MARSHMALLOWS

Most of my cooking and baking is done out of necessity.  The usual healthy mid week meals, the occasional school bake and the odd treat thrown in here and there.  What I have allowed myself is one day a week to 'play' in the kitchen.  To cook something that doesn't necessarily fall into any of the above categories but to try something new because I will learn from it or because something just simply catches my eye.  One such recipe is this one for marshmallows. 

 They just looked so pretty that I couldn't resist

 

 

 Elizabeth over at Elizabeth’s Kitchen has challenged us to blog about recipes using up eggs.  I wanted to try something a bit different to the obvious Pavlova and my egg white chocolate mousse was styled very much for Valentine’s Day so I didn’t want to enter that.  Low and behold I discovered marshmallows can be made using egg whites.  I am very diligent when it comes to  freezing my egg whites in ice cube trays and have many a bag of them in my freezer but have never actually used any for cooking.  What a good excuse to try them out.  I measured everything out and was all set to go but my egg whites were frozen and I didn’t have the patience to wait for them to defrost.  I thought a quick 30 seconds in the microwave would sort them out but ended up with cooked eggs.  Another two egg whites came out the freezer and this time I placed them in a dish over some boiling water and within a couple of minutes they had defrosted.  Lesson learnt – do not defrost egg whites in the microwave!!    The sugar syrup was as hair raising as usual when you have small kids running around the kitchen.  I used a sugar thermometer for the first time and would definitely recommend buying one as it takes all the guesswork out of boiling sugar.  I also have a stand mixer which makes the process much easier as you can leave the egg whites to whisk away while you keep an eye on the sugar syrup.    The whole process was fun but extremely messy and the outcome was delicious.  They are pretty, soft and fluffy and much nicer than the shop bought ones but the unbelievable amount of sugar involved would probably put me off making them again.  Well maybe just one more time ….  Oh, and the frozen egg whites whisked beautifully.

 



Marshmallows

For the printable version - click here

Ingredients

• 1 tblsp icing sugar
• 1 tblsp cornflour
• 2 egg whites
• 500g granulated sugar
• 250 ml water
• 25g powder gelatine (I used 2 sachets of Dr Oetker)
• 125 ml hot water
• pink food colouring

 

Cooking Directions

1. Sift the icing sugar and cornflour into a bowl.
2. Lightly oil a 22cm x 22cm cake tin and dust completely with the icing sugar mixture. Reserve any left over for dusting the finished marshmallows.
3. Place the egg whites in a stainless steel bowl and whisk until stiff peaks. Set aside
4. Dissolve the gelatine in the 125 ml hot (not boiling) water. Set aside
5. Place the granulated sugar and 250ml water in a heavy based pan and heat gently until all the sugar has dissolved. Turn the heat up and fast boil until you reach a temperature of 260 deg F or hard ball stage.
6. Take the sugar syrup off the heat and add the dissolved gelatine mixture and stir until well combined. The mixture will froth up initially but with continued stirring will settle down again.
7. Add the sugar syrup mixture to your beaten egg whites taking care as the syrup is extremely hot.
8. Continue to beat the egg whites, adding your food colouring bit by bit, until the mixture becomes thick and fluffy but is still pourable.   
9. Pour into your prepared tin and leave to set for a couple of hours in a cool place (not the fridge).
10. I found the easiest way to cut into pieces was to use kitchen scissors while still in the tin. Each piece should then pull out easily.
11. Dust completely with the icing sugar mixture.
12. Store in an airtight container.

 

This is my entry for the No Waste Food Challenge - Eggs which is run by Turquoise Lemons and is this month hosted by Elizabeth at Elizabeth's Kitchen

 

       
Written by : Angela Darroch