Tuesday's Food: Homemade Marshmallows

I made homemade marshmallows; yes I did!! and no, not in the crockpot. Sorry if I suddenly excited a whole bunch of you. But I did make homemade marshmallows, and I was told (by my kids, husband, and brother-in-law) they were BETTER than store bought! Oh man! I can tell you, it wasn't that hard, but it is a little time consuming. So be prepared.

I found the recipe on Pinterest. (I'm over it, Janet. I should be thanking you for my new addiction!) :) It was one of the pins I put on my "I want to make" board that I eventually moved to the "Food I Make" board. Here's the link to the original recipe (from Smitten Kitchen, where I got my homemade poptart recipe!!) , and below is what I did (mostly the same, but I'm adding a little commentary to the process here).

Things You Need:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 1/2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup cold water, divided
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup 
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large egg whites (room temperature) 
• 1 Tbsp vanilla 

Steps: 

1. Oil the bottom and sides of a 13x9x2 rectangular pan and dust the bottom and sides with some powdered sugar (I didn't have this, so I used two round 9 inch pans. Tip for the confectioner sugar: if you don't have a Pampered Chef Flour Sugar Shaker, you really need to get one. This makes this step and steps #7 and 8 so much easier!) 
2. In your standing electric mixer or a large bowl, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup of cold water and let stand to soften. 
3. In a 3 quart heavy saucepan, cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring for about 12 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved. (NOTE: no matter how delicious the sugar mixture looks or how it doesn't feel hot to the touch on the wooden spoon DO NOT give in to the urge of tasting the sugar mixture. It burns a hole in the roof of your mouth and hardens immediately so that it is difficult to remove from between your teeth...not that I know from experience or anything) 
4. With a standing or hand-held electric mixture until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about 6 minutes using a standing mixture or 10 using a hand-held mixer. (This is very thick. My standing mixture began shaking at the end, so just be careful and don't burn your motor. That would be a sad, sad story) 
5. In a separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters, beat egg whites until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla into sugar mixture or until just combined. 
6. Pour mixture into baking pan and don't fret if you don't get it all out (Tip: spray your spatula or spoon you are going to use to get mixture with butter or butter flavored cooking spray. I learned this from making rice crispy treats one time). 
7. Sift 1/4 cup of powdered sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallows, uncovered, until firm for at least three hours and up to one day. 
8. Run a thin knife (again, butter coated) around the edges of the pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of the inverted pan, with fingers, loosen marshmallows and ease onto the cutting board. With a large knife (buttered), trim the edges of the marshmallows and cut marshmallows into 1 inch cubes. Sift remaining powdered sugar back into your now-empty pan(s), and roll the marshmallows through it, on all sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away. (I actually just dumped some powdered sugar into a large ziplock bag, dumped in the cut up marshmallows while doing a light sugar dusting in between dumping, and then shook the zipped up bag. It worked the same). 
9. Do Ahead: Marshmallows keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature 1 week. 

So after I made these, we went outside and roasted some on our new fire pit. LOVED it and I'm making a batch (cut out in stars) for Abigail's star-themed birthday party this weekend. This makes almost 100 marshmallows, so you should be good for a while. Try these! They are yummy! 

Sticky, Sticky Mess!

This is just the first batch. SO MUCH!