Marshmallows!

When I said yesterday that I’d post retro recipes all this week, I had no actual plan in place. Oops! In spite of myself, I still managed to pull together my very first batch of marshmallows, as made from a recipe found in The Joys of Jell-O (1962). I love marshmallows. Looooove marshmallows. When I was practicing my Only Sustainable Animal Products experiment, I missed marshmallows like crazy. I still mostly stay away from gelatin products, but this is already my second gelatin-containing treat this summer. Agar is great, but it’s just not the same “bounce.” I have purchased some vegetarian gel stuff from Whole Foods and will report back on that, but in the meantime:

Pastel Marshmallows
1 pkg (3 oz) Jell-O Gelatin, any fruit flavor
2/3 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
3 Tbs light corn syrup
Confectioners’ sugar
Dissolve Jell-O Gelatin in boiling water in a saucepan over low heat.* Stir in sugar until dissolved. (Do not boil.) Blend in corn syrup. Chill until slightly thickened. Line an 8-inch square pan with wax paper; grease with butter or margarine.** Then beat gelatin mixture at highest speed of electric mixer until soft peaks will form, about 5 minutes. Pour into pan. Let stand in refrigerator overnight.
Then place mixture on board heavily dusted with confectioners’ sugar. To remove wax paper, dampen surface and let stand a few minutes; then peel off paper. Dust top with sugar. Cut into 1-inch squares. Roll cut edges in sugar. Makes about 6 dozen.

Messy? Yes. Not as bad as I expected, but don’t try this with kids or they will be head-to-toe sticky, not to mention your kitchen. The resulting marshmallows are more chiffon-like and delicate than the store-bought variety, but I was following instructions and cooking over low heat. A few more degrees would likely have stiffened up the syrup, for a firmer result. I was drawn to this recipe because it didn’t require a candy thermometer, but I could see where one would come in handy if you want to repeat this recipe with consistent results.

How about you? Have you made marshmallows the traditional way? Will you try it this way and compare?

*Over low heat, my water evaporated before it would get near boiling. I boiled over med/high heat, then turned it down when I added the gelatin mix.

**I used cooking spray. Less mess, and the wax paper later peeled off with ease.