coating the marshmallows enough to eliminate stickiness, but not to create a powdered doughnut effect. Had to learn that the hard way.

Edited December 9, 2010 by Romy (log)

[emmalish]

Thanks Romy! In Greweling's recipe he has a variation including passion fruit purée reduced by 1/2. Wondered if that was one of those industry standard things that it's taken for granted that everyone (except me) knows about. The pumpkin and dark chocolate combination sounds fantastic. Did you add any spices to the mix?

I used to use an oiled pizza cutter as well, but found a way that works much better for me. See my post upthread, or here if you're interested.

Edited to ask if you have a larger version of your picture? It appears tiny to me and I'd love to see it.

Edited December 9, 2010 by emmalish (log)

[Romy]

Thanks Romy! In Greweling's recipe he has a variation including passion fruit purée reduced by 1/2. Wondered if that was one of those industry standard things that it's taken for granted that everyone (except me) knows about. The pumpkin and dark chocolate combination sounds fantastic. Did you add any spices to the mix?

I used to use an oiled pizza cutter as well, but found a way that works much better for me. See my post upthread, or here if you're interested.

Edited to ask if you have a larger version of your picture? It appears tiny to me and I'd love to see it.

Ah, sorry! I was having some problems copying that photo from my husband's site. I've reposted here at a less squint-inducing size.

Hmm, I think that recipe must be referring to a cooked puree-- cooking to reduce the fruit puree by half and thereby getting a thicker, more gelled puree. Might be a worthwhile extra step. If I recall correctly, my strawberry marshmallows were a tiny bit softer than the vanilla bean marshmallows I made with the same recipe base (but not so much as to be less appealing). Might be that extra liquid and raw pectin!

I added cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg to my pumpkin spice marshmallows. Really, the pumpkin just made them a pretty color, I think. You can only add so much pumpkin before your marshmallows won't set. But no one minded-- they were really delicious. (Went well with my pumpkin spice, maple buttercream, and marshmallow fondant cake!) Warm spices and marshamllows are such a great combination, in my opinion. They can do so much for your routine hot cocoa. Cinnamon and cayenne might a good combo for hot cocoa (and probably already mentioned elsewhere!).

[cookingofjoy]

I had my first failed batch of marshmallows today, and I'm wondering might have been my mistake. I tried a cranberry version that ended up more like taffy in texture than marshmallow, and rubbery. I think the rubbery-ness is because I overbeat it since they never started getting fluffy like they normally do.

I've liked this lemon marshmallow recipe, so I tried using it as a base for cranberry. For this half batch, I boiled 1/4c cranberries and 1/2c water til it was reduced to about a 1/4c, then strained it to make a cranberry puree, which ended up being 3TB puree. I added 1TB fresh lemon juice, subbed this puree/lemon juice for the lemon juice in the gelatin bloom, and then followed the rest of the recipe like normal. I've made half batches before that have been fine, so I don't think that's an issue. Last week I made a half batch of clementine/honey based on this recipe that were the lightest I've made.

I did get distracted and let the syrup get to 258 instead of 250. It was the last packet of gelatin in my 32 pack, and all other batches have been fine.

[CanadianBakin']

This week I made a batch of vanilla marshmallows and swirled in homemade caramel sauce right before panning them. They are seriously amazing. They taste like caramel ripple ice cream. The layers separate a bit but none of my testers thought it was an issue and in fact, some of them thought the difference in textures between the layers is what made them amazing. However, I'm wondering about shelf life. The caramel sauce is usually stored in the fridge. Fruit purees are as well so maybe it's fine but I worry about the butter and cream. Are there any guidelines on this? Instead of sauce should I make a firmer caramel that would normally be stored at room temp and just warm it to liquify before using?

[sschiltz1]

Nightscotsman regarding your marshmellow rcipe:

Beg pardon, I realize this is very old post but what size pan did you use? I checked Martha Stewart recipe and she used 9 x 9 pan. Your recipe appears about 1 1/2 x's her recipe. I'm thinking 9 x 12? Thanks in advance, Stephanie

Edited March 21, 2011 by sschiltz1 (log)

[E.T.]

Nightscotsman regarding your marshmellow rcipe:

Beg pardon, I realize this is very old post but what size pan did you use? I checked Martha Stewart recipe and she used 9 x 9 pan. Your recipe appears about 1 1/2 x's her recipe. I'm thinking 9 x 12? Thanks in advance, Stephanie

Hi Stephanie, I made Nightscotsman's strawberry marshmallows last night, and there was a perfect amount of mixture to fill a 9x13 pan with 1in sides. There were a few tablespoons left over for 'testing'

[sschiltz1]

Thanks so much for the quick reply, E.T. I've wanted to make this recipe for monthes but procrastinated. I think I had the winter blaahs! But we had a 70 d. day yesterday so I know spring is just around the corner!! Yah, just never mind tomorrows snow forcast, ugh!!!! Will try to get a trial run on the marshmallows tomorrow eve. Wish me luck! Steph