Marshmallows

I’ve spoken before about my huge list of bookmarked sweet recipes to make. I reckon I add about 10 recipes to it a week, and cook about 1 or 2… meaning that list is just going to keep on growing! Something I have wanted to try for ages and that has been popping up all over the blogosphere is homemade marshmallows. Just like tablet, I’d been putting off making marshmallows due to visions of searing hot sugar syrup and my KitchenAid melting with the stress, but just like tablet it proved much simpler than I thought!I made these with my friend Emily after being sent some gelatine by Dr Oetker. Making them together meant that any stress was shared between the two of us and it was much more fun, it really reminded me to bake with friends more. I know that there are lots of wacky marshallow flavours out there – I saw a passion fruit flavour recipe recently that sounded incredible – but we stuck with plain vanilla. I slightly regretted this as the vanilla doesn’t exactly balance out the insane sweetness of marshmallows, but our boiling sugar syrup induced nerves meant we played it safe! As I mentioned, with careful concentration these weren’t tricky and went without a hitch. The results tasted like we wanted and imagined – squishy with an ever so slightly drier top and of course very sweet. I would be open to trying out some of the crazier flavours in the future, particularly playing around with sharper flavours and fruit as even for me these resulted in a pretty extreme sugar high. However I think the vanilla version is a great way to start for a marshmallow beginner. Also, I think the main fun of marshmallows is that you can do this…
Chocolate fudge cookie + toasted marshmallow = the ultimate S’more.  Not traditional, but so good! I think these marshmallows might even taste best when they are toasted – sticky, gooey, with the perfect burnt charred top…who could resist! You can find the marshmallow recipe here. I followed it pretty much to the letter apart from a dash of pink food colouring and dipping some of the cut edges (where it is most sticky) in different sprinkles for some colour, so my only note would be that I got about 40 decent sized marshmallows out of the mixture instead of 25 – those must have been huuge! One quick note before you go – check out my brand new pages at the top of my sidebar. I have finally got round to doing a proper About Me page, and also a page explaining my ongoing Homemade Shop Classics Challenge, which of course these marshmallows are included in. Go and have a read and let me know what you think! Enjoy :)

Tablet

If you’re still  on a January diet then a) I admire your dedication and b) you may want to look away now. The two main ingredients in today’s post are 1. sugar and 2. condensed milk…which is essentially milk with plenty of added sugar. Yep, tablet is no health food.I’ve wanted to attempt making something in the fudge/caramel/tablet family for a while now but scary stories of scorched sugar and candy thermometers made me hesitate. Along with the fact that I knew I would find it impossible to just. stop. eating. But when my planned baking project was scuppered when the heavy (by London standards at least) snow made me very reluctant to leave the warmth of a house to buy ingredients I had to turn to what was already in the cupboard. I’m glad I finally took the plunge and entered the world of sweet making!After surviving all the heating sugar and endless whisking phases, the step of the recipe I skipped was marking the tablet into squares when it was still only semi-set. Mistake. Whilst the tablet melts on your tongue into crumbly goodness, it sets into one pretty rock solid slab. I only just restrained from breaking out the hammer but eventually perseverance with a big knife meant we ended up with happily oversized shards of tablet, but neat little squares would have been better and easier! I think this is easily one of my favourite things I have made, purely because my suspicions were right and I found it impossible to stop eating! It was sweet, rich, crumbly, melt in the mouth…I could go on! I definitely recommend it if you think you have more willpower than me – you can find the recipe here. Enjoy!