Homemade Marshmallows

When Journey, my 11 year old, and I decided to make homemade S'mores, we decided it had to be from scratch.  The marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers that are commercially prepared have lots of unappealing and even unhealthy stuff in them like soy ingredients, flavorings, fillers, preservatives, corn syrup, etc.  None of that is allowed in our house or in our bodies whenever I have a choice in the matter.

So we searched high and low on the internet to find a recipe for homemade marshmallows and eventually found some that did not ask us to put corn syrup in them.  Here is our adventure with marshmallows... we had never made them before so we took pictures to chronicle our adventures.

There were many "sticking points" (sorry about that bad pun) along the way but our end result was a batch of marshmallows that are out of this world good!!

To start your adventure, find a square baking pan and dust the heck out of it with powdered sugar (yes, I had some leftover around but if you want to make powdered sugar yourself, just put grainy sugar in a food processor or blender and beat it really long and it will powder itself).  If you don't dust the pan liberally, you will never get the marshmallow out.. just a warning.

I actually might use more next time or even mix it with a bit of organic cornstarch

Next step is to combine 2 packets of unflavored Knox gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water and let it sit to th side for awhile.

On the stove in a saucepan combine 1/2 cup water with (gulp) 2 cups of granulated sugar (this was a tough one to swallow but I thought I better follow directions the first time I made them - next time I may substitute some honey for some of the sugar).  We used organic low processed cane sugar but stand warned - these are a sugary sweet.  No need to boil..just thoroughly dissolve all that sugar in the water.  Then add your gelatin/water mix and bring that to a boil.

Remove from heat once it is to a boil and pour it into a large mixing bowl and let it cool for a bit.  (really, that is what the directions said... "a bit"... so how long is that?  Well I let it cool for only a few minutes cause we wanted to eat S'mores before bedtime)

We decided to use the KitchenAid.  I chose the wire whisk but next time may try the beater attachment, as the marshmallow got so sticky that it was kind of hard to get out of the inside of that wire whisk.

Add 1/4 tsp salt and 2 tsp vanilla extract.  Now Beat!!  The instructions I used said beat until double in volume.  I beat for about 10 minutes at medium and then decided it was done.  By the time I finished beating I thought it was probably double in volume but by then it was REALLY STICKY.

Now try to get it out of the bowl.  Really... give it a try.  Try to pour it in your prepared pan.  Easier said than done.  It took both of us to coax that gooey mess out of the bowl and a bunch of it stuck to the beater, to the sides of the bowl and to the spatula.  And of course, that brought Journey to start placing her claim on the bowl, the beater, and all things gooey.

And of course it's Saturday night... so go ahead and try to lick that bowl honey... good luck!

I wonder if that goo would not have stuck so bad if I had tried to lightly "grease" that bowl before I started?  I don't know.. just food for thought.

So once we had it poured in the pan, we just left it on the counter to set up while we made the chocolate bars and graham crackers.

When it is "set up" you will know because you will touch it and it won't stick so much to your fingers.  We found it really took about a day to set up to the perfect consistency (not in the refrgerator - just on the counter)... but we cut it Saturday night anyway.   To cut this pan of goo, make sure you have a sharp knife and it is also coated with a light powdery substance.. ok we used more powdered sugar.  I coated the top of this pan with a dusting of sugar and tried to keep my knife sugared as well.  Cut it into squares and then Journey got to roll the squares in more sugar.. don't worry.. it barely sticks but does make the marshmallows more manageable and able to be stored in a baggy on the counter without sticking together.

Journey says they roast in the fireplace "weird".  They brown quickly but don't catch fire as easily.  They are wonderful by themselves or eaten all melty in S'mores.  The next day, the consistency was the best!  Here is what is left of our marshmallows.

I thought I might try to roll them in some fine coconut next time for an extra flavor boost and a little less sugar.