Lavender in Bloom
The lavender is flowering, so I need an excuse to use some. I decided on marshmallows, honey-lavander-lemon marshmallows. Most people are amazed that I make marshmallows, but they are not that hard. I often find myself rattling off the recipe at request, so I've decided to post it up for you. The recipe makes basic marshmallows, but it is easy to add ingredients to drastically alter the flavor. I will give credit to the great Alton Brown for coming up with the base recipe.DISCLAIMER: You NEED a stand mixer!
Basic Marshmallow Recipe:
12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) sugar
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 oz gelatin *
1 cup ice water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
Take 1/2 cup of the water and add to the gelatin in the bowl of the stand mixer.
Add the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and the remaining 1/2 water to a pot, heat on medium, covered, for 4 minutes. Remove lid and attack your candy thermometer. You want the sugar to reach 240 degrees. Do not mix the sugar with a spoon, it can create crystals. When it reaches 240 degrees, remove from heat and remove the thermometer.
Attach the whisk attachment to your stand mixer, on low speed, slowly pour in the hot sugar mixture. When all the mixture is in the bowl, turn the mixer on high and whip for 13 minutes. NOTE: hot gelatin is the most foul thing you will ever smell in your kitchen. I've done it with sheet gelatin and powdered, both smell foul.
While the sugar is whipped, prepare your pan. Take a 13 x 9 pan. I've used glass and metal. If you can find a straight edged metal pan (I got mine from sur la table) you will get better edges. I've not had problems turning marshmallows out of either pan. Back to the pan preparation. Mix the powdered sugar and corn starch. Spray the pan with non stick spray, then dust the pan with the corn starch mixture. Make sure to get the coating on the sides of the pan. Collect the extra powder and save for later use.
As the gelatin and sugar mix in the bowl, the temperature goes down, and the gelatin begins to set. At minute 13, stop the mixer and add the vanilla extract. Turn the mixer to low speed until the vanilla is incorporated, and raise the speed back to high. Whip for 2 more minutes. Now your marshmallows are ready to be formed. I'm only going to cover the rustic look here, if you want to read about the piped marshmallows, I will refer you back to the Good Eats listing.
From here on out, non stick spray is your friend. Marshmallows are the stickiest things I have ever worked with, but they are afraid of the non stick spray, so it's your friend :D Spray a spatula with non stick and turn the sticky mess into your prepared pan. Spread the mixture evenly around the pan. If your spatula begins to stick, clean it and re-spray it. An even layer will make for attractive cut marshmallows. Once in the pan, dust the top of the marshmallows with the cornstarch mixture and let them sit uncovered for a minimum of 5 hours, I let mine sit overnight.
When you are ready to cut them, flip the brick out of the pan onto half of the remaining cornstarch mixture. Pizza cutters are your friend at this point. Dust both sides of the pizza cutter with corn starch and begin to cut a grid into the marshmallows. Once you have them cut, pull strips apart and dredge in the cornstarch. Every side needs to be covered, so I do strips at a time, then I separate the individual marshmallows and dredge the remaining sides. These will keep for 3 weeks in a ziplock.
12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) sugar
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 oz gelatin *
1 cup ice water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
Take 1/2 cup of the water and add to the gelatin in the bowl of the stand mixer.
Add the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and the remaining 1/2 water to a pot, heat on medium, covered, for 4 minutes. Remove lid and attack your candy thermometer. You want the sugar to reach 240 degrees. Do not mix the sugar with a spoon, it can create crystals. When it reaches 240 degrees, remove from heat and remove the thermometer.
Attach the whisk attachment to your stand mixer, on low speed, slowly pour in the hot sugar mixture. When all the mixture is in the bowl, turn the mixer on high and whip for 13 minutes. NOTE: hot gelatin is the most foul thing you will ever smell in your kitchen. I've done it with sheet gelatin and powdered, both smell foul. While the sugar is whipped, prepare your pan. Take a 13 x 9 pan. I've used glass and metal. If you can find a straight edged metal pan (I got mine from sur la table) you will get better edges. I've not had problems turning marshmallows out of either pan. Back to the pan preparation. Mix the powdered sugar and corn starch. Spray the pan with non stick spray, then dust the pan with the corn starch mixture. Make sure to get the coating on the sides of the pan. Collect the extra powder and save for later use.
As the gelatin and sugar mix in the bowl, the temperature goes down, and the gelatin begins to set. At minute 13, stop the mixer and add the vanilla extract. Turn the mixer to low speed until the vanilla is incorporated, and raise the speed back to high. Whip for 2 more minutes. Now your marshmallows are ready to be formed. I'm only going to cover the rustic look here, if you want to read about the piped marshmallows, I will refer you back to the Good Eats listing. From here on out, non stick spray is your friend. Marshmallows are the stickiest things I have ever worked with, but they are afraid of the non stick spray, so it's your friend :D Spray a spatula with non stick and turn the sticky mess into your prepared pan. Spread the mixture evenly around the pan. If your spatula begins to stick, clean it and re-spray it. An even layer will make for attractive cut marshmallows. Once in the pan, dust the top of the marshmallows with the cornstarch mixture and let them sit uncovered for a minimum of 5 hours, I let mine sit overnight.
When you are ready to cut them, flip the brick out of the pan onto half of the remaining cornstarch mixture. Pizza cutters are your friend at this point. Dust both sides of the pizza cutter with corn starch and begin to cut a grid into the marshmallows. Once you have them cut, pull strips apart and dredge in the cornstarch. Every side needs to be covered, so I do strips at a time, then I separate the individual marshmallows and dredge the remaining sides. These will keep for 3 weeks in a ziplock.
Now that we have that out of the way, how can I make flavored marshmallows, like the honey lavender lemon ones, or peach? There are two ways to add flavor to marshmallows. First is to use extracts. At the thirteenth minute, when you add the vanilla, you can add other flavors. To make the lavender ones I added 1/2 tsp of lavender extract, 1/2 tsp of lemon extract, about 20 fresh ground lavender blossoms, and 1/2 tsp of finely minced lemon rind. You could also add other flavors here. Orange extract works exceptionally well, as does spearmint, cinnamon, etc.
The second way to flavor marshmallows is to substitute ingredients. For the honey lavender, I subbed out 1/2 cup of sugar for 1/2 cup of fresh honey from lavender fields (near our house). When I made the peach marshmallows I subbed out all the water for fresh peach juice. I took 5 peaches and attacked them with an immersion blender ( I cut them up first). I strained the larger parts out and ended up with 1 cup of liquid. Half of that went in the gelatin, the other half went in the pot with the sugar. The peach was quite interesting. Half of the juice was cooked in the sugar, while the other half was flash cooked when it came in contact with the sugar syrup. The peach flavor was surprisingly strong, and did not have a cooked peach flavor.
*Gelatin use. I used powdered gelatin for the peach recipe (and all previous batches). I used sheet gelatin for the lavender marshmallows. The powdered gelatin was much more fluffy and light then the sheet gelatin. The texture of the sheet gelatin is not bad, just more dense and chewy. Both batches were light and fluffy, but the powdered was fluffier. Based on the cost, I'd stick to powdered. 3 packs of powdered gelatin is 3/4 oz, 15 sheets is also 3/4 oz. Categories
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I've only done marshmallows once and I was floored by how wonderful and simple they were to do. Since I do think the world of Alton's recipes I'll have to try this one.
The lavender honey lemon sound most incredible.
I must say these marshmallows are delicious. Something to definitely try at home. And I see from your previous post that you got your package from L'epicerie ;). Oh, I remembered the name of the meat glue , transglutaminase - commercial name is activa...