Mallow-y Goodness

Today I achieved something that I wish I had put on my yearly List of Things I Must Do Someday. That way I could have the satisfaction of crossing it off. Instead I am devoting a post to it.


It all started last night when I picked up a stack of holiday magazines and settled under the covers, leafing through the dreamy projects Martha cooks up every year with her legion of elves. It is rare that I actually get to any of them, but this year I feel on fire with the holiday craft. And there it was, the project I had forgotten about until now. Homemade Marshmallows.



I have read multiple posts in the past and vowed I would someday join the women that can make their own marshmallows.

I have to digress just a moment to explain my unhealthy love of the confection. Once, when we were visiting Vegas for an extended gambling trip/wedding, I found a blurb in the tourist booklet proclaiming that you can tour the JetPuff marshmallow factory, just outside of the Strip. I made Tim and three other grown adults spend the better part of two hours trying to find the factory. It ended up being a bit anti-climatic and I came away still mystified by the process of marshmallow making. And they were making coconut-covered that day and that really pissed the rest of the bunch off.

And I have to mention the atrocious prices on the bags of the store stuff. I have seen them for 3 frickin' dollars a bag lately and that seems like some form of robbery. Especially now that I know how easy it is to create your own.

So, enter the magazine and the recipe and right after I dropped the boys off at preschool I procured supplies, sewed for a bit and then set to my marshmallow magic making.


It is a fairly simple process that involves gelatin, boiling various sugars to soft ball stage and then mixing them to a high white whip. I was pleased with how easy syrup making can be when using a candy thermometer marked with the 'soft ball' stage. I highly recommend having one if you venture into the land of Marshmallow.

You add the boiling hot syrup mixture to the resting gelatin mix and put the Kitchenaid to work. The syrup starts all sloshy...


and then you let the mixer keep at it (for 10 to 12 whole minutes) and eventually it turns into a beautiful pillowy goodness that you scrape out and get stuck to every surface of your body and the counter and you end up with this...


This lovely white deliciousness that resembles the snow covering the peaks behind out house.

It goes against every bit of the low sugar diet I have been attempting to follow, it contains dreaded corn syrup (not high fructose though), and yet, it completes me. Already I had a few floating in my cup of afternoon cafe mocha. Tim approved of their flavor but the boys were not interested. I don't care. I made them for me.

Another pretty cool thing is that they do not instantly melt in hot beverages, instead they linger whole and get all smooth and almost chewy and I love them. I just love them. Can you tell?

By the way :: I am feeling the need to inundate this space with holiday making and suggestions and posts about how much I love the season and how I cannot stop listening to streaming Christmas music. I am sorry. Really I am. It is grossing even me out, but it will not stop me. Feel free to tune out if need be. Or feel some satisfaction knowing I will likely hit a January post holiday slump. It is just that I am so high on the holiday thing, you know?

And just so you can be prepared for the onslaught, next in the queue :: Ornaments for toddlers,

And :: A banner for hanging your Christmas cards.

'Kay?