Homemade marshmallows

Why on earth would I make homemade marshmallows? That it the question that Mr DD asked me when I told him what I had been up to while the girls were sleeping. My answer because I wanted to, the recipe sounded fun and I am sure they will taste soooo much better than the shop bought ones.

Guess what? They taste 1000 x better plus you get the brag factor of "oh yeah I just whipped up my own marshmallows". I also had a lot of special requests to share my recipe so I would hate to disappoint.

Here is my recipe for Pink strawberry Marshmallows adapted from a recipe by Donna Hay, don't be scared, if you have a mixer it is actually quite easy to make them yourself.

**You will definitely need a mixer and a sugar/candy thermometer to make these, the thermometer if you don't have one already can be found at any kitchen store and are not too expensive.

Pink Strawberry Marshmallows

Ingredients
1/2 cup hot water
2 TBS of powdered gelatin

1 1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup extra water
2/3 cup glucose syrup
pink food colour
1 tsp strawberry oil

For dusting
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 TBS cornflour

Method

In your mixing bowl combine 1/2 cup hot water and gelatin and mix well so there are no lumps

Add 1 1/2 cup caster sugar, glucose and extra water and add to a saucepan over medium heat until it comes to the boil. Put your candy thermometer in and leave the mixture without stirring on the heat until it hits 115 degrees Celsius this can take up to 8 mins

Turn your mixer on using the beater attachment (I have a kenwood which I put onto the medium) and carefully pour the hot sugar mix into the bowl.

Turn the speed all the way up and add in a few drops of colouring to get the desired colour and the strawberry oil.

Keep your mixer running for 7-8 minus until the sugar and gelatine mixture becomes very light fluffy and has cooled right down.

While you are waiting on the mixer to finish, line a 20cm x 20 cm tin with grease proof paper and give the inside a light spray.

When your marshmallow is ready it will be very light and fluffy looking and have very little movement when you lift up the beaters.

Working quickly spoon the mixture into the greased tin, smooth over with a spatula.

Cover the top over with another square of grease proof paper that has been lightly sprayed with oil and leave in the fridge to set.It will need at least an hour to set properly

Sift the icing sugar and cornflour to combine into a bowl

When it is set carefully tip it out onto a cutting board dusted with the icing sugar and cornflour mixture cut into squares with a hot knife and put the squares into the dusting mixture.
** As the set marshmallow will be really sticky you may want to keep running the knife under hot water and keep your hands dusted with the icing sugar mixture.

Allow the marshmallow to come back to room temperature before serving and enjoy!

Just as a side note, I have been experimenting with creating a Chocolate marshmallow recipe, yes I said CHOCOLATE marshmallows, whilst they are completely delicious they were a little too ugly to photograph so I will be tweeking the recipe a little to get them to perfection before I share!


Dani xo