A few years ago in Paris I walked into a shop that had the most delicate, delicious handmade marshmallows. The orange blossom ones were scrumptious. Yum! I was so surprised and so delighted to find them. There were patisseries and chocolate makers all over the city of course, but the marshmallow vendor was a just so lovely. I've never felt the same about marshmallows since that day.
I love making marshmallows. I have the easiest recipe and as they only have a few simple ingredients, they're something I can whip up without having to make a trip to the shops. Best of all, you can make them almost any flavour combination you like. You can't beat a basic vanilla of course, but with marshies almost anything goes.
These ones were raspberry, courtesy of a bottle of genuine raspberry extract that I have hiding in the pantry, but they could just as easily have been banana, chocolate, or even pear and almond.
Similarly, these were just dusted in a simple icing sugar coating, but toasted coconut would have worked just as well. Although that does tend to go a bit weird if you plan to drop one into your hot chocolate.
So this is as simple as as it gets. Ready?
Take a suitable pan, I use a deep square slice tin, and grease it with well with a little flavourless oil. Almost any oil will do, but olive is perhaps too strong. Vegetable, canola, grapeseed... whatever you have on hand. Set it aside for your marshie mixture.
In a small cup stir 2 tablespoons of powdered gelatin into 1/3 of a cup of cold water then let it sit.
On the stovetop gently heat 1 and 1/2 cups of white sugar with 2/3 of a cup of water. Be careful! Bring to a simmer and stir until all the sugar is dissolved, then set aside to cool.
Now, add both the sugar syrup mixture and the gelatin mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and start to blend it, slowly turning up the speed. Now you'll see that the syrupy liquid starts to turn fluffy and white. As it does, you'll need to add your flavouring. Have you decided what it will be?
This one has a good teaspoon of raspberry extract but I also like to add cocoa or chocolate extract, or anything else that's in the cupboard really. Experiment!
When you're ready spread the marshie mixture into your prepared tin and pop it in the fridge to set.
Now this is the only complicated bit. When your marshies are set, you need to be able to turn them out onto a dry surface that's been prepared with your coating. A layer of powdered sugar works well, but toasted coconut or nuts work well too. Shake your marshmallow slab loose in the tin and then confidently turn it onto the prepared surface.
All you have to do now is get a sharp clean knife that been heated in hot water and slice your marshmallows into squares. Keep claening and heating the knife as you go to make the job a lot easier... and voila! Eat them as they are or drop them into your hot chocolate. Or both! Do what you dare...