Marshmallows!

My performance for the bridge project ended this weekend, and now straight away into the next project for BOOST Dance Festival. I have my first rehearsal this evening with Christin Lusk. Ok, but on to the good stuff...

Reid and Lindsay got me a beautiful Kitchen Aid stand mixer for christmas, so I wanted to send along to them the first thing I made with it. For it's inaugural recipe I wanted something that I truly could not make without the mixer, and I found this recipe for home-made marshmallows, which involves beating incredibly dense mallow fluff for 15 minutes. The marshmallow is an incredibly strange substance, and can be sort of difficult to work with, but was another learning experience in confection-making.

Marshmallows are beautiful all powdery-white, but can be a tad borring, so I decided to chocolate-dip them too. The recipe is that of Martha's. It worked pretty well, but there were a few tricky parts. When it asks you to dissolve the sugar into the corn syrup, I don't think it ever fully dissolves. I was able to make it become homogeneous, but I could still see the individual crystals. They turned out fine, so I think she means "combined" rather than "dissolved." The other tricky part was "dusting" the pan with powdered sugar. I would sugest doing maybe a very light coating of Pam, so that the powdered sugar sticks evenly to the pan instead of staying in clumps. I was able to slowly pry the pan-sized marshmallow away from the bottom of the pan, but it would come away much easier if the pan where completely coated in powdered sugar with no bare spots.

Makes about 40

• 2 1/2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

1. Combine gelatin and 1/2 cup cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer with whisk attachment. Let stand 30 minutes.
2. Combine granulated sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small heavy saucepan; place over low heat, and stir until sugar has dissolved. Wash down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to dissolve sugar crystals.
3. Clip on a candy thermometer; raise heat to high. Cook syrup without stirring until it reaches 244 degrees.(firm-ball stage). Immediately remove pan from heat.
4. With mixer on low speed, slowly and carefully pour syrup into the softened gelatin. Increase speed to high; beat until mixture is very thick and white and has almost tripled in volume, about 15 minutes. Add vanilla; beat to incorporate.
5. Generously dust an 8-by-12-inch glass baking pan with confectioners’ sugar. Pour marshmallow mixture into pan. Dust top with confectioners’ sugar; wet your hands, and pat it to smooth. Dust with confectioners’ sugar; let stand overnight, uncovered, to dry out. Turn out onto a board; cut marshmallows with a dry hot knife into 1 1/2-inch squares, and dust with more confectioners' sugar.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Homemade Marshmallows - Martha Stewart Recipes 

Also, to make the package complete, I sent the obvious accompaniment to marshmallows: Hot Cocoa! Here is the recipe I used, again from Serious Eats food lab:

Easy Home-Made Hot Cocoa Mix
serves makes about 18 servings, active time 3 minutes, total time 13 minutes

• 2 (4-ounce) bars 100% cacao baking chocolate
• 1 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

PROCEDURES

1. 1
   Place chocolate bars in freezer until completely frozen, about 10 minute. Remove from freezer, break into rough pieces, and place in food processor with cocoa powder, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Process until completely powdered, about 1 minute. Transfer to airtight container and store in cool, dark place for up to three months.
2. 2
   To make hot chocolate, combine 1 to 2 tablespoons mixture (or more if desired) with 1 cup boiling milk. stir or whisk until combined. To thicken further, return to heat and simmer for 30 seconds until thick and smooth.