Homemade Marshmallows: Recipes & Tips (Part 1)

[nightscotsman]

Why wouldn't you use the full 1 cup of liquid with apple cider...I think the flavor might be better ...I made the pumpkin ones, but thought I would add more than 1/2 cup since the flavor was not very intense.

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I think she's referring to the half cup of liquid in the half recipe I posted above. I would use 1 cup in the full recipe.

I experimented with pumpkin marshmallows a couple weeks ago and found that 3/4 C of pumpkin with 1/4 cup water to bloom the gelatine worked well to give good flavor, along with 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and 1/4 tsp ginger. Again, this is for the half recipe, so the boiled mixture was 6 Tbs water, 1-1/2 C sugar, and 1/2 + 2 Tbs corn syrup. The finished product was a little overly wet, so I would cook the syrup a little more to maybe 245 F to compensate.

[Joni]

Thanks!! I will try your measurements with 1/2 the recipe for the pumpkin ones! I also bought concentrated apple juice (frozen) yesterday and thought of trying the concentrate to see if that would give it more taste.

[techno foodie]

Lloydchoc:

Sorry this reply is coming so late in the game - hopefully you're still on the list and can respond.

Would you mind sharing the recipe you use to make the vegan marshmallows? Or do you just use Nightscotsman's receipe and substitute the Eme's gelatin?

My husband's sister is vegan and I would love to make her some of these marshmallows for Christmas (plus I'd like to eat a few myself :)

Thanks for any help!

[MelissaH]

So, a little time has gone by since the last posting about using maple syrup in marshmallows. Has anyone tried it yet? My instinct is to use maple syrup to replace all the corn syrup.

To me, a mapley marshmallow sounds like an interesting accompaniment to a pumpkin or sweet potato marshmallow. Or maybe just sprinkle finely chopped toasted walnuts over the maple marshmallows, in addition to or instead of other dustings?

-MelissaH

[Patrick S]

I made nightscotsman's strawberry marshmallows tonight. Very yummy. Here's some pics I took along the way.

The puree with water and gelatin.

The sugar/corn syrup at 238F, just before adding to puree mixture.

The sugar syrup is added to the puree mixture, the beating begins.

. . . steadily fluffing. . .

. . . and fluffing. . .

Nothing to do now but wait.

EDIT TO ADD PICTURES:

Edited November 19, 2004 by Patrick S (log)

[Patrick S]

I tried nightscotsman's chocolate version, using a scant 1/2 cup of Scharffen Berger cocoa and about 1 tablespoon of Medaglia D'Oro espresso powder. They're awesome, in my humble opinion. I'm calling them Mocha-mallows.

[JSkilling]

I'll make these next ( but if you are a 4 1/2 yo twin girl in my house you call them "mocha mellies.") The vanilla ones were superb and especially good on a wooden skewer and lightly toasted over the stove and then stuffed into your mouth. Yum... Also good dipped in chocolate.

I saw a recipe for 5 spice powder marshamallows and thought those would be a nice combination this time of year.

In the new Williams Sonoma catalogue they feature a lot of homemade marshmallow products. I liked the looks of the peppermint swirl and bet those would be very good - very pretty with the pink and white swirl pattern.

[Wendy DeBord]

I just wanted to mention that the plain marshmellow recipe makes great rice crispy treats, just imagine all the flavor possiblities there can be. The color is whiter/different since your not remelting the marshmellow but one taste and any doubts are gone.

[Patrick S]

Its funny that you mention that, Wendy -- my wife made exactly the same suggestion when I was finishing making the vanilla version, which I made earlier tonight using my last 3/4 of Madagascar vanilla bean and a t. of extract. Since I'd already poured the marshmallow into a pan for 'curing,' I might try the following tomorrow -- cutting the marshmallows into 1.5" x 0.5" rounds, covering the rounds with caramel (making what we in KY call Modjeskas), and then rolling in rice crispies.

[mktye]

I experimented with pumpkin marshmallows a couple weeks ago and found that 3/4 C of pumpkin with 1/4 cup water to bloom the gelatine worked well to give good flavor, along with 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and 1/4 tsp ginger. Again, this is for the half recipe, so the boiled mixture was 6 Tbs water, 1-1/2 C sugar, and 1/2 + 2 Tbs corn syrup. The finished product was a little overly wet, so I would cook the syrup a little more to maybe 245 F to compensate.

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Thanks for this version -- they are totally delicious.

I cooked the syrup to 245 and the marshmallows were still a bit wet. Perhaps a tad more gelatine?

A thought that came to me while making the marshmallows -- I recall reading in a Cook's Illustrated a couple or so years ago that while they were developing their panna cotta recipe, they discovered that envelopes of gelatin (Knox brand) could differ by as much as 3/4 of a teaspoon from the 2-1/2 teaspoons that are supposed to contain.

Possibly that factor is also contributing to a difference in consistency between batches of marshmallows. (Especially in the half-batches, since fewer envelopes are used and there would be less of an averaging effect.) I think I'll start measuring out the gelatin for future batches to see if it makes a difference.

[Wendy DeBord]

Patrick, I'd love to know how you cover them in caramel. Any recipe or photos would be auesome.............

I'm invisioning one heck of a yummy mess.

[Patrick S]

Patrick, I'd love to know how you cover them in caramel. Any recipe or photos would be auesome.............

I'm invisioning one heck of a yummy mess.

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I haven't done this before, so I imagine I'll be doing some experimentation with the caramel before I get it right.

I'm thinking maybe freeze the marshmallows first to firm them. I'll at least try to cover/dip them with warm caramel, but if that doesn't work (if the warmth mushifies the marshmallows), I'll cool the caramel first, cut it out into squares and then stretch the squares by hand into a sheet that I can wrap around the marshmallows.

Edited November 22, 2004 by Patrick S (log)

[Joni]

Patrick..your choc marshmallows look great..are the 1/2 cup chocolate for a full batch?

Also..has anyone done eggnog marshmallows....perhaps use the DaVinci syrup-- would this work?

[Patrick S]

Patrick..your choc marshmallows look great..are the 1/2 cup chocolate for a full batch?

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Yeah I used about 1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon of cocoa for a full batch. I'm sure you could get by with 1/4 cup, but the 1/2 cup version doesn't seem over-cocoa-fied at all.

[jgarner53]

How would this recipe be adapted for using gelatin sheets? Just do an equivalent weight of sheets to granular?

[KatieM]

Did anyone see the Southern Living holiday mag? They had a pretty similar recipe for homemade marshmallows in one section. I was intrigued by the coconut version, which used coconut extract in the mix, and then used toasted coconut instead of the sugar/starch mixture to coat. Sounds like a sticky mess to me, but it might be good!

I made the pumpkin version for the Sycamore, IL Pumpkin Fest. I made Jack-o-Lantern ones for the kids, and plain ones for the adults. All the adults were bummed that they didn't get the Jack-o-Lantern version! They were thoroughly enjoyed by all, in any case. I was surprised, because I thought that the flavor might be a little too unusual. Once people tasted them however, they loved them. I think the pumpkin ones were actually more popular than some of the other flavors I've done in the past.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be making more cinnamon ones and mint ones with the holidays approaching. Once again Neil, your marshmallows rock!

[JSkilling]

Patrick, I'd love to know how you cover them in caramel. Any recipe or photos would be auesome.............

I'm invisioning one heck of a yummy mess.

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I haven't done this before, so I imagine I'll be doing some experimentation with the caramel before I get it right.

I'm thinking maybe freeze the marshmallows first to firm them. I'll at least try to cover/dip them with warm caramel, but if that doesn't work (if the warmth mushifies the marshmallows), I'll cool the caramel first, cut it out into squares and then stretch the squares by hand into a sheet that I can wrap around the marshmallows.

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Here's a picture from WS catalogue that shows marshmallow enrobed in caramel.

http://ww2.williams-sonoma.com/cat/pip.cfm...79493&cmsrc=sch

[Patrick S]

Thanks Josette. I saw that same picture last night -- I went and browsed that Williams-Sonoma website after you mentioned it. Saw those peppermint swirl mallows too.

Well, I have the caramel cooking as we speak, and the marshmallows powdered, cut and in the freezer. I'd cross my fingers, but I need 'em right now.

[Patrick S]

Alright, two batches of caramel, a few steam/caramel burns, and several vodkas and water later, I'm done with my caramel covered marshmallows. I probably should have made a bigger batch of caramel. First I tried dipping the marshmallows in the caramel, and as I suspected, the mallows melted into the caramel (which was at about 180F). So I dipped the base of the mallows in caramel, let them cool, and then spoon some caramel on top. Some of them turned out fine, looking like real Modjeskas, while others were only 50-70% covered with caramel. I made a major faux pas by putting too hot caramel on wax paper -- it was impossible to remove the mallows without ripping up some of the wax paper, so I ended up using kitchen shears to cut the mallows above the base. Next time I'll use parchment paper or silicone. I'm more than happy with the taste, but clearly I need to work on the caramel coating.

The marshmallows:

A coated marshmallow:

Most of them look more like:

Edited November 23, 2004 by Patrick S (log)

[Patrick S]

How would this recipe be adapted for using gelatin sheets?  Just do an equivalent weight of sheets to granular?

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Yes, equivalent weight. A 7 gram gelatin envelope is equal to seven 1 gram sheets, etc.

[Wendy DeBord]

I'm delighted to see you (Patrick) experimenting and working so hard-----------then sharing with us, Thank-you!!

Personally, I'm really dumbfounded on how they do that, coat with a soft caramel.

My best guess would be that they pour out the caramel in thin sheets and when it's almost set/room temp. they're literally wrapping the marshmellow in caramel...............but then how do they get it to coat/cover the two ends?......it doesn't look like it starts out as a square sheet of caramel.

No matter how I think this through......... they have to be enrobed like a chocolate candy. So you have to really hit the right temp.s with the right caramel recipe.

[Patrick S]

I think I could have done better if I had not cooked the caramel so long (it is a little more firm than it should be), and if I had not powdered the marshmallows (which made it hard for the caramel to adhere to the marshmallows). With a little practice, I'm sure I can find to do this right.

[Toliver]

Would refrigerating or freezing the marshmallows help prevent them from melting when put into the caramel? There might be some loss in moisture but I would think the trade off might be worth it.

[Patrick S]

I did put the marshmallows in the freezer, but only for about an hour. It did seem to help, but next time I'll freeze longer. Maybe it would actually be helpful to have the outer surface of the marshmallows a little dry? Last night I was using marshmallows like 2 hours after they were cut, so still at peak moisture content.

IDEA: I wonder if I could work something out a two pan process, pouring caramel from one pan to other and back again, bathing marshmallows under the caramel pour on a toothpick or skewer? Maybe I could find an old pan and dent it to make a flat 'lip' that could pour the caramel in sheets?

Also . . . someone I work with tells me she's had lavender marshmallows, and that she loved them. I've heard of people using dried lavender flowers in some desserts, but I wonder if there is a commercial lavender extract of some kind? Could be interesting. Or not.

[JSkilling]

I'm coming the conclusion that these will likely need to be molded with smaller sections of marshmallow. How about even in a mini muffin tin? Another way might be to just layer the caramel and marshmallow and cut or roll. You know those sort of spiral caramel candies with a swath of something white in the middle. I bet if you used thin layers you could then roll them up like a roulade and slice. Not the same look but they'd be pretty.

I don't know about the lavendar but the passionfruit puree ones I made today were a hit.