Thursday, April 28, 2011

Yummilicious Marshmallows

Morning was earlier than usual for me today. Baby literally kicked me out of the bed so I could get her milk. (Not that I gave her any until she washed her teeth!) But she kept egging me to get out of bed.

I decided to put on some of the television shows that I had recorded but never watched. One of them was Rachel Allen's home cooking. Today's recipe is courtesy this show. It is fascinating that I now have a cooking blog, where I once hated cooking. It's probably because I have incessantly watched  cookery shows over the last two years. I guess I should see more of travel shows if I want to travel and start a travel blog. :-P

In any case, Rachel had indicated exact measurements and exact temperatures when making this recipe. I didn't  have anything to measure accurately. So I trusted my instinct and went ahead. But they turned out great. And as I made them, my mind factory began working over-time. I can do so many things with this recipe. Cup cake decoration, cake decoration, lollypops! You name a few too!

It is though, a little messy to work with. It will be a few times before I get it exactly right, and can make heart and star shaped marshmallows for my daughter. Not that she minded at all. Rock-like or whatever, she ate quite a few before I stole them from front of her lest none remain for the photo-op!

Ingredients
  • 450 g sugar
  • 125 ml water
  • 4 tbsp cornflour
  • 4 tbsp icing sugar
  • a little vegetable oil for greasing
  • 1 large tbsp gelatine soaked in 100 ml water
Soak the gelatine in water. Meanwhile, grease a tray with oil. Line the tray with parchment or butter paper and apply some oil to the parchment paper as well. 

In a separate bowl, mix corn flour and icing sugar well. Dust some of the mixture on the butter paper.

Take the sugar in a saucepan. Add 125 ml water to it and put it on the heat. Stir it continuously till it starts boiling. Once it starts boiling, remove your spoon and do not stir at all. Let it boil without interference for about ten to twenty minutes till it reaches the thread stage. A thread stage is when you dip your spoon into the syrup and lift it in air, and an even thread is seen dripping from the spoon instead of droplets.

Once it reaches this stage, remove from the heat.

Whip the gelatine for a minute or two. Now add the sugar syrup and whip again. It should take about twenty minutes of whipping for the mixture to attain a meringue like consistency. It does look like that. White and soft peaks form over it. It should not leave the pan when you turn it over. That's when you know that the whipping is complete.

Now pour this mixture into the tray lined with the parchment paper. This is sticky business. I mean it. It sticks to anything and everything. Dip a spoon in hot water and use it to flatten the top of the marshmallow mixture. Dust the cornflour and sugar mixture over the marshmallow mixture.

Allow the mixture to set over a few hours. It may take around 5 to 6 hours or even more for the mallows to set completely. Once it sets cut it into pieces and dust some more of the cornflour mixture over it. The cornstarch mixture prevents it from getting too sticky.

Have them by themselves, or sandwich one between two cracker biscuits and eat them for a heavenly different taste.


Happy Cooking!

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